Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD
2024
“We are needed in every room at every table—from industry to international relations, in the classroom and the therapy room, from health care to government settings, to research and the entertainment industry…But where we are most needed is in all the areas that work to relieve human suffering.”
Thema S. Bryant, PhD
2023
“While we work toward racial and gender equity, and toward eliminating other forms of oppression such as ableism, heterosexism, and religious intolerance, we must be careful not to engage in the ‘oppression Olympics,’ where addressing one form of oppression is seen as a threat to addressing other forms of oppression…The path to liberation is intersectional.”
Frank C. Worrell, PhD
2022
“Two steps forward and one step backward leaves us ahead of where we started. Changes in society and in organizations require planning, commitment, and resolve and must be sustained over time.”
Jennifer F. Kelly, PhD, ABPP
2021
“For the first time, APA and American psychology have systematically and intentionally examined our history, we have acknowledged the harm and will address our role in perpetuating racism, allowing us to chart a path forward.”
Rosie Phillips Bingham, PhD, ABPP
2019
“How can we ensure our research is strong, our leadership representative, and our policies fair unless we are training and including more diverse groups of people?...Don’t just invite new people to the table. Ensure that they are heard, feel welcomed, and have the same opportunities as everyone else to achieve success at every level.”
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP
2018
“Psychologists and psychology students need to be in more rooms, at more tables, and at the heads of those tables when decisions affecting the public are formulated and implemented.”
Antonio E. Puente, PhD
2017
“Winds of change and challenge are among us. From this, we must trust each other and rise together, for us and for those we seek to understand and serve.”
Melba J. T. Vasquez, PhD
(First Latine president)
2011
“I am only the first Latina, the fourth person of color, and the 13th woman to serve as APA president in the association’s 120-year history. My hope is that a wide variety of psychologists continue to enter the pipeline of leadership in psychology and in APA.”
Richard M. Suinn, PhD
(First Asian American president)
1999
“It is worthwhile to remember that in APA’s 107-year history, only two ethnic minorities have been elected as association president. I consider myself honored to have been one of them, but I also took to the office the sense of purpose of bringing more diversity to the APA governance and to the pipeline of students that feeds our discipline.”
Logan Wright, PhD
(First Native American president)
1986
“Today’s psychologists possess knowledge which could, if properly applied, impact on domestic problems with atomic force. We now understand the critical nature of early years in the development of character and intellect. We now understand the critical role of modeling and imitation learning for developing such traits and abilities. We thus have the first ingredients…to major social problems.”
Kenneth Clark, PhD
(First African American president)
1966
“I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven’t changed much in the last 2,000 years; and in consequence, we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.”
