Candidates for APA President
- How would you work to increase diversity of APA council, states' leadership and division leadership?
If we wish to meet the needs of diverse populations, I believe it would be more productive to join with our existing national associations for diverse psychologists.
APA's Council of Representatives could meet with each of their councils to work jointly on their mission.
Each state psychological association needs to create a Public Interest Division (PID); CPA founded a PID and elected three diverse CPA presidents.
Each APA division should establish a committee similar to APA Div. 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues) to assure greater diversity.
Government officials and bodies, as well as the general citizenry, need to become more aware and appreciative of the contributions of psychology as a science and practice to their ongoing activities, as well as of our contributions to the promotion of health, education and human welfare. How would you use the media to achieve that goal?
For the "general citizenry," APA could organize weekly programs (and form readily available Web sites) providing informative programs such as "What psychologists can tell you about anger." For government officials, in addition to making the general programs readily accessible, APA can provide a psychology consultant for each significant governmental official. These consultants would be "on call" and arrange regular meetings with the Congress member at the district office; establishing a personal relationship with the congressperson or one of his staff would significantly increase the advancement of psychology's programs.
