Transitions at summer's end

VOLUME 30 , NUMBER 8 September 1999

By Richard McCarty
APA Executive Director for Science

As I write this column, I am nearing the end of a two-week vacation with my wife, Sheila. It's been a restorative and relaxing break, but I find that I'm eager to get on with fall. For those of us in or near academia, there's nothing like the fall to help one appreciate transitions: new colleagues, new students, new books, new challenges. Fall changes in the weather, the color of leaves and length of daylight illustrate and punctuate the inevitable transitions in lives and careers.

Ave atque vale

As many of you know, Jill Reich, APA's executive director for education, resigned earlier this summer to accept a position as vice president for academic affairs at Bates College in her beloved New England. I first met Jill through the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (COGDOP) in the early 1990s when she was chair of the psychology department at Loyola University of Chicago and I was chair of the psychology department at the University of Virginia. She always seemed to offer an insightful comment or ask the critical question when COGDOP was discussing the future of accreditation of clinical, counseling and school psychology programs. Little did we know that within a few years Jill would be heading the directorate at APA that houses the Office on Accreditation. After a stint as a dean and provost at Trinity College, Jill came to APA as executive director of the Education Directorate in 1995. She was an unqualified success in this most demanding position and she represented the many diverse needs of our education community within APA and to a broad national audience. A search is under way to identify her successor.

On a personal level, Jill has been a wonderful friend and colleague to me from the day I started at APA. To those at Bates College who were on the search committee that recommended Jill for her present position, I recommend a hearty round of pats on the back. You have recruited a real winner!

Loss of a champion

Congressman George Brown of California passed away in mid-July. While not a household name, he was distinguished in many ways: He was the oldest man in the House of Representatives, and one of the few trained as a scientist. But he was distinguished more by his gentle spirit and uncompromising advocacy for the underdog. He was a champion of science, including behavioral and social science. He chaired the House Science Committee from 1991-95, and was an early advocate for creating the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He championed the creation of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), an agency designed to provide scientific and technical information to inform public policy. OTA was closed down as a budget-cutting measure in 1996. At his memorial service, John Gibbons, former director of OTA, repeated a quote that described Thomas Jefferson but applied equally to George Brown. He was a politician by profession but a scientist by passion. At the time of his death, he was fighting to repeal a law that would make the Freedom of Information Act a vehicle for scientific data sharing. Rep. Brown was concerned this new rule would increase red tape, costs and difficulty in preserving the confidentiality of research subjects. He will be missed.

Looking ahead

The coming year will be an exciting one here in the Science Directorate. We will be welcoming some new colleagues and I will have more to say about them in the coming months. I look forward to visiting several academic psychology departments over the course of the 1999-2000 academic year.

I am also excited about the beginning of the "Decade of Behavior" and the many things that are being planned to advance the behavioral and social sciences. The Decade's Advisory Committee has been preparing white papers on each of the five themes (next time there will be a quiz: Improving Health; Increasing Safety; Improving Education; Improving Political Participation and Governmental Responsiveness; and Increasing Economic Efficiency and Productivity). The National Advisory Committee authorized the Educational Film Center to submit a preproposal to NSF to fund a five-part video series on exciting topics in behavioral and social science research. And efforts continue on Capitol Hill to find a sponsor and champion for the congressional resolution that would officially declare the years 2000-10 to be the "Decade of Behavior." We hope to have good news for you soon! Please stay in touch with Science Directorate activities by visiting www.apa.org/science regularly.

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