Fake I.D.

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Nov/Dec 2006 by Teichroeb, Ruth

Nailing down details shows psychologist created false life, professional credentials

For 16 years, Terry Tafoya built his reputation as a preeminent American Indian psychologist from Seattle who captivated audiences with his storytelling.

Dressed in traditional garb and sporting waist-length black braids. Tafoya worked the lecture circuit at universities and government-sponsored conferences across the U.S. and Canada.

No one questioned his credentials - not Harvard University officials who invited him to speak last December; not the academics at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University who appointed him to their board last year.

Then in March a man who had worked for Tafoya's consulting business sent an e-mail to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's I-team urging us to dig deeper.

The investigation would reveal a man who built a background of falsehoods that could lead to a criminal charge.

Academic fraud

Our tipster claimed that, during a court fight with Tafoya over unpaid wages, the counselor had admitted in a deposition that he did not have a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

A quick Google search turned up thousands of hits for Tafoya. from media interviews to speaking engagements - all emphasizing his Ph.D. and blood ties to the Taos Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and Warm Spring tribe in Oregon.

Not only was Tafoya well-known, there was another news hook: A new state law making falsification of academic credentials a criminal misdemeanor was about to take effect. Nine other states already had enacted similar laws following a spate of high-profile degree-fraud cases in recent years.

I-team editor Rita Hibbard gave the green light to pursue the story, and I began gathering documents and tracking down the sources who could help sort out truth from fabrications. It turned out to be a tangled web.

The Web site for Tafoya's consulting business, called Tamanawit, was a ready-made source of his biographical information, employment history and academic credentials. His resume cited a 1985 Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Washington.

I met with tipster Donnie Goodman, who gave me a copy of a key document - an October 2005 deposition in which Tafoya said he did not have a Ph.D. from the U.W.

Soon afterward I encountered an unexpected hurdle that made the deposition essential to the story.

When I called the university registrar's office to verify Tafoya's Ph.D. and M.Ed., officials told me he had blocked any release of information under a federal privacy law called the Family Educational and Rights and Privacy Act. Our attorney said there was no way to challenge it.

I decided to check other sources for references to Tafoya's academic career. I spent hours tracking down professors (many retired by now) who might remember him and combing through student directories and commencement records. The U.W.'s commencement book for 1974 listed his M.Ed. But there was no hint in subsequent years of any Ph.D.

Early in the investigation, I filed several public disclosure requests. I asked for Tafoya's employment records at the U.W. based on his claim of being "clinical faculty" at the university-affiliated Harborview Community Mental Health Center. I found no record of him holding that job.

But an Internet search eventually led me to a former director of the Harborview clinic who said Tafoya had been a part-time volunteer in the 1980s but not a faculty member.

A separate public disclosure request to the university for all contracts with Tafoya uncovered another item: the school of social work listed him as a consultant with a Ph.D. on a current federal grant.

I requested his employment records from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where he taught psychology from 1985-88. The school refused to release Tafoya's application materials (which are exempt under state law) or say whether he had listed a Ph.D.

But the records revealed that Tafoya had left students in the lurch by going on a leave of absence without completing student evaluations. He never returned, and the school had to sort out the mess.

Another public disclosure filed with the state Department of Health asked for Tafoya's licensing records and any complaints. I discovered the self-described "family therapist" had never been licensed by the state. A complaint of unlicensed practice in 1995 went nowhere, and the file unfortunately had been destroyed.

Other items on his resume also did not check out.

A former boss said he had worked for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center in 1988 but was not the "co-founder" as Tafoya said. An official with the American Psychological Association said Tafoya's claim of being on its national faculty couldn't be true because there was no such thing.

A check of municipal court records revealed that Tafoya had a recent drunk-driving charge, interesting for a widely recognized expert on substance abuse. A public disclosure request for the police report provided the details.

Federal court records turned up a personal bankruptcy filing. Superior Court records contained Goodman's lawsuit against Tafoya and an anti-harassment petition filed by Tafoya against Goodman. The petition was denied when Tafoya failed to show up for court.