John Ward is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the Florida Mental Health Institute. Dr. Ward earned his Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology from the University of South Florida. Since joining FMHI in 1981, he has maintained a part-time private clinical psychology practice in the evenings. He has authored several publications, made numerous presentations at state and national conferences, and served as a frequent consultant to the State of Florida in areas of mental health law, policy, and clinical service provision.

He has been a Principal Investigator on the Statewide Outcomes Project and the District 7 Research and Development Project which served as the pilot area for development of many of the measures and procedures used by Florida to evaluate state supported behavioral healthcare services. He has also been a consultant/participant on many other projects at FMHI related to improving and, or, evaluating services received by people with serious mental illness.

He is an author of Techniques for Effective Aggression Management (TEAM), which is a widely disseminated aggression-replacement training program. He is also first author of the Functional Assessment Rating Scale (FARS) and the Children's Functional Assessment Rating Scale (CFARS) and co-author of the Behavioral Healthcare Rating of Satisfaction Scale (BHRS). These scales have been used extensively in Florida and elsewhere to evaluate effectiveness of both publicly and privately supported behavioral healthcare services.