APA Press Release
January 4, 2008
Contact: Chris Hobson
Public Affairs Office
202-336-5700

BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE'S JAMES H. BRAY ELECTED 2009 PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

WASHINGTON—Psychologist James H. Bray, PhD, associate professor of family and community medicine and psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and adjunct psychology professor at the University of Houston, has been elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) for 2009.

Bray, 53, directs the Family Counseling Clinic at Baylor, which specializes in collaborative primary care for children and families and training psychology students in primary care psychology. He also leads a psychology clinic at the Northwest Community Health Center that provides training and primary care psychological services for indigent and disabled people, and for those without health insurance.

“From his experience as a teacher, trainer, researcher and clinician, Dr. Bray understands the broad spectrum and diversity of psychology and sees how psychologists can work together as scientists, clinicians, and public policy makers to aid in improving the human condition,” APA CEO Norman B. Anderson, PhD, said in announcing Bray's election.

During his presidency, Bray plans to promote the importance of psychology in people's everyday lives through public education, state and federal advocacy and collaboration with other organizations and professions. A leading priority for Bray is to get more federal funding for social science research. “Over 50 percent of health problems are caused by psychosocial and lifestyle factors, yet less than 7 percent of the National Institutes of Health budget is spent on research in these areas,” said Bray.

A second priority for Bray as APA president will be to support the Association in its efforts to expand psychologists' roles as health care providers. “Primary care providers treat over 60 percent of all mental health problems without psychologists' help,” he noted. “We can become full partners in the health care arena and particularly in primary health care and effectively prevent and treat the major health problems of our nation – but we need to be there.”

Increasing funding to help train the next generation of psychology students at the graduate level is another of Bray's priorities. “Our young psychologists are leaving graduate school with record levels of debt, making it difficult for them to make a reasonable living,” he said. “Students considering a career in psychology are rethinking their decisions because of economic limitations within the profession and this disproportionately impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

He also would like to see APA develop more incentives to attract young scientists into the psychology field and APA membership.

Bray has worked with the homeless for years and wants to shine a light on that community. “Many homeless people are there because of psychological trauma, mental illness, drug and substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse. And when you give them the help they need, they can become productive citizens.”

Bray has conducted research into developmental and family factors in divorce, remarriage and adolescent substance use; applied methodology; and collaboration between physicians and psychologists. He has also taught psychology students, resident physicians and medical students.

Bray's work has been recognized through four National Institutes of Health grants. He was named Distinguished Practitioner by the National Academies of Practice for Psychology while also receiving the Karl F. Heiser APA Presidential Award for Advocacy. He earned the Federal Advocacy Award from the APA Practice Directorate, and he was named the Psychologist of the Year by the Houston Psychological Association.

Additionally, Bray has more than 100 publications to his credit. He has been a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health Consortium on Families and HIV/AIDS research program, and he has been a National Science Foundation grant reviewer. Further, he was a member of both the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Child Support and Child Visitation and the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform.

Bray received his PhD in clinical psychology and applied methodology from the University of Houston. Before joining the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine, he served on the faculty at Texas Woman's University for six years. He earned his bachelor of science and his master of arts degrees from the University of Houston. He makes his home in Houston, Texas

Bray will serve as the president-elect of APA in 2008 and will assume the office of president on Jan. 1, 2009.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.