I am proud to be a psychological scientist/practitioner, educator and advocate nominated to serve as APA's president. I am director of the Buros Center for Testing and Meierhenry Distinguished University Professor at the University of Nebraska. My previous positions include psychology professor/chair at Fordham University, psychology professor/dean of arts and sciences at SUNY–Oswego, and psychology professor/vice president for academic affairs at two institutions. I have considerable leadership experience and helped bring about positive change at each institution. I plan to lead APA's engagement in much-needed healing.
I represented APA and APAPO on numerous committees and task forces, including the Good Governance Project. I have performed over 20 APA accreditation visits. As an APA delegate, I chaired the Joint Committee on Testing Practices, and I served on APA's Committee on Psychological Testing and Assessment and Committee on International Relations in Psychology, and chaired the Council of Representatives Coalition for Academic, Scientific and Applied Psychology caucus. I am president-elect of a division of the International Association of Applied Psychology and served on an Institute of Medicine committee on psychological testing in health care.
I have given expert testimony in more than a dozen cases, with clients including APA, cities, states, diversity groups and unions. I have consulted on constructing and reviewing civil service tests. My primary research interests concern proper assessment use, assessing individuals with disabilities and language minorities, and adapting tests across languages and cultures. I edited the "APA Handbook of Testing and Assessment in Psychology," "Psychological Testing of Hispanics," "Test Interpretation and Diversity," "High Stakes Testing: Science and Practice in K–12 Settings" and "Psychological Testing of Hispanics: Clinical, Cultural and Intellectual Issues" with APA books, and three "Mental Measurements Yearbooks," "Tests in Print VIII," and "Pruebas Publicadas en Español." I chaired the College Board's Research Committee, the Graduate Record Examination Board and the GRE Technical Advisory Committee. I served on the SAT Committee, the National Council of Measurement in Education's Committee on the Development of a Code of Ethics and numerous other task forces. I am treasurer of the International Test Commission, editor of Applied Measurement in Education, and have served on the editorial committees of 10 journals. My work cuts across all areas of psychology. I have published approximately 130 chapters and journal articles on psychological assessment, psychometrics, both educational and industrial psychology, graduate education, the training of psychologists, high-stakes testing and health psychology.
I have loved my entire 39-year career, teaching at every institution where I worked. Outside the academy, I was largely responsible for building the New York City Police and Fire Fighter examinations for about 10 years and directed the study that brought women on the Philadelphia police force.
My awards include fellow status in six APA divisions, the American Educational Research Association and the Association for Psychological Science. APA's Div. 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods) awarded me the Jacob Cohen Award for Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring; a regional association provided me awards for mentoring and service; and I received a Distinguished University Research Award.
Geisinger's candidate statement
I am truly honored to be nominated for the APA presidency during this difficult time for APA. Both APA and APAPO are facing serious membership issues. APAPO has been in crisis for a number of years. Plans to address these issues, rather than continuing on as though nothing is wrong, are needed. Whom would you prefer to direct actions to face such issues? I would choose an experienced leader who has dealt successfully with similar concerns over the years. Concomitantly, we need to heal APA's members subsequent to the Hoffman Report and other actions that have splintered our profession. We'll have to be patient but proactive with the process as members regain trust and ultimately pride. We also need to continue integrating our four directorates: Science, Practice, Education and Public Interest. I would advocate for all four.
Third, I have an ongoing desire to unite our profession. It also reflects my desire to continue to advocate for these four foci of psychology. My overall goal is that APA represent One Psychology with the ethical application of science and practice as its core.
To build our future we must also advocate for our profession's future, including funding for graduate education, internships and undergraduate psychology. I can serve as a major spokesperson for all of psychology, as I have for units I directed where I have worked. I am especially eager to advocate for the empowerment of society's underserved. My career has included an unusual balance of science, practice, education and public interest activities, and integrating my efforts in these key psychology domains remains of paramount importance. I have advocated for such areas as diversity and more appropriate levels of reimbursement for psychologists, and I will continue to do so. Membership, healing, advocacy and uniting; those are my foci.