Candidates for APA President
Katherine Nordal (PhD, University of Mississippi) has been in full-time independent practice for 25 years in Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss. She previously served as director of child and adolescent services in a CMHC. Nordal has enjoyed the challenge of semirural practice and the diversity of skills it requires. Her practice interests include: learning, behavioral and emotional disorders in children; civil forensic practice; traumatic brain injury; neuropsychological assessment; and special education law. Other practice roles have included: involuntary civil commitment examinations; fitness-for-duty evaluations for EMS, law enforcement, construction industry and nuclear power plant personnel; designing and administering capitated EAPs; and psychological consultation to adult and adolescent CDUs.
APA leadership: Nordal currently serves as chair of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice and is a trustee of the APA Insurance Trust. While member-at-large on the Board of Directors, she was liaison to the Ethics Office, Public Interest Directorate, COLI and APA/ABA TF. She served on Board of Directors subcommittees for finance and public policy, and chaired the Ethics subcommittee. Nordal has chaired the Committee on Rural Health, represented Mississippi on the Council of Representatives and held office in the Women's Caucus and APP. She is a fellow of Divs. 42 (current finance chair), 31 (past-treasurer) and 35, and a member of 41.
State association leadership: Nordal is a fellow and past-president of the Mississippi Psychological Association and has also served as: secretary, treasurer and committee member and chair (Continuing Education, Legislative, Professional Affairs).
Professional advocacy: Nordal was APA's first independent practitioner Congressional Science Fellow. She served as senior staff in a congressional office and with the House Select Committee on Hunger. Primary policy responsibilities included: health care, mental health, food and nutrition programs, education, aging and welfare reform. She organized congressional hearings in Washington and Mississippi. Nordal also worked with the Congressional Women's Caucus to increase NIH funding for women's health research.
Nationally, Nordal has been a regular contributor to AAP/PLAN, the Psychology Defense Fund and Women in Psychology for Legislative Action (former Board member).
As chair of the MPA legislative committee, Nordal was instrumental in the following issues: Freedom of Choice legislation for psychologists; changing of the licensure law from a title to practice act; adding continuing-education requirements for licensure renewal; maintaining the doctoral standard as the entry to psychology licensure; and removal of the physician referral requirement for psychological services for youth covered by Medicaid.
Honors: Fellow of APA and the Mississippi Psychological Association. She has been awarded: APA's Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for Advocacy and MPA's Kinlock Gill Jr. Outstanding Professional Psychologist Award, Distinguished Practitioner Award and Distinguished Fellow Award.
Other professional activities: President and board member of the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi; Mississippi State Board of Psychology (1988-1990); Mississippi Department of Education's Special Education Advisory Committee; Special Education IDEA Hearing Officer.
Community involvement: Christ Episcopal Church; Board Memberships: Foundation for Historic Preservation, United Way, Child Abuse Prevention Center; Grace Christian Counseling Center; Mental Health Association.
Please visit my Web site, www.DrNordal.com.
Nordal's candidate statement
I am honored to be a candidate for APA president. I believe the major priority of the APA president must be to advocate for our profession. I am committed to advocacy because I believe in the ability of one person to make a difference. My experience as an APA Congressional Science Fellow further affirmed the importance of that commitment. Working together, I know we will make a tremendous difference!
Psychology has much to offer the public and policy-makers at the federal and state levels. We must have a seat at the table when decisions are made that affect us and those we serve.
Consumers must know who we are, what we do, and that we are the experts in human behavior. We must allocate more of APA's resources to public education!
Our practice colleagues in all settings need more resources for the legislative, legal and regulatory battles necessary to secure professional practice into the future.
Our science colleagues need funding for more research.
Our education and training programs, which must anticipate marketplace and workforce trends in order to provided relevant education, need more funding to expand training opportunities and help prevent the saddling of our early-career psychologists with horrendous debt.
APA is your organization, and it works hard to meet the diverse needs of its members. I will work to ensure that your needs are heard and responded to and that you have your seat at the APA table.
APA must be the voice of psychology for our nation. And we must insure that psychology always has a seat at any table where we are stakeholders! Please feel free to contact me with your ideas about APA's advocacy efforts. I can be contacted through my Web site at www.DrNordal.com.
