Dr. Cynthia de las Fuentes' Vision for APA
Q. How do you envision science being infused in the various new APA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives?
A. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives should rely on the best available science, and the best science should advance DEI. DEI is on every organization’s lips, but what works best to fulfill its vision and promise? DEI initiatives should seek the scientific expertise of our members – not only quantitative research that results in needed data but also qualitative research that could add significant depth to our understanding of DEI, and of society. I am especially excited to explore how our applied psychology colleagues can assist APA’s DEI initiatives by collaborating on the design, implementation, and evaluation of impact studies.
Q. APA’s strategic plan aims to prepare the discipline and profession of psychology for the future. How can APA support psychological practice and practitioners in light of the ongoing broad social impact that the pandemic is having regarding the critical need for accessible mental health services?
A. The biggest systemic-level barrier many people face in obtaining mental health services is access. This means having health insurance and money for co-pays; having transportation and technology that accesses broadband to attend appointments; and securing culturally competent providers who understand the burden and concerns that engaging in therapy brings up for many people. Supporting practitioners and their practices as they address the mental health needs in our communities requires APA to both continue building a robust workforce and advocating for a better mental health infrastructure that includes parity and the integration of mental and physical health services with primary care.
Q. The vision statement of APA’s strategic plan includes a charge to improve the human condition. How will you use the presidency to highlight and promote to the public the outcomes that improve the human condition? Which outcomes seem most useable and relevant?
A. In our search and advocacy for outcomes that improve the human condition, APA must help psychologists better communicate their findings to the public in ways that facilitate desired impact and address the science skepticism that exists in contemporary society. Psychologists have knowledge to offer, whether we are examining the spread of communicable diseases, or migration and human responses to inequity, war, poverty, and climate change. While there are already some mechanisms in place to promote psychology-based outcomes, I will advocate for science-based literacy programs to help society better evaluate and understand science and psychology's role in improving lives.
Q. How will you lead APA in engaging and supporting the public and the profession across the many ethical and systemic societal challenges for which we have expertise to contribute to the dialogue (e.g., racism, COVID-19 mental health issues, etc.)?
A. James Baldwin wrote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We can help society face the fact that our wellness is a social justice and human rights issue. We must advocate for population-level interventions that focus our attention on fighting the root causes of poverty, racism, violence, health disparities, and social inequities. These problems put us at higher risks of preventing us from living our best lives. I will promote models that acknowledge the profound impact that social environments and lived experiences have in shaping our health and mental health.
Q. APA’s strategic plan aims to attract, diversify, develop and support the next generation of psychology. How will you focus on engaging graduate students and ECPs as members of APA and in APA leadership?
A. APA’s future depends upon engaging colleagues-in-training and new professionals as members and governance leaders. The next generation of psychologists is committed to the values and goals of social justice and brings a heightened awareness of structural and cultural barriers that block access and inclusion to participation at all levels of our association. To uphold our APA strategic plan, we must facilitate opportunities that give voice at the entry point of membership, create pathways that leverage technology and social media to enhance engagement at all levels of leadership, build networking and mentorship opportunities, and eliminate financial barriers to access and inclusion.
Q. Embracing a global perspective is one of four of the operating principles of APA’s strategic plan. How do you envision advancing psychology globally through international engagement, association efforts, and meaningful collaborations?
A. Psychology touches every aspect of humanity and the societies and cultures we inhabit. Whether through globalizing science, decreasing barriers to regulatory mobility, or ceasing the trafficking of women and girls, collaborating multinational psychological associations means we can address psychological concerns that affect us all. This perspective makes us less ethnocentric, more culturally humble, and facilitates our being more inclusive and collaborative partners. Key to enacting a global perspective is supporting the APA’s Office of International Affairs and its many initiatives (e.g., U.N. team, Global Psychology Alliance, International Learning Partner Program), Division 52, and international initiatives within Divisions and SPTAs.
Q. What are some areas psychology can improve to address the issues facing today’s world?
A. Because working in silos is inadequate toward solving our 21st century challenges, we must leverage our intersectional strengths that reflect the contemporary realities of our work and lives. For example, the pandemic and global warming didn’t stay within certain national boundaries, just like human migration as a response to war, violence, and poverty doesn’t. Therefore, to strengthen our position, we must encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary and international collaborations that take advantage of research and practice opportunities that can inform and impact real world and global problems. Certainly, we must focus on science funding, science infrastructure, diverse career opportunities