James H. Bray, PhD, is presented with this Presidential Citation for his lifetime of dedication to the discipline, the profession, and APA.
Bray is a clinical and family psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association. He is a professor and former chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas San Antonio (2017–present). He is also chairman of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Houston College of Medicine (2023–2024). Previously he was an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine (1987–2017) and earlier in his career he was chair of the Psychology Department at Texas Women’s University.
Bray has published more than 125 articles, tests, book chapters, books, and reviews. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and has coedited books on family psychology and psychology in primary care.
Bray has been active in APA governance since 1988, involved in practice, science, education, and state issues. He served on the Board of Educational Affairs, Rural Health Task Force and Committee on Rural Health, Primary Care Task Force, and the State Leadership Organizing Committee. He served as president of Division 43, Society for Couple and Family Psychology. In addition, he served as treasurer for several APA divisions and has been named a fellow of 14 APA divisions.
In his six terms as a representative on APA’s Council of Representatives representing Division 43, Society for Couple and Family Psychology, Division 50, Society of Addiction Psychology, and the Texas Psychological Association, and also serving on the Board of Directors, he has been a strong voice in APA’s leadership. In 2009, Bray served as president of the Association. His presidential initiatives focused on the future of psychology practice, advancing psychological science as a STEM discipline and the psychological factors associated with homelessness.
Bray has been a strong advocate for all of psychology, serving as a federal advocacy coordinator for the Texas Psychological Association and Division 12, Society of Clinical Psychology, and Division 43, Society for Couple and Family Psychology; a Federal Education advocacy coordinator; a member of APA's Psychology Advocacy Network; the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Child Support and Child Visitation; the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform; the National Health Policy Council; and fundraiser for the Association for Advancement of Psychology. In his home state of Texas, he served as president of the Texas Psychological Association (TPA), contributing to TPA’s efforts to negotiate the sunset review of psychology’s licensing laws.
Bray has received numerous awards including Family Psychologist of the Year from the Society for Couple and Family Psychology, election into the National Academies of Practice for Psychology, and the Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for Advocacy on Behalf of Professional Psychology from the American Psychological Association.
It is in recognition of Bray’s lifetime of dedication to the discipline, the profession, and most of all, to our association that he receives this Presidential Citation.