Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD

Candidates’ statements reflect their own views and do not represent the positions of APA or APA Services, Inc.

Statement on issues currently facing psychology

A Vision for Collective Impact: APA CAN DO
Psychology holds the key to solving society’s most enduring challenges, but to unlock our true potential, we must move past the era of silos and into an era of collective impact. As a unifying force, my platform is built on the unwavering belief in what APA CAN DO together to empower all psychologists, show the world what we can accomplish in the fight for human rights, and illustrate that the work of practitioners and scientists is deeply interdependent and indispensable.

Our common enemy is systemic intersectional oppression. We are operating in a sociopolitical climate where public trust in research and health care is eroded, scientific funding is threatened, and corporate interests attempt to dictate the livelihoods of practitioners. To meet this moment, we cannot rely on complacency. True leadership requires a visionary outlook, a transformative approach, and the courage to uphold our values even when it feels difficult. I am a leader who values taking decisive action over simply talking, turning bold ideas into measurable progress. I am not afraid to put in the hard work required to dismantle oppressive systems and build a liberated future where all populations can live fully and well, but that isn’t something one person can do, nor should it be. Leadership is a team sport.

My multifaceted leadership experience across the student (APAGS), state (Kentucky Psychological Association), divisional (Division 17), university (Interim Department Chair), APA Council of Representatives, and APA Board of Directors levels has fully prepared me to lead this charge with you. Throughout my career, I have proven myself to be a deeply collaborative leader focused on building systems and cultures that endure. I don't just sit on committees and talk about change. True to my small town working class roots, I roll up my sleeves and do the heavy lifting.

Whether co-developing the APPIC standardized reference form with APAGS, serving as the first early-career psychologist to represent Division 17 on the APA Council, or chairing a university department budget to fund a critical cluster hire, I have consistently translated transformative values into concrete action. This is also evident in my work founding the Center for Healing Racial Trauma, where my team provided consultation to corporations like ViacomCBS and mental health support to activists and changemakers. As a tenured professor who has mentored 12 psychologists, an extramurally funded scientist with over $14M in funding, a licensed health service psychologist, and a practicing entrepreneur, I understand the diverse ecosystem of our profession firsthand and possess the skills to address its challenges head-on.

If elected, I will leverage this visionary leadership to collaboratively advance five core Presidential Priorities designed to transform our field's most pressing challenges into immediate opportunities for action:

1. Leading with Liberation: Cultural responsiveness must be our floor, not our ceiling. I am committed to ensuring that APA is well-resourced to stand in unwavering solidarity with marginalized communities. By uniting against intersectional oppression, we will position APA not just as a witness to social change, but as a courageous, unwavering architect of global liberation by collaborating with peer organizations who fight injustice.
2. Championing Equitable Entry into Psychology: Success in psychology should not be a matter of who can afford expensive prep courses. Trainees frequently incur immense debt only to face steep barriers to licensure. Through the FRE[EPPP] Initiative, I will explore partnerships with test preparation companies to provide monthly EPPP study sessions at no cost to students and early career psychologists, in an effort to democratize the path to licensure and broaden access to our profession. I’ll also work collaboratively with APAGS to support graduate student efforts to reduce financial barriers to graduation.
3. Partnering in Practitioner Progress: We cannot ask health service psychologists to solve a public health crisis at the expense of their own financial stability, nor can we allow low reimbursement rates to undermine our expertise. The Practitioner Progress Initiative will establish a dedicated task force that will empower psychologists to fight against the corporate greed devaluing our work and preventing some psychologists from earning what they’re worth.
4. Amplifying Science and Influencing the Digital Narrative: In an era of rampant mis/disinformation, psychological science must be louder than the noise. Through the Psychologist x Influencer Fellowship, we will pair our brightest researchers and leading practitioners with digital creators to translate peer-reviewed and clinical evidence into viral, life-changing content. By countering public mis/disinformation with timely, well communicated evidence, we will meet the public where they are and reclaim our role as a primary source of mental health truth. We will also strategize against continued defunding of science and uphold scientific integrity by remaining transparent and accountable, championing the messy reality of excellent research over manufactured certainty.
5. Collaborating in Community Care: We must build a nationwide network of care that connects local neighborhoods directly to our offices and expands our reach and workforce.

