Presidential elections

APA Election Committee announces slate for 1998 election for APA president

A new slate of candidates for the office of APA?s 1999 president-elect has been named, following a retabulation of ballots due to the death of Frank McGuigan, PhD, one of those originally elected to run (see box on page 50).

The five finalists from the April 13 recount are:

? Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr., PhD, professor of psychology at Texas A&M University.

? Alice F. Chang, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Arizona.

? Patrick H. DeLeon, PhD, JD, aide to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).

? Lynn P. Rehm, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Houston.

? Nathan N. Stockhamer, PhD, a private practitioner in New York City.

Ballots will be mailed to members in October. The new president-elect will begin his or her term on Jan. 1.

Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr.

Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr., PhD, is University Professor of Teaching Excellence in the department of psychology at Texas A&M University where he has been since 1980. Before coming to Texas A&M he spent two years in APA?s Central Office as director of the Office of Educational Affairs and eight years on the faculty at Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Benjamin received his PhD in experimental psychology from Texas Christian University in 1971. His scholarship has been divided between the history of psychology and the teaching of psychology. His published works on history have focused on psychology?s public image, early psychological organizations and applied psychology, including works on the history of educational, clinical and industrial/organizational psychology. His biography of Harry Kirke Wolfe was nominated for two prestigious history of science awards. Benjamin?s publications on teaching have emphasized active learning and teacher training.

Benjamin is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, he has served on a number of editorial boards including American Psychologist, Teaching of Psychology and History of Psychology.

Benjamin teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. He is the recipient of several teaching awards, including distinguished teaching awards from Texas A&M in 1984 and 1994 and the American Psychological Foundation?s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1986. In 1996, Texas A&M awarded him a University Professorship in Teaching Excellence. He is one of only four faculty out of 2,500 to hold that distinction.

Following his tenure in APA?s Central Office, Benjamin has remained active in APA. He served on APA?s Council of Representatives, the Committee on Structure and Function of Council, the Board of Convention Affairs, the Board of Educational Affairs, the Task Force on Centennial Celebrations, the Committee on Undergraduate Education, and the Executive Board for TOPSS (Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools). He has worked with the Science Directorate as a workshop leader for the Traveling Psychology Exhibition and most recently as director of the first three APA Summer Science Institutes.

Benjamin is a Fellow in five APA Divisions: 1 (General), 2 (Teaching), 3 (Experimental), 26 (History) and 35 (Women.) He has served as president of Divisions 26 and 2.

Benjamin also has been active in other settings. He chaired the Academic Affairs Committee of the Nebraska Psychological Association, chaired the original Test Development Committee for the College Board?s Advanced Placement Psychology Program, recently served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Archives of the History of American Psychology.

Ludy Benjamin and his wife riscilla, a children?s librarian, have been married for 34 years and share a number of interests including reading, travel, theater, baseball and a grandchild who is arguably the world?s cutest kid. Their two daughters both work in fund-raising, one in a university and one in the arts.

Presidential statement

During its first century, psychology has proven itself an enormously successful discipline. We opened our first laboratories in the 1880s and our first clinics in the 1890s.

In the ensuing years we developed a science that sends our most eminent into the National Academy of Sciences and a few into the ranks of Nobel Prize winners. Simultaneously we developed a profession that has achieved authority in the field of mental health, a field already claimed by other professionals when we began our explorations there. We are among the most popular elective courses in high schools, one of the most popular undergraduate majors in college, one of the most competitive of doctoral programs and a subject of considerable popularity with the public, even though much of what the public labels psychology, we might not.

As psychologists we are well trained as problem-solvers, and thus we seem unusually creative in finding opportunities to apply our skills in many different areas. We can list significant accomplishments as educators, practitioners and scientists that have led to the betterment of our world.

Ours is a growth industry. Psychology ranks high in Money magazine?s list of fields with good employment opportunities, and there are good reasons why. The problems of the 21st century are psychological problems requiring psychological solutions?an aging population; conserving energy resources; preparing people for employment in an age of information explosion; addictions; racism and sexism; violence; educational reform; better health via eating better, exercising more, and reducing stress; better mental health; and reducing international conflict. They foretell of the possibility of a bright future for psychologists in education, research and practice. But it is only a possibility; that future is not assured. Whether psychology will achieve its potential depends on a number of factors, many of which require that the science and profession of psychology act as an integrated whole.

Just as practitioners left APA in the 1930s to form a national organization for professional psychology, many disaffected scientists left APA in the 1980s to form their own national organization to promote psychological science. In the 1940s, in a national emergency, psychologists in both camps recognized the interdependence of their work and met together to create a new psychological organization that would represent all psychologists. The new APA of 1945 and its new Washington, D.C., central office was the result. Although there is no world war in 1998 to motivate another rapprochement, there are wars raging within the mental health field, in federal agencies, and in the academy that significantly affect psychology in terms of the practice of psychotherapy, the availability of research support, and the opportunities for academic employment. In the short run, psychologists can continue to pursue their narrow self-interests, but if our discipline is to accomplish all that the next century holds for it, then it will do so only if there is a psychological profession based on our science and a psychological science informed by a significant understanding of the problems faced daily by those engaged in psychological practice.

