Dess joins APA as new senior scientist for two-year term

With the "Decade of Behavior" closing in as the millennium approaches, APA welcomes the expertise of experimental psychologist Nancy K. Dess, PhD, who will be involved in the association's work on the initiative. Dess began as APA's new senior scientist--a two-year appointment--on Aug. 1.

Two decades of research training experience and more than 12 years of full-time undergraduate teaching at Occidental College have honed Dess's ability to articulate research findings and spark people's interest in psychological science. And because a main goal of the "Decade of Behavior" initiative is to relay more behavioral and social science research to the broader public, APA Executive Director for Science Richard McCarty, PhD, predicts Dess will be a valuable resource.

"We're excited to have her--she's an accomplished teacher and has seen the full spectrum of research. She has a lot of potential to enhance collaboration between science and education," he says, adding, "And she has boundless energy."

Dess replaces Joan Lucariello, PhD, who accepted a position in July 1998 to be director of the Research Programs in Cognitive, Social and Affective Development at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Dess has been studying stress and eating behavior for the past 10 years. She currently focuses on the relationship between taste and emotion--specifically, how rats selectively bred for high-saccharin consumption versus low-saccharin consumption differ in such areas as emotionality and stress vulnerability. As a veteran nonhuman animal researcher, Dess is a former member of APA's Committee on Animal Research and Ethics.

Dess will also serve as one of APA's envoys to the federal agencies that fund psychological research, in particular, bolstering existing efforts with the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health.

And with her multifaceted teaching expertise--Dess teaches a range of courses because Occidental is a small school--Dess will likely play a key role at next year's Summer Science Institute, says McCarty. She hopes to work with divisions to develop original convention programming for science-oriented students and faculty.

In addition, Dess has some projects of her own in mind. She'd like to work with the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology on graduate education issues, and is interested in evolutionary psychology. And her interest in the impact of technology on human development and sociality will likely lead to her joining an initiative on women and technology, which APA President-elect Pat DeLeon has slated for next year.

Overall, the position will allow Dess to achieve a personal goal--to help more people benefit from psychology's findings in areas such as identity, empathy and social relations.

"I am highly motivated to get some balls rolling," says Dess. "And to get people to think about psychology in ways they haven't before."

--J. Chamberlin



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