Texas Psychology Board Takes up a License Appeal and a Contested Enforcement Case

The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists meets Sept. 17 on a rejected license application and an enforcement case that went to a state hearings judge. It can decide the appeal, subject to the applicant’s right to demand a hearing. On the enforcement case it can only recommend; the council that houses the board signs the final order. Written comment closes at 5 p.m. Sept. 16.

That split dates to a 2019 restructuring. Since 2020 the four boards licensing Texas psychologists, counselors, marriage therapists and social workers have shared one agency, the Behavioral Health Executive Council, which holds the rulemaking and enforcement power. The boards still supply the professional judgment: they propose the rules on who qualifies for a license, what the standard of care is and what a violation is worth; the council must adopt such a rule as written or return it with an explanation. After a contested hearing the board recommends a disposition and the council enters it, absent an anticompetitive impact or a problem of administrative consistency or good governance. One exception: a board can dismiss complaints and enter agreed orders on its own. The Sept. 17 agenda has one of each.

The board will hear an applicant’s appeal, by Cristina Campoy Lacasa, of a license-application denial; under the council’s rules she would have 30 days after a board denial to demand a hearing. Members also take up a contested case involving Edwin Gerwell, identified on the agenda only by a state hearings docket number. No charging document, allegation or decision in that case is publicly available, and the Dispatch could not obtain one; no finding against him appears in the agency’s public licensing records, and the agenda states only that the board may act. The agency’s file lists a psychologist by that name in San Antonio whose license lapsed for non-renewal in September 2024, a status recorded for 254 of roughly 12,300 licensees and not a disciplinary action. The same record shows no publicly available disciplinary history.

Staff will also update the board on the jurisprudence examination, the open-book test on Texas law and rules every applicant must pass. The passing score dropped from 90 to 85 percent in March 2025 on the board’s proposal, and the board has been working with its vendor on turning the test into instructional modules. No written proposal has appeared in a meeting packet since January 2025, so any change will be described aloud.

Behind it is a complaint load the agency has told budget writers is climbing: 878 pending across the four professions at the end of the spring quarter, and an average of 310 days to resolve one for the fiscal year to that point.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Ryan Bridges — chair; Katy; insurance risk analyst, CenterPoint Energy; public member.
• Roxana Lambdin — vice chair; Kerrville; clinical psychologist in private practice.
• Herman B. Adler — Houston; licensed psychological associate and counselor.
• Jamie Becker — Lewisville; psychiatry director, Children’s Health; UT Southwestern faculty.
• Mark Cartwright — Dallas; psychologist and school psychology specialist; clinical services executive.
• Chris Moose — Austin; life sciences executive; former IBM partner; public member.
• Brian E. Rentsch — Grapevine; professional engineer at Kimley-Horn; public member.
• Sangeeta Singg — San Angelo; licensed psychologist; psychology professor, Angelo State University.
• Andoni Zagouris — McAllen; retired school psychologist; licensed psychological associate.

Roster from the board’s membership page and the posted agenda, cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases. All nine seats are filled; terms expire October 31 of odd-numbered years. Seat categories are printed here as the Dispatch inferred them from each member’s licensure and occupation — the agency publishes the category for only two members, Bridges and Cartwright, who are also the board’s two delegates to the Executive Council. Chris Moose was appointed in January 2026 to the seat of Jeanette Deas Calhoun of Tyler, whose term had expired. Darrel D. Spinks is the council’s executive director; Cristina De Luna is the board administrator. Council office: (512) 305-7700.