Associations

Nabil El-Ghoroury is currently the Executive Director of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). CAMFT is the leading organization of mental health professionals in California, representing over 32,000 marriage and family therapists. Nabil is responsible for a $6.5 million budget, 26.5 FTE employees, a board of 12 MFT leaders, and over 14 committees. CAMFT has a network of 28 chapters across the state.

Key accomplishments at CAMFT:

  • Successfully transitioning CAMFT to entirely remote work on March 13, 2020.
  • Organizing 7 webinars on COVID-19 that drew 7,500 registrations and over 3,000 attendees (including several hundred nonmembers);
  • Introduced Black Minds Matter webinar that drew 2,500 registrations and over 2,100 live attendees on June 20, 2020;
  • Guiding CAMFT through a strategic planning revision to develop a thoughtful framework with 3 specific priorities for the next 5 years;
  • Increased membership renewal revenue by over 25% with innovative marketing campaign;
  • Implementing a customer service assessment process to evaluate the 60,000 calls that the organization handles annually;
  • Transitioned the organization to a newer association management system;
  • Introduced targeted advertising and programming based on member segments;
  • Broadened social media and public relations efforts, including direct media outreach in both English and Spanish
  • Expanding staff from 23 FTE to 26.5 FTE, with plans to expand both revenue and member benefits.

From 2009 – 2018, Nabil served as associate executive director at the American Psychological Association (APA), where he directed the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), the graduate student group within APA. In this role, he functioned as the CEO of a medium-sized association (approximately 27,000 members), providing leadership, management, coordination, and evaluation of all projects and activities for the organization. Nabil served as a primary liaison between APAGS and other leadership groups within APA and within the field of psychology. He oversaw and provided guidance to a 14-member committee of student leaders and 5 subcommittees. He was responsible for organizing over 40 hours of programming at each annual APA Convention.

Key accomplishments at APA:

  • Founding the new journal Translational Issues in Psychological Science;
  • Building relationships with key organizations in the psychology education and training community to help advocate for the psychology internship crisis, the biggest issue affecting psychology students;
  • Creating collaborations with numerous external groups resulting in sponsorships of APAGS programming;
  • Expanding scientific grants to recruit science oriented members;
  • Developing a high performing team that was able to deliver 4 half-day workshops in 36 hours in two cities (Los Angeles and San Francisco);
  • Leading an advocacy effort that resulted in 3,200 emails to a governor in one day.

Nabil has been recognized by his peers for his work. He was awarded the Achievement in Public Information Award by the Ohio Psychological Association in recognition of him providing media outreach in Spanish after the Virginia Tech shooting. In 2016, he was accepted into the Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

Leadership in associations:

  • American Society of Association Executives, Ethics Committee (2017-present, Chair 2020-2021)
  • American Arab, Middle Eastern, North African Psychological Association, Founding Board (2016-2017), Interim Treasurer (2020)
  • Translational Issues in Psychological Science, Editorial Board (2014-2018)
  • American Psychological Association, Board of Professional Affairs (2007-2008)
  • Society of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Advocacy Committee (2005-2006)
  • Society of Pediatric Psychology, Diversity Committee Chair (2005-2006)
  • American Psychological Association of Graduate Students – Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students, Chair (2000-2002)
  • American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, Member-at-Large, Diversity Focus (1998-2000)

Nabil has a particular interest in diversity and inclusion. Under his leadership, APAGS added Transgender to the APAGS Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns and he recruited the first transgender member. He was the lead author of A Survival Guide for Ethnic Minority Graduate Students. He was the Diversity Committee Chair for the Society for Pediatric Psychology from 2005-2006. While working for APA, he organized student leaders to produce three well-received and award winning publications for LGBT and ethnic minority students. He has presented around the world on health disparities in autism in the US (which he has presented in English and in Spanish), most recently in Ayacucho, Peru.

Nabil received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Binghamton University.