Sam Wan, PhD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for being an up and coming early career Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) psychologist, who has assumed major organizational leadership roles and is a national trailblazer in multiculturalism.
Wan, a humble and modest individual, is the psychology diversity committee chair at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, where is refines methods of assessing cultural self-awareness in trainee selection. A beloved educator, he is often the most highly rated supervisor at his site, where he serves as assistant postdoctoral training director. He has expertly taken the reins of this important annual VA psychology leadership conference as its conference chair. As a national leader in diversity issues, he is a leadership fellow of the Asian-American Psychological Association, an ethnic minority slate member-at-large for APA Div. 51 and a member of the Multicultural and Diversity Committee of the VA Psychology Training Council. He deservedly won the inaugural Association of VA Psychologist Leaders James Besyner Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to VA Psychology.