Candidate Statement

The Very Best the Profession Has to Offer

Melba Vasquez is truly a dynamic and gifted psychologist, who possesses a vision of psychology and our profession needed to lead the American Psychological Association in this critical time. She is a competent and effective leader, who understands organizational dynamics, possesses the interpersonal skills to work across constituent groups, works in a respectful manner with everyone, and is outstanding in the ability to build coalitions. She believes in enhancing the role of psychology to better the life circumstance of others, and to help develop social policies that provide equal access and opportunities for all. She is a scholar, scientist, educator and practitioner who understands the importance of balancing and integrating all dimensions of psychology into a unified whole.
I know of no more qualified candidate to lead the American Psychological Association. To elect Melba Vasquez would be to make history by electing the first Woman of Color to the presidency. More importantly, however, electing Melba Vasquez is to elect the very best our profession has to offer.

Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D.
Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University
Co-Founder and First President of the Asian American Psychological Association
Past President, Division 45
Past President, Division 17
Co-Founder, The National Multicultural Conference and Summit

APA’s Mission is to “advance the creation, communication, and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives.”

APA strives to meet the needs of a wide variety of psychologists, of promoting the profession of psychology, and of providing service to the public. The volunteers who engage in leadership in APA and the staff members of APA continually work to improve the operating practices and strategies of meeting these goals. The role of APA President provides a focused, important and significant opportunity to contribute to the building of a greater organization. I am committed to continuing my long-standing role as a collaborative and effective leader who listens to her colleagues, and who continuously learns in order to assess the changing needs of psychologists and of society. As has been demonstrated by my over 30 years of experience in various roles of leadership within APA, state and related organizations, I have a proven record of successfully working with a number of different constituents (please see my vita for more on this).

Challenges and Opportunities

APA and the profession of psychology face a number of significant challenges including economic challenges, challenges to our values and identities, and the challenges that result from global and demographic changes in society. One of my personal strengths is to look for the opportunities for creative action during these times. My strength as a leader is my capacity to guide us through these challenges.

Economic
While APA is in relatively good shape financially, a significant number of important projects over the years have resulted in deficit spending, which the leadership and staff of APA are working hard to curb. In addition, the economic crisis of the country has affected APA just as it has affected almost all of us individually. We are facing this crisis by applying our culture of discipline in making careful decisions while supporting the responsibilities to which APA is committed. As a member of the APA Board of Directors I am already taking leadership to respond to these challenges, and as your President, I will continue to work hard to maintain a healthy balance in that process between fiscal caution and enactment of our organizational values and commitments. I will continue to take leadership to assist APA to ensure strong and diversified sources of revenue so that we can continue our work without raising member dues.

Virtually all psychologists, including researchers, practitioners, educators, and consultants, have been inundated with economic pressures in their ability to make a living. With a new administration in government, we have opportunities to once again make psychology a priority for research granting agencies, to showcase the centrality of mental health parity in whatever national health program is adopted, to emphasize the importance of psychology training grants, and to work for funding and debt reduction programs to help reduce student and early career psychologists' financial burdens. As President of APA, I will continue my track record of leadership through these challenges.

Promoting our Values and Identity & Increasing Communication about Psychological Knowledge
Psychological research impacts every facet of life, and I would support enhancement of and creation of mechanisms to communicate our research more effectively to the public. Often psychological science carries important information about the nature of, and possible solutions to, society's problems, such as prejudice reduction, increase in quality education, and addressing health disparities. In addition, researchers and practitioners need to start talking to each other more, so that the critical questions, variables and methodologies used are the most salient and meaningful, and so that important research findings are more easily available to practitioners. When I am President I'll work to create new opportunities for that to happen.

Intellectual Prowess

I strongly support Dr. Melba Vasquez's candidacy for APA President-elect. She has the intellectual prowess, vision, leadership experience and interpersonal skills to move the organization forward.

Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP Past Member, APA Board of Directors Past President, Division 35 Past Chair, Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists

Global and Demographic Changes
Psychology is increasingly becoming a global discipline. As such, we must explore what that means for American psychology. As APA President, I will lead us in our response to this challenge, by making APA part of the change. I will focus our efforts to increase communication and collaboration with international psychologists, develop student and professional exchange programs, and continue our response during times of disaster.

Society is undergoing significant demographic changes. I have a long-standing record of leading psychology's response to this challenge. As APA President, I will continue our organizational processes to increase the number of students of color in the pipeline to becoming psychologists so that we cease to lose so many of our talented racial/ethnic minority students to business, medicine or law.

Diversity for APA is not simply a code word; and as APA President, I can work to ensure that psychology is poised to respond effectively to the realities of the changing demographics of our societies and our profession as we welcome more women, people of color, persons who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, persons with disabilities, and people who are younger or older into leadership positions.

I have passion, energy, and commitment to promote these goals as well as the ongoing great work of this association. My record of service and my proven abilities to respond and to lead through the challenges of the last three decades of change suit me well to become APA President. Our security and our ability to thrive require a visionary leader who knows how to respond to changes. I will be that kind of leader. That’s the kind of leadership I will give you.

Please vote for me as your #1 candiate for APA President!