What can we do to build an integrated discipline? We can begin at the national level by getting the two organizations that largely represent psychology on Capitol Hill and in the federal agencies?APA and the American Psychological Society (APS)?to talk with one another. The superordinate goals are clearly in place that should motivate these two associations to combine their considerable intellectual and financial resources. As president of APA and as a member of APS I would attempt to initiate that dialogue.

A key to the strength of our discipline is the quality of our educational programs. In recent years APA has focused its educational efforts principally on graduate training. It has not neglected high school and undergraduate students, but the resources directed there have been quite small given the size of APA?s budget. There is good evidence that we can greatly enhance our talent pool in psychology if we improve the quality of psychology instruction for precollege and undergraduate students. We need especially to increase opportunities for students to become involved in psychological research so that we can attract the best to our talent pool.

We need to do a much better job of attracting ethnic minority students to careers in psychology. The demographic data for America in the next 50 years project substantial growth in ethnic minority citizens. To be effective as a profession in working with these populations and to generate the research data that will underlie that work, we must be more effective at recruiting ethnic-minority students into psychology. Our best chance of reaching them will be through high school, and perhaps middle school, programs that expose them to the richness of psychology?s promise and encourage them to participate as educators, practitioners and scientists.

Further, we must do a better job of informing the public about what we do. Too many psychologists see public image and public understanding as trivial issues. Yet public perceptions affect our discipline in significant ways. We need to talk less exclusively among ourselves and more to those who might fund our research, take our classes or avail themselves of our services. In recent years APA has committed funds to a public education campaign, and currently the state psychological associations have an excellent program under way. We need to do more. We need to encourage our colleagues to write for the popular press, and in doing so we need to emphasize the best of our discipline. Academic psychologists, in particular, have been discouraged from this kind of writing and often suffered a loss in status when they did. Such prejudices have to disappear. We need a more focused effort of public education, and APA is the organization that can coordinate such a systematic national effort.

These are a few of the issues that I believe are within the domain of APA?s influence. They are where I would place my efforts were I elected president of APA. I would appreciate the opportunity to serve in that capacity.

Alice F. Chang

Alice F. Chang, PhD, a classic scientist-practitioner, has worked to promote the discipline and serve organized psychology throughout her career. While on the APA Board of Directors (1994?97), she was able to reinforce APA?s commitment to expanding opportunities available to psychologists and also to expand the roles of under-represented groups within psychology, while maintaining APA?s standard of prudent financial planning and resource management.

Chang served/observed on the Council of Representatives for Kansas from 1985 until her election to APA?s Board of Directors. She was a founder and secretary/treasurer to the ethnic-minority caucus 1988?90, treasurer of the Kansas Psychological Association (KPA) (1979?85), president/founder of the Kansas Psychological Foundation (1986?92) and treasurer of Div. 31 (State Association Affairs, 1994?95), as well as an accreditation site visitor (1976?93). She served on the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Committee of Structure and Function of Council, the Committee of Ethnic Minority Affairs, and currently serves on the Board of Professional Affairs. She was very instrumental in the formation of APA Graduate Students and is committed to maintaining their place in APA.

While active in the KPA, she helped develop the state continuing-education criteria for licensure. She was also co-founder of Kansas Psychologists Day in 1991 and 1992. She has been recognized with the 1992 Kansas Outstanding Contributions to Psychology Award, the 1994 Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for outstanding professional accomplishments on behalf of psychology, a 1995 Commendation Award from the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, the 1995 UCLA Alumni Award of Excellence, the 1995 Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) Distinguished Contributions Award, a 1996 APA Distinguished Leader for Women in Psychology Citation, and the 1996 APA Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Public Service Award.

She began her career as an assistant professor at the University of Arizona. In addition to her academic and administrative duties at the university, Chang helped establish the Marana Community Mental Health Clinic which serves Yaqui Indians, migrant workers and indigent people in the rural communities around Tucson.

In 1975, she moved to the greater Kansas City area and took a position as assistant professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Chang began the pioneering efforts to open new avenues for psychologists to offer their expertise in medical settings in addition to neurology and psychiatry. She started the medical psychological training track at the Kansas City VAMC and began private practice at the request of KUMC surgeons, family-practice and rehabilitation physicians; and founded the first Pain Clinic in the area to examine the psychological components of chronic pain. In 1993, Chang returned to Tucson, to pursue work in the rural sector, as well as in mental health, policy and law, especially as it affected underserved populations. In 1995, she organized the Asian American Women?s Division in the AAPA. In 1996 she founded the Academy for Cancer Wellness, a nonprofit organization benefiting champions (survivors) of cancer, families and friends, as a result of her challenge with inflammatory breast cancer in 1994.

