Q1: How will you integrate/reflect APA’s commitment to diversity in all of your presidential endeavors?
Diversity is a core value of the APA Strategic Plan that I support. The president has the power to keep a focus on issues and I will support diversity as part of the Future of Psychology Initiatives. We require more psychologists who are culturally and linguistically competent and to get more minority students we need to start earlier in the educational pipeline and reduce education costs. For practice, we need more funding for community health psychology and we need to work more in primary care, since people of color are more likely to receive psychological services in those settings.
Q2: Specifically, where does education and training appear in any of your planned presidential initiatives?
We need a new curriculum for psychology as a STEM discipline at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. APA should provide more support for the multiple and diverse ways that psychologists contribute to education at all levels of society. Psychology is fundamental to understanding educational processes, developing effective programs and enhancing outcomes. Important psychological contributions include neuroscience, learning and cognitive research, designing and evaluating effective curricula, developing new distance learning technologies, and implementing community and national programs. Psychology can make major contributions to society by developing and utilizing new technologies and addressing our diverse society. See Bray for APA Presidentopens in new window for more information.