As APA’s 2024 president, I’m most looking forward to working closely with so many of you to further our association’s mission of promoting “the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.”
I’m a governance wonk. I believe that when we embrace our association’s mission, we must also advocate for our own transformation—making sure our work is aligned with the changes we want to see in our society and the world. Throughout the year I’ll focus on ensuring that our governance structures, processes, cultures, and organizing documents reflect the best practices and framework of how a modern membership association can thrive. My top goal is the dynamic advancement of our strategic plan—the direction informed collaboratively by you, our members.
Through my extensive involvement in state and national psychology leadership, I have seen the various ways psychologists can be effective change agents. We can improve the structures, processes, and people we care about by advancing and leveraging our science, training, practice, and advocacy. This year, I’m committed to enhancing our collective impact on promoting population health as a framework in the United States. We must use our psychological science to understand and advocate for population-level interventions, focusing our attention on addressing the root causes of adverse circumstances that prevent us from living our best lives.
Leadership is not a position or a role—it is a practice that we all have a responsibility to undertake. To that end, I ask you to join me in learning the skills of structural competencies, structural humility, and advocacy. They are necessary components of our psychological population health practice.
This is an exciting time for APA, and I am grateful that together we are expanding psychology’s impact to benefit everyone.