Presidential statement

Ultimately we make our own discipline, which means that we have to be willing to take an active part in it and be willing to give something back to it. To me the APA presidency represents another step in my career-long commitment to give back some small part of what psychology has given me. I hope to help the association to meld idealism and pragmatism to form an effective whole.

Through mechanisms such as APA?s national public education campaign, 'Talk to Someone Who Can Help,' and the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology, and APA?s multiple efforts and involvement in the prescription authority for those future psychologists who want it, APA has begun the process of responding effectively to threats confronting the opportunities available to organized psychology in the 21st Century. While our science, profession and training face significant immediate and long-term challenges, we must not let the wailing of our resident Cassandras obscure the real strengths and resources the discipline of psychology and APA have to offer. Indeed, we must celebrate and enlarge our strengths and resources in order to effectively meet the professional, scientific, educational and demographic challenges ahead.

To be more specific, consider, for example, APA?s Advisory Council on Genetic Issues, which I co-chaired with Andrea Farkas Patenaude. Initiatives such as this can advance new applications of psychological science, open new career paths for professionals and provide new education and training opportunities. As forensic and health psychology once represented new frontiers in the practice and science of psychology, the association must develop the resources to continually identify and promote other new applications for the strengths inherent in the training we all receive as psychologists. Our knowledge of such processes as decision-making and test construction have numerous potential applications in an ever more information- and technology-driven society.

In addition to identifying opportunities and promoting resources, our association must ensure that our training programs are designed to address the needs of a changing society and a changing marketplace.We must also assure that the training enables adjustment to new roles, taking full advantage of new applications of core skills.

APA also has the opportunity to develop representation appropriately reflective of the diversity of psychology and the communities we serve. We must build upon our ongoing efforts to ensure that our ranks are truly reflective of the society we serve, and that all those who seek to serve or study diverse populations have first received appropriate training. This is very much a matter of following up on existing recommendations and building upon current initiatives. This is not a matter for study and rumination. Rather, thoughtful action is needed. I think we as individuals and as a discipline know what we need to do.

Although I received an all-tuition-paid scholarship to pursue the doctorate at the University of Southern California, I still had to earn money to support my education. Having to integrate studies with waiting on tables, packing china and cleaning bathrooms, gave me a firm appreciation for the association?s responsibility to carefully allocate our limited resources. At the same time, I feel we must continue to recognize how significant our resources are.

Finally, I believe in the future of psychology and its importance to our current and future well-being as a society. Toward this end, I will dedicate my efforts and work hard to achieve our collective goals.

Thank you for reading my statement, and I hope that you will give me your first or second-place vote for APA president-elect.

Patrick H. DeLeon

Patrick H. DeLeon received his PhD in clinical psychology from Purdue University in 1969 and an MPH (University of Hawaii) and a JD in law (Catholic University). He has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Psychology degrees (PsyDs) from the California School of Professional Psychology and Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.

He is a Fellow of APA and Diplomate in clinical and forensic psychology. He is licensed in Hawaii (inactive status); Fellow of the Hawaii Psychological Association; and Charter Member of the National Academies of Practice in Psychology. He is APA?s immediate Past-Recording Secretary.

APA Governance: DeLeon has served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D?Hawaii) for the past 25 years and during this time has been active within the APA governance. He was elected to the Council of Representatives twice; served one term on the Board of Directors; and two terms as Recording Secretary. He is Past-President of Divisions 12 (Clinical), 29 (Psychotherapy) and 41 (Psychology and Law). The former chair of the ad hoc Committee on Legal Issues (COLI) and the Board of Professional Affairs (BPA), he has also served on the Finance Committee, Committee on APA/State Association Relations, and Public Information Committee. He was a member of the National Register for 20 years and is the former chair of the Professional Caucus (APP) of Council.

Public Policy and Editorial Experience: The current editor of Professional Psychology and section editor for the American Psychologist, DeLeon serves in an advisory role for a number of other journals, has in excess of 124 refereed publications, and regularly authors columns for division publications. Over the years he has served on the National Advisory Committee for the Institute for Public Policy Studies, Vanderbilt University; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation?s Program for Urban Systems of Care for the Chronically Mentally Ill; Rockefeller Institute of Government project 'Linking the Public and Private Sectors to Support Rural Families'; Hawaii Asian Pacific Island MEDTEP Research Center; Pacific Institute for the Study of Conflict and Aggression; Duke University Talent Identification Program; several professional schools; American Civil Liberties Union, Hawaii Chapter?s Mental Health Project; and the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards Project.

