Dr. Clare Porac begins work as New Associate Director of Graduate and Postgraduate Education and Training

I have returned to APA, overcome with a bad case of Potomac Fever!  I spent my 2005-2006 sabbatical year in the APA Science Directorate as the Visiting Senior Scientist.   I was involved in a number of different initiatives but my primary responsibility during the year was to conduct career workshops for graduate and undergraduate students.  These workshops typically took place at the meetings of various regional and specialized psychology associations.  As a result of these activities, I met Paul Nelson in the office of Graduate and Postgraduate Education and Training in the APA Education Directorate.  The Science and Education Directorates share the same floor of office space at APA and we often ran into each other at the shared coffee machine.  Paul and I began to discuss career issues facing graduate students, especially those interested in pursuing academic positions, and I became familiar with the Education Directorate’s Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) partnerships with various universities around the United States.  When Paul told me he was planning to retire, I expressed interest in applying for the position in the Education Directorate that would be responsible, along with other tasks, for the coordination of the PFF program.  So here I am, back at APA, ready for new and exciting challenges.  I am hopeful that my many years of experience mentoring undergraduates, graduate students and pre-tenured faculty at universities in both Canada and the United States will inform my contributions to the initiatives undertaken by the Education Directorate in regard to graduate and post-graduate education. 

In addition to being involved with the PFF program, I plan to be one of the APA representatives to other organizations dealing with graduate education in psychology, such as the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, and also to organizations that deal with general issues of higher education, such as the Council of Graduate Schools.  I also plan to work closely with members of the Board of Educational Affairs and the officers of various APA divisions on issues related to graduate and post-graduate education.  Along these lines, this office coordinates several award programs.  The Block Grant Awards program gives financial support for conferences and workshops on graduate and postdoctoral education while the awards for Innovative Practices in Graduate Education recognize the contributions of psychology programs engaged in innovations in regard to the education of their graduate students. An article on the three programs that shared the 2006 award can be found in the July/August issue of the APA Monitor at http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug07/honoring.html,
           
APA has recently reorganized the former research office into the Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research.  This reorganization is a long-awaited process at APA.  The initiative is fueled by the idea that a professional association, such as APA, should be able to offer data to psychologists on educational and career pipeline issues as well as to a provide information on current workforce needs and future trends.  The Center’s work is of critical importance to the concerns of this office and I hope to cooperate with their research efforts to provide informative data to faculty, graduate and post-graduate students.

Finally, one of the major efforts of this office is to prepare the yearly guide to Graduate Study in Psychology.  This on-line and print resource is a valuable source of information about more than 600 psychology graduate programs and schools in the United States and Canada.  The items contained in the guide, supplied each year by the programs themselves, range from descriptions of admissions criteria and financial aid levels, to details about student characteristics and eventual employment status of the graduates of the program.  The database that supports the guide undergoes continuous scrutiny and revision in order to make sure that the information contained in the guide is up-to-date and consistent with the current needs f both the students seeking information about graduate study in psychology and the faculty members who advise them regarding their future plans.  Thus, ensuring that the guide is as current and useful as possible is a major priority for this office.

In my view, consideration of educational issues is critical to the field of present-day psychology and, perhaps more importantly, is pivotal for guiding the future course of the discipline and profession.  The APA Education Directorate is where the action is on both of these fronts and I am very happy to be here to take part in the vibrant and diverse activities of the directorate.