Candidate response: Stephen A. Ragusea, PsyD

• How would you continue and enhance the work of your predecessors relative to multiculturalism/diversity related to education, practice, research, public policy and training?

This is one of the most challenging problems facing APA. The organization struggled with it for decades and we're asked to solve it in 100 words!

Some ideas: 1.) Continue the multicultural summit; provide presidential citations supporting multiculturalism. 2.) Involve all elements of the profession in the journal review process; by so doing, DeLeon and Kenkel exponentially increased input by ethnic minorities in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 3.) APA must increase its relevance in order to attract all our best. My initiatives regarding prisons, the Practice Research Network and continuing to Make Psychology A Household Word will increase relevance.

• As the largest psychological organization in the world, APA should take the lead in making psychology an influential presence. How would you go about realizing this goal?

I will increase our focus on psychology's social relevance and build on the presence we have created over the last decade, partly by convening a summit of psychology's leaders to set out a five-year plan to enhance our presence. As president, I would help us recognize that meeting society's needs is our raison d'etre. If we can learn how to reduce the divorce rate by 50 percent, or if we can come up with an alternative to incarcerating 1 percent of our population in prisons, society will beat a path to psychology's door. We earn influential presence by offering relevant solutions.