Awards and Recognition: He has received approximately 50 national awards, including the 1994 Raymond D. Fowler Award from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students for Outstanding Contributions to the Professional Development of Students; the APA 1989 Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychology as a Professional Practice Award; the 1984 Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Award; the 1986 Distinguished Professional Contributions to Public Service Award; the 1993 Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest; and in 1994, a Board of Scientific Affairs Distinguished Contributions Award to Psychological Science Policy. He received a 1990 APA Presidential citation and the Karl F. Heiser and Harold M. Hildreth awards and various division and state association recognitions. Purdue University and the University of Hawaii accorded DeLeon Distinguished Alumnus recognition. He has also been formally recognized by a number of the other health professional organizations.

Presidential statement

Psychology has been very good to me, and I would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to lead us into the 21st century as the next APA president. Society has been very good to psychology. We have worked hard for the recognition we have received, as scientists and practitioners. We have earned the respect of our nation. As doctoral trained psychologists, we are extraordinarily well educated. However, today 80 percent of our nation?s adults do not even possess a baccalaureate degree. Accordingly, as a 'learned profession' we have a real societal responsibility to 'give back' to those who are less fortunate.

Over the years I have come to appreciate the extent to which we truly are a family?practice, science, education and public interest. Over the nearly quarter of a century that I have been fortunate to have been personally involved in both organized psychology and in the public policy arena, I have come to appreciate that in many ways, psychological expertise is the key to our nation?s future?whether we focus on education, health care or any of the other fundamental societal needs. Ours is a popular field at all levels, in high school and at the undergraduate and graduate level. The 'best and brightest' want to become psychologists. We should be proud of our heritage and educational accomplishments. We should systematically seek to expand our 'scope of practice' and policy influence?whether by obtaining new clinical skills such as prescription privileges or expanding into evolving market places, such as those provided by the judicial system. Above all, we should not be passive or defensive?society needs our expertise.

Our nation?s health-care system is undergoing unprecedented changes. Change is definitely unsettling. However, there are always seemingly unsurmountable problems to be forthrightly faced and solved. The 'crisis' of today soon passes. Without question, managed-care has had an adverse impact upon psychological practice and patient care. This takes many forms, including downsizing for governmental employees and 'contracting out' for university faculty. Yet, one must also appreciate that today we take for granted being authorized to independently diagnose and treat patients, and receiving reimbursement for services rendered. Not long ago, the pioneers of our profession had to fight tirelessly for these very privileges?not to mention for the right to be licensed and to even have an independent practice. Not long ago, we were concerned about what one particular medical specialty thought about what we were doing or about whether we should serve patients on an inpatient basis. Today?s pioneers find themselves actively involved in all aspects of health care?delivering needed services on cancer wards, serving on facility ethics committees, redefining rehabilitation care, and effectively challenging fundamental assumptions of the judicial system. We provide outstanding mental health care and considerably more. We have rightfully earned the respect of colleagues in a wide range of professional disciplines. We are a vibrant and futuristic profession.

Over the next decade the advances that are occurring daily within the computer and communications fields will radically revolutionize expectations for health-care delivery and education. Telehealth technology and distance learning are here?there is hardly a health-care facility or educational institution that is not working to integrate this capability into their strategic planning. From the submissions that we receive for Professional Psychology, the journal for which I serve as editor, it is evident that many of our colleagues are already on the cutting edge of these exciting developments. The policy question is: How do we integrate these dramatic changes into our training programs and equally importantly, how do we facilitate the effective involvement of those already in practice?

Some have raised sincere concerns that, particularly with the advent of the professional school movement, there may soon be too many psychologists to ensure meaningful employment for all graduates. We would respectfully disagree. In our judgment, one of the most exciting developments during the past decade has been the establishment of the Committee for the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS). Currently in excess of 40,000 members, APAGS will be successful in accessing federal sources of graduate support, which most of us simply are not aware of, and we are confident they will ultimately be the key to developing entirely new niches for professional practice that never have been foreseen. The future is ours to shape?we must be proactive, not reactive.

Although during my tenure on the Board of Directors I found the science-oriented policy discussions of considerable interest, I do not want to suggest in any way that I fully understood the specifics or historical aspects. I am not a scientist. However, I do deeply value education and the pursuit of new knowledge. One recurring theme that continues to impress me is the extent to which many of our colleagues?in science and practice?seem over time to unfortunately lose their primary identity as psychologists. It is as if a number of us view ourselves as the specific specialist that we might become, rather than as a core psychologist. One illustrative example: Very few psychologists who gravitate to policy positions hold themselves out as 'psychologists' per se; few actively seek to provide the next generation of our graduates with hands-on administrative experiences. I gather similar examples can readily be found within industry and academia. Yet, within organized (academic) medicine, the opposite occurs. I often wonder what modifications in our training programs might successfully address this.