Background: I come from a family of refugees who fled injustice, bigotry and death. My grandparents were killed because of their ethnicity, in Auschwitz and the Warsaw Ghetto. I grew up asking: Can anything be learned from such suffering? My personal response has been to treat those who suffer with compassion, to work for justice and equality, and to maintain a moral compass independent of institutions and governments.
So it is only natural that I became a psychologist.
Clinical/consulting: After training in urban hospitals, I became chief psychologist at New York's Regent Hospital, developing an expertise in the effects of trauma, violence and natural disasters. I now maintain a private practice and train and consult internationally, including work with the International Criminal Court; United Nations Critical Incident Stress Management Unit; U.S. State Department; Heartland Alliance Trauma Treatment/Training in Iraq; National Vision for Sierra Leone; U.N. Mission in Haiti; Psychosocial and Trauma Response in Kosovo and others. I was downtown on Sept. 11 and helped organize the Family Resource Center at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Academic/publications: I've held numerous faculty positions, including clinical assistant professor, NYU Medical School; adjunct professor, Columbia University; faculty at NYU's Institute for Psychoanalytic Education, NYU's International Trauma Studies Program and the Women's Therapy Center Institute. I have published widely, academically and in the press, including The New York Times, Slate, and various psychology journals. I co-authored four monographs on torture and human rights for Physicians for Human Rights.
Leadership: I was president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility in 2013. At APA, I am a council representative for Div. 39 (Psychoanalysis) and serve on APA's Ethics Commission and Conflict-of-Interest Work Group.
Advocacy: As a recognized public advocate for psychology and social justice, I've been profiled in Newsweek and Buzzfeed and interviewed by NPR, CBC, BBC, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post Live, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The Washington Post. My media experience would add a powerful advocacy tool to the APA presidency.
My greatest challenge came when I saw APA fail to recognize that psychologists working in settings without human rights protections were participating in abuse. I was privileged to work with a small group of dedicated psychologists whose diligence, fortitude and perseverance did not waver in the face of ridicule and challenges from all sides. After a 10-year struggle our goal was realized: APA changed its policy. Psychologists left sites such as Guantanamo. For much of that effort, I worked from outside APA. Now, as a council representative, I work from the inside and believe that the unique perspective I've derived from being on both sides of the fence will be a great asset to APA leadership.
In 2010, I received the New York State Psychological Association's Beacon Award — "presented to a psychologist whose leadership or advocacy has established a guiding light for the profession of psychology." As APA president, I want the public to see psychology as a guiding light for human welfare, social justice and public good.
Reisner's candidate statement
I am known in APA for challenging the status quo and helping the association address difficult issues and move forward. I am proud that APA stood up for what is right in the interrogations issue. Now APA must address an even more pressing crisis: membership. This new generation of psychologists sees APA as out of touch with its values and experiences.
APA has treated this as a marketing problem, asking how we "deliver value" to young psychologists. We should be asking, what values could this new, diverse and politically savvy generation of psychologists bring to APA? How will we empower them to do what we set out to do; use psychological knowledge, teaching, research and practice to change their communities and the world for the better?
Psychologists of color want to give back to their communities and promote justice and equal opportunity. Early career psychologists carry record-breaking debt, making it difficult to take the risks required to think big and do good. Academics want their teaching and research free of for-profit interests. Young psychologists face daunting social and economic challenges, and APA has not paid attention.
It's time to think outside the box. Can we change our culture to really hear ECPs and minority psychologists? How do we establish fair reimbursements for panel psychologists, and out-of-network coverage in Affordable Care Act policies? Can we press accredited training programs to improve students' debt load and career prospects?
As president, I will establish an initiative called Alternatives at APA. The goal will be to invite young, diverse, marginalized psychologists inside and outside APA to address the issues they care about. Then, together, we can use APA's extensive resources so they can make a difference. I want APA to be relevant to psychology's future generations.