a. The Neighborhood Healers Project: This initiative will provide technical assistance to State, Provincial, and Territorial Psychological Associations (SPTAs) who wish build relationships with clergy, beauty professionals, and community leaders, partnering with them as our formal mental health referral pipeline where they see psychologists as a trusted, primary resource. 

b. The HBCU Healers Project: We will invite delegates from every HBCU psychology program to participate in a program led by HBCU-affiliated psychologists, actively developing the next generation of our psychology workforce by investing in undergraduate psychology students nationwide.

Student, early career, mid career, and senior career colleagues, our communities are calling on us to improve mental health where it is needed most. Whether you are a researcher, clinician, consultant, entrepreneur, educator, trainee, or administrator, we have a critical role to play in this moment. Together, through shared hard work and courageous collaboration, let’s realize psychology’s true potential and show the world exactly what APA CAN DO.

Leadership experience and priorities 

As an experienced leader, I don’t just join committees and boards. I build systems and cultures that endure. As a doctoral student on the inaugural faculty for Division 17’s Leadership Academy, I co-created a curriculum that continues to cultivate counseling psychology leaders. Later, as an APAGS Committee member, I co-developed the APPIC standardized reference form still used across the profession today. My leadership roles span the divisional (Division 17 Executive Board), state (Kentucky Psychological Association Executive Board), and national levels in APA. Breaking early-career glass ceilings, I served as the first ECP to represent Division 17 on the APA Council of Representatives and the second ever on the APA Board of Directors. In these roles, I collaborated across divisions and SPTAs to champion liberation-oriented ethics, finance, publishing, and governance, always prioritizing that every psychologist feels a sense of belonging. As a board member, I co-founded the Belonging Book Club, with council representatives, to build connections over books written by psychologists.  

I also have academic, entrepreneurial, and community leadership experience. As interim department chair at the University of Kentucky, I successfully executed a cluster hire of three psychologists while maintaining a balanced budget. In 2019, I founded the Center for Healing Racial Trauma, an independent practice providing therapy, training, and consultation for industry leaders like ViacomCBS. My civic leadership includes serving as advocacy chair for the Lexington Urban League Young Professionals, where I launched two ongoing initiatives that mobilize members to advocate at city council and school board meetings, successfully driving school policy changes.  

My multifaceted leadership experience informs what APA can do if I am elected as president. The relationships I’ve developed within and outside of psychology position me to collaboratively advance the following presidential priorities: championing equitable entry into the field for students and ECPS, amplifying science to influence psychology’s digital narrative, leading with liberation, partnering in practitioner progress, and collaborating in community care. See websiteopens in new window.

As a fellow of both APA and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, my work has been recognized with an APA Presidential Citation and the KPA Psychologist of the Year award. My career includes nine years at the University of Kentucky, where I achieved the rank of full professor before joining Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health as a tenured associate professor. As director of the SMASHER Lab, I have collaboratively secured over $14M in funding as PI and co-I on critical projects like the NICHD-funded ADD SEX FUN study and the SAMHSA-funded Neighborhood Healers Project. As a scientist, I’ve published over 90 peer-reviewed articles, while sharing insights with media like The New York Times. However, my true pride lies in mentorship. I earned the UK Great Teacher Award, having formally mentored 12 exceptional psychologists.  

I know firsthand that leadership is a team sport. As a unifying force, I am ready to lead APA by prioritizing collaboration over silos and courage over complacency. Together, we will show the world exactly what APA can do.

1. What are the most pressing challenges and/or opportunities facing psychology graduate students today, and what are your proposed actions or advocacy priorities for APA to address these issues and to effectively support graduate students?

