Leonard A. Jason

Leonard A. Jason (b. 1949) is a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he also directs the Center for Community Research. He received a B.A. in psychology from Brandeis University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Rochester in 1975. He is the son of Jay Jason, a well known comedian who entertained in the Catskills Mountains. His chief professional interests include the study of chronic fatigue syndrome, smoking, smoking cessation, and Oxford House recovery homes for substance abuse. Jason's interest in chronic fatigue syndrome began when he was diagnosed with the condition in 1990 after having mononucleosis.

Jason is a former president of the Division of Community Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a past editor of The Community Psychologist. Jason has edited or written 23 books, and he has published 541 articles and 77 book chapters on CFS, recovery homes, the prevention of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse, media interventions and program evaluation. He has served on 83 Thesis Committees (of which he chaired 57), and 70 Dissertation Committees (of which he chaired 36). He has served on the editorial boards of ten psychological journals. Jason has served on review committees of the National Institutes of Health, and he has received over $26,000,000 in federal research grants. He was also a board member and vice-president for an advocacy group called International Association of CFS/ME.