Aurelio Prifitera
Publisher, Harcourt Assessment and
President, Harcourt Assessment International
Aurelio Prifitera joined Harcourt Assessment’s clinical division, then known as The Psychological Corporation, in 1985, and was president of the division from November 1999 until August 2003, when he was named publisher of Harcourt Assessment and president of Harcourt Assessment International.
Prifitera also held positions as vice president of The Psychological Corporation and director of its psychological measurement and human resource measurement groups. As a senior project director, Prifitera developed intellectual, personality and neuropsychological assessments, and coordinated national standardization and validation of psychological assessments.
His projects included some of the company’s most well-known and widely used assessments in the Wechsler family of products, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children® Third Edition (WISC III®), the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test® (WIAT®) and the Wechsler Memory Scale® Revised (WMS®-R).
Formerly a staff clinical psychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Medical Center, Prifitera also served as staff psychologist at Highland Hospital in Asheville, N.C., and adjunct faculty member at Duke University Medical School.
As an adjunct faculty member at Trinity University in San Antonio, he taught classes in assessment and supervised student research.
Prifitera is a licensed psychologist and a registered health service provider in psychology, and for a brief time had a private practice in clinical psychology.
Prifitera is a member and fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is also a member of the International Neuropsychological Society, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, the National Association of School Psychologists and the Texas Psychological Association. He is the author of numerous articles and papers on psychology and assessment and has also co-edited two books on assessment.
Prifitera earned his doctorate in clinical psychology at Loyola University and a master's degree in psychology at the University of Illinois. He also holds a master's degree in social science from the University of Chicago, as well as a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at Syracuse University.
Prifitera and his wife, Loretta, live in San Antonio with their daughter, who attends high school and is a talented artist.