Richard G Cockerill

Richard G Cockerill, MD, MBE is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. He specializes in forensic psychiatry and bioethics with a focus on artificial intelligence applications in psychiatric assessment and ethical decision-making.

His educational background includes:

• MA in Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania (2013)
• MD from Mayo Medical School (2015)
• Psychiatry residency at UCLA Semel Institute (2019)
• Forensic Psychiatry fellowship at UCLA Semel Institute (2020)

Dr. Cockerill's research centers on forensic ethics, particularly the ethical implications of AI in forensic psychiatric evaluations. His work addresses racial bias in violence risk assessment, decision-making capacity evaluations, and curriculum development for AI integration in psychiatry training. He examines real-world impacts of systemic issues like the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric emergency services and involuntary treatment.

His 2023-2025 publications reveal a concentrated focus on AI-ethics intersections in forensic psychiatry, with recurring themes of bias mitigation, curriculum design, and pandemic-related service disruptions. Key contributions include frameworks for ethical AI implementation and analyses of racial inequities in risk assessment tools.

Professional leadership includes membership on the Ethics Committee of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (2021–present), alongside active participation in the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (2019–present) and American Psychiatric Association (2016–present).

At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, he serves as an inpatient unit team leader supervising psychiatry residents and medical students. His institutional affiliations extend to the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine and participation in the Computational & Social Sciences in Health (COMPASS) and Collaborative AI in Healthcare initiatives.