Dr. Chad Calderon is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, evaluator, and consultant with a career spanning psychological assessment, primary care, crisis services, forensic and public-safety settings, and clinical program development.

He earned his PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the APA-accredited California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Francisco.

Dr. Calderon holds a Master of Science in Clinical Psychopharmacology (MSCP), an advanced graduate degree designed for psychologists seeking deeper training in the biological and medical foundations of mental health care. His training included psychopharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, neuroscience, clinical anatomy, pathophysiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physical assessment, diagnostic methods, clinical medicine, laboratory and diagnostic data, patient evaluation, substance use, and chronic pain.

What shapes Dr. Calderon’s work most is the range of settings in which he has practiced. He has worked in primary care within geriatric care centers and the technology sector, the San Francisco VA Health Care System, inpatient psychiatry, state behavioral-health systems, forensic assessment, and military-readiness evaluation. He has also worked alongside physicians, law enforcement, schools, hospitals, jails, government agencies, and multidisciplinary clinical teams.

He founded Calderon Diagnostic Institute to bring that broader perspective into psychological evaluation and consultation. Whether the question involves ADHD, a complicated diagnostic picture, a struggling clinical program, or a behavioral-health problem within a larger system, his focus is the same: understand what is actually happening, make sense of the complexity, and develop recommendations that are useful in the real world.

Dr. Calderon is licensed in California, Colorado, and North Dakota.

Selected Experience

• More than 1,000 hours of dedicated emergency and crisis work, including crisis-team leadership and collaboration with law enforcement, emergency departments, hospitals, schools, jails, and protective services

• Psychological assessment experience across ADHD, autism-related concerns, cognitive and personality functioning, disability, military readiness, forensic questions, and complex differential diagnosis

• Forensic and public-safety experience involving fitness-for-duty and employment assessment, risk assessment, competency, and justice-involved populations

• Developed a clinical psychology manual addressing counterintelligence, personnel security, insider threat, behavioral risk indicators, and threat escalation

• Developed a municipal mental-health strategic plan addressing crisis response, homelessness, public safety, and coordination across agencies

• Experience developing treatment manuals, clinical programs, staff trainings, and behavioral-health initiatives

• Recipient of a California State Senate Certificate of Recognition for LGBTQ advocacy and community service

Author

Dr. Calderon is the author of Functional on the Outside: The Real Neurodivergent Experience for High-Masking Adults, a personal and clinical field guide about masking, executive dysfunction, burnout, identity, and the hidden effort that can exist beneath outward functioning.

The book brings together his clinical perspective and lived experience, with the same goal that guides his work at CDI: making complicated psychological experiences understandable, useful, and human.

Consultation

Dr. Calderon also provides consultation to clinicians, organizations, healthcare programs, public agencies, and other systems seeking expertise in psychological assessment, crisis response, public safety, staff training, and behavioral-health program development.