Q5: How would your presidency work to move APA toward realizing and sustaining APA Vision Statement 6: “A principal leader and global partner promoting psychological knowledge and methods to facilitate the resolution of personal, societal and global challenges in diverse, multicultural and international contexts”?
Psychology must lead by developing academic and health-care assessments, interventions and training opportunities relevant to all by investing from and for a perspective of diversity.
Having been a visiting professor of psychology at the Universidad of Granada for 25 years, having collaborated internationally throughout my career and published in three languages, I am poised to take these efforts and institutionalize them. In my presidency, I will foster the development and maintain collaboration between international psychological societies and organizations of diversity to address global problems. The recent endorsements by the Spanish and Russian psychological societies are a testament toward this goal.
Q6: In light of the impending changes in the governance structure of APA, how do you envision your role as president?
The role of the president is to:
1. Speak for the broad APA membership in the contexts of the council and the board.
2. Implement presidential initiatives that reflect the concerns and goals of the general membership.
3. Serve as a face of American psychology to the broader world. Further, enactment of the Good Governance Project is critical. I have conducted several membership surveys asking APA members about practice, academic and other issues that affect their careers and pro-social contributions. As president, it will be my first priority to ensure that APA members' voices are heard in APA governance.