Candidates for APA President
I have been very fortunate to have a multifaceted career as a psychologist, researcher, academician, counseling center director, military psychologist, director of internships, private practitioner, medical clinic specialist and cab driver (while working my way through the University of Texas and learning about life as seen by the masses).
I received my PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in 1947, having begun the doctoral program in 1937, interrupted by World War II. In 1947, following my discharge from the Army and the completion of the PhD, I became the executive director of the counseling center at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). After 10 years at UCSB, I rejoined the Army and for 14 years was stationed at five different major U.S. Army hospitals, including two tours in Germany and two years at Walter Reed General Hospital.
After retiring from the Army, planning to be a beach and tennis devotee, I was delighted to found the psychology service at Sansum Medical Clinic in Santa Barbara, a general-practice clinic also dedicated to research and treatment of diabetes. Twenty years later, in 1993, I retired again to spend more time with organized psychology.
I have been a member of APA since 1947. I have served as the project director for a commission on standards in 1970, later on APA's Council of Representatives, several APA committees, as member of the Board of Directors of Divs. 31 (State Psycho-logical Association Affairs), 42 (Psychologists in Independent Practice) and 46 (Media), and BAPPI, and as president of Div. 46. At the state level, I have served for 10 years on the Board of Directors of the California Psychological Association (CPA), as its president in 1983 and 1987, and for ten years on the CPA-PAC.
Probably my most important contributions to my profession have been in the political arena. Beginning in 1982, I was on the committees to elect a member to the California Assembly and then to the California Senate, followed by several committees to elect a member to the House of Representatives.
From 1996 to the present, I have been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association for the Advancement of Psychology, and was the chair from 1996 to 2001.
My hobbies are hanging out with my grandchildren, swimming, walking on the beach, bridge, baking and having weekly breakfasts, which I have organized with my former medical and psychology colleagues.
I believe that being president of APA, while requiring full-time dedication, would add considerable enjoyment to these later years of my life.
Clark's candidate statement
As the largest psychological association on this planet, APA is renowned for its contributions in education, research and practice. Areas in which its contributions need some improvement are in influencing public policy and in contributing to the public interest.
The federal government has the power not only to declare war, but to support education and research, to affect the practice of psychology and to improve the quality of life. We must remember Champus and Medicare, and the work we did to be included. We also need to pay attention to a new plan submitted by Sen. Breaux, who has recently introduced a bill to provide national health insurance. We will absolutely need to be at the table when this plan is being developed. This means that we need to increase our funding for development in the public policy arena.
Our efforts in the public interest also need increased funding. It continues to be apparent that the ever increasing population is the major factor in the ongoing pollution of our environment, in the rapid depletion of natural resources and in the deterioration in the quality of life. We should not depend on wars, starvation and pestilence to control population expansion. APA needs to increase its commitment to education of the public about the dangers of overpopulation; furthermore, APA should foster research on creating attitudes and beliefs that encourage families to limit their production of children.
If elected president, I shall devote considerable energies to these projects.