Graduate students are often underpaid and overworked, as faculty and training staff try to fit accreditation requirements within the limits of assistantship or internship stipends. Additionally, what we manage to fit into the curriculum today may inadequately prepare them for careers they desire tomorrow. As a former APAGS committee member, these challenges present opportunities I’d like to collaboratively address with APAGS. As a potential example, Emory graduate students unionized and secured a living wage. Since we rely on our graduate student collaborators’ contributions in our science and practice, we can advocate to university administrators to recognize their value and needs.

2. At a time when public trust in research and science is under increasing scrutiny, APA has issued guidance aimed at protecting scientific integrity. How do you define scientific integrity? Describe how that definition would guide your leadership decisions when APA faces pressure from public or internal stakeholders around evidence‑informed policy and practice.

Upholding scientific integrity requires courage to resist sociopolitical impositions we’re facing. I mostly align with Chenneville and Bell’s (2026) framework, but I reject the positivist paradigm’s assertion of objectivity. True integrity means being accountably subjective; we don’t hide who we are or lie to the public about what we find in our research. Two of my presidential priorities meet the moment: the Psychologist x Influencer Fellowship and the Neighborhood Healers Project.h. As APA president, and a published, extramurally funded scientist, I will champion the messy reality of conducting excellent research over the manipulation of manufactured certainty. This includes acknowledging our scientific limitations, fighting against unlawful grant terminations and epistemic erasure, counteracting mis/disinformation, and earning public trust through transparency.

3. What principles will guide your approach to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence in psychology? How would you balance innovation, ethical responsibility, workforce impact, and public benefit when determining APA’s role in promoting, regulating, or resisting AI‑based tools across psychology and the profession? 

Technologies like AI must serve the public good, not corporate greed. Centering generosity, creativity, and wellbeing, I believe innovation doesn't have to deepen inequality or cause harm. APA can lead by promoting technology uses that enrich our lives and enhance wellbeing, while advocating for rigorous regulation of tools that threaten mental health and the environment. Using insights as a former liaison to the APA Publications and Communications Board, I integrate AI in my classroom to teach responsible research uses while addressing potential community impact. Our ethical responsibility requires us to equitably share in the benefits and drawbacks of emerging technologies.

4. APA’s strategic plan strives to “Prepare the field of psychology for current and future opportunities and challenges." What strategies and values guide your thinking about how APA can strengthen and support the current workforce and reduce barriers to those entering and sustaining a career in psychology? 

Wilcox and colleagues (2021) said, “it takes money to make money” in psychology. Trainees incur debt, then enter the workforce as health service psychologists, where reimbursement rates don’t reflect our expertise and commitment to care. APA can continue the fight for fair compensation, while my presidential priority, Practitioner Progress Initiative, establishes a task force and fund, enabling psychologists to serve low-income clients while maintaining a thriving standard of living. Another presidential priority is FREE (EPPP), where we collaborate with test preparation companies to provide monthly EPPP study sessions available to all students and ECPs at no cost to improve licensure affordability. 

5. As APA president, how would your values and practices assist APA in promoting and shaping culturally responsive and relevant research, practice, and advocacy across different populations both within the U.S. and globally? 

Leading with liberation as a value, cultural responsiveness is my floor. I have a record of examining and addressing intersectional sociopolitical contexts upon which I can draw to collaboratively lead APA in shaping research, practice, and advocacy that allows us all to live fully and well. My leadership is fueled by radical imagination and radical healing (French et al., 2020). I am a builder of what comes next after we dismantle oppressive systems. A liberated future is possible; and, if elected, I’ll ensure APA is well-resourced to stand in unwavering solidarity with marginalized communities to turn that vision into reality. 

6. How would your leadership approach and strategies strengthen the public’s understanding of psychology and appreciation for the breadth of psychology expertise? 

The public is already curious about psychology and interested in how to better understand themselves and other humans, such that psychology concepts like “narcissism” have become commonplace. Our field has credibility, even when people may not fully understand our terminology. We just need to meet them where they are. Two of my presidential priorities meet the moment: the Psychologist x Influencer Fellowship and the Neighborhood Healers Project. These initiatives both represent ways to share psychology to improve public understanding: the former with social and legacy media partnerships and the latter with community collaborations including clergy, beauty professionals, and other neighbors.