Anita Reithoffer Tucker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). She received her MSW in 1997 from the University of Michigan and her PhD in 2006 from Boston College. She has over 10 years of experience working with at-risk youth in a variety of settings including her role as the Clinical Director of North Star Adventure, an adventure therapy program on the North Shore of Massachusetts. In addition to her work with North Star Adventure, Dr. Tucker worked for over two years at Thompson Island Outward Bound, and currently is a lead facilitator for UNH's the Browne Center for Innovative Learning and a Trainer for Project Adventure.

At UNH, Dr. Tucker teaches in the research sequence for both undergraduate and graduate students and is the Co-Coordinator of UNH's Dual Masters Degree Program in Social Work and Kinesiology: Outdoor Education. She is actively involved in the field of adventure therapy and experiential education. She is a member of the Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group of the Association for Experiential Education. She has been part of AEE's Northeast Regional Advisory Council since 2005, the Chair of the Northeast Region of AEE since 2010, and recently became the Chair of AEE's Council of Regional Chairs.

Dr. Tucker's research focuses on educating the social work field about the impact and scope of adventure therapy including the impact of adventure therapy programs on youth outcomes. In addition, her research is focused on bringing attention to the topic of treatment fidelity in both the social work and adventure therapy fields. She was recently the recipient of a research grant from the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) for a study looking at the impact of the challenge course experience on children whose parents have cancer. She is currently looking at data from the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) Practice Research Network (PRN) comparing the outcomes for clients with different presenting issues who receive wilderness therapy, adventure-based therapy and traditional therapy. In conjunction to research on the impact of adventure in a wilderness or residential setting, Dr. Tucker's is also involved in evaluating the effectiveness of adventure therapy in a community based mental health setting.