Candidates for APA President
Ronald F. Levant (BA, University of California, Berkeley, honors with great distinction; EdD, Harvard University; MBA, Boston University, high honors) is dean and professor at the Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University. Formerly, he was on the faculty at Boston, Rutgers and Harvard universities, a clinician in solo independent practice and a clinical supervisor in hospital settings.
Academic and professional background: Levant has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 13 books and over 120 refereed journal articles and book chapters in family and gender psychology and in advancing professional psychology. One of Levant's contributions to psychology is in pioneering the new psychology of men. He has developed theory and conducted research programs investigating fathering and masculinity ideology in multicultural perspective. He was also the co-founder and first president of APA Div. 51 (Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity). In addition to his writing, Levant has served as editor of the Journal of Family Psychology (1992-1997), as guest editor for special issues of several journals and on the editorial boards of 11 journals. He is currently associate editor for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
APA and state association leadership: Levant has served as president of the Massachusetts Psychological Association, president of APA Div. 43 (Family), two-term member and two-term chair of the APA Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice, two-term member of the APA Council of Representatives, and member-at-large of the APA Board of Directors. He is currently serving a second three-year term as APA Recording Secretary and chairs the APA and American Psychological Foundation Task Force on Promoting Resilience in Response to Terrorism. He represented APA at the White House Summit Meeting on the Mental Health of Children and the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health.
Prior accomplishments: As a member of the Board of Directors, he chaired the task force that resolved the long-standing issue of representation of small state psychological associations and divisions on the APA Council of Representatives through the creation of the "Wildcard Plan." Most recently, he co-chaired the "Wildcard 2" effort that now seats all state, provincial and territorial psychological associations. He co-chaired the APA Commission on Education and Training Leading to Licensure, chaired the APA Task Force on Envisioning, Identifying and Accessing New Professional Roles in Psychology and served on the Working Group on the American Psychologist.
Awards, honors and media: Levant has received over a dozen awards for his work, including the Heiser APA Presidential Award for Advocacy. He is an APA fellow and a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in both clinical and family psychology. He has been interviewed and profiled in hundreds of articles on psychology in such outlets as Fortune, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, People Magazine, Men's Health, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on national television and radio shows, including "20/20" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
For more information, please visit Levant's Web site: www.DrRonaldLevant.com.
Levant's candidate statement
During these uncertain times, psychology is increasingly called upon for its scientific knowledge and professional skills. Psychology needs an experienced leader who has a history of working with all of psychology's constituencies and can bring us together to effectively respond to these challenges.
I have had the good fortune to serve in many roles in psychology and many roles in APA. Through this experience, I have developed a broad perspective on the discipline and profession of psychology. I know that psychology's strength derives from its rich scientific and professional traditions, that the students in APAGS are our future, that our future will be affected in unexpected ways by technological change as the 21st century evolves, and that APA, despite all of our differences, is one family.
I have a vision for psychology's future in which the growing integration of the science and practice of psychology will expand opportunities for knowledge generation and service delivery aimed at addressing society's most pressing problems, and thus make psychology a household word.
I am committed to:
Advocating for a prominent place for psychologists in the health-care arena and expanding the scope of psychological practice.
Positioning psychology to emerge as a top-tier health profession/discipline in the coming integration of behavioral health with physical health in the health-care system.
Enhancing the inclusiveness and diversity not only of the profession, but also of its leadership and its students, and promoting the multicultural competence of the membership.
Addressing the problems with institutional review boards, enhancing the public perception of psychological science, increasing psychological research funding and bringing scientists back to APA.
Creating a voice for education in APA and addressing the need for reliable and valid tools to measure student learning outcomes at all levels of psychology education.
