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An
Interesting Career in Psychology:
The
Wise Counsel of Serendipity!
E.
Belvin Williams, Executive Director, Turrell
Fund
 The
bottom line is that I have been an administrator all of my professional
life. This is startling realization for someone who imagined his
career to be classroom teaching. My early interest in psychology
had a some- what traditional determinant namely, my mother who
was pursuing a graduate degree in psychology at UCLA at the time
of her death. My early memories include family conversations of
my mother expounding (somewhat inaccurately, I was later to learn)
on the leverage that psychology gave one in understanding other
people. I anchor my early feelings for and curiosity in psychology
in those conversations.
I was taken at the age of two to Roswell, New
Mexico. My neighborhood environment was a small mosaic of demographic
diversity comprised of African-Americans, Mexican Americans, Native
Americans, Spaniards and Anglo-Americans. For various family reasons,
education being one of them, I attended grades seven through twelve
in Denver, Colorado, which was integrated years before the 1954
Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka. I was fortunate in
having a high school counselor who argued with me about the career
options of psychology and the law. Psychology won out and I decided
while I was in high school that I should pursue a PhD in psychology.
My college experience opened up new vistas and
both psychology and philosophy seemed equally attractive. I intended
to major in psychology and philosophy and then enter a seminary
to teach philosophy, but a three-months stay in Europe pushed
the pendulum back to psychology.
Graduating from Denver University, and changing
graduate direction from seminary in Evanston, Illinois to the
doctoral program in clinical psychology at Teachers College of
Columbia University, I thought my path was set. Undergraduate
college teaching was still
a viable goal even though the content had shifted. Psychology
offered the promise that matters pertaining to intra- and inter-group
conflict would be investigated with a focus on amelioration.
But the quiet cerebral life on a Mid-western campus was not to
be. New York City is a beguiling metropolis where opportunities,
challenges abound and argument is spirited. Becoming a research
associate prior to the official award of the doctorate was the
beginning of being side tracked. My interpersonal skills were
reasonably well honed. And the invitation to become the first
director of the computer center at Teachers College arrived. The
faculty job description was clearly labeled that the director
needed to have
a background in statistics, computers and an ability to relate
to graduate
students, professors and administrative officials. My mentor,
a statistician (Professor Rosedith Sitgreaves) felt that I had
the requisite qualifications.
While the teaching faculty and graduate students
rapidly became aware of the computer’s advantages. In the
meantime, my contentious discussions with the controller impressed
upon me the importance of a business administration background.
Whereupon I enrolled the Master’s Degree program at Columbia
Business School for formal exposure. Upon completion, I was invited
to become Associate Dean for Administration.
After two years as Associate Dean, I was invited
to consider the position of Vice President for Operations at Educational
Testing Service. Internal movement from operations to vice president
of the College Board Testing Program resulted in my final position
of Senior Vice President for all testing programs at ETS. With
a change of the presidency at ETS, my decision was to seek a change
of venue. While being Senior Vice President, I had joined the
Board of Trustees of the Turrell Fund, an independent philanthropic
foundation in New Jersey. Philanthropy was, indeed, a new area
and marked a new professional path, giving and problem solving
in the real world. Although my first exposure to philanthropy
on the decision making side was through the Turrell Fund, my first
employment was with the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in the area
of increasing minority representation in the health sciences.
Philanthropy is a different world from that of
academe, business or public service. It is one that is seldom
mentioned in either undergraduate or graduate studies, unless
there is a grant request to fund demonstration or research projects.
It is an undertaking more visible in the United States than in
most other countries, but one of considerable importance to which
psychologists can and should aspire to make a contribution. Only
John Gardner (psychologist), Bill Bevan (psychologist) and Paul
Ylvisaker (educator) come to mind as being major contributors
to the field of philanthropy.
The monotonically increasing growth of the number
of foundations (currently estimated to be 65,000), their asset
base (1999 estimate was $449 billion) and their total giving (1999
estimate was $23 billion) are not to be ignored. It is one of
the few human
endeavors for good where the power of money, thought and action
can serve to mitigate and alleviate human suffering and conflict.
It is one where it can be seen that a little money can make a
large difference. It is one where the need for psychological input
can make a measurable difference. The opportunity to affect lives
of children in positive ways is rewarding. The need for the combination
of benevolent concern and charitable giving grows exponentially.•
(Originally
published in the Summer 2002
issue of Psychological
Science Agenda,
the newsletter of the APA Science Directorate.)
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Interesting Careers in Psychology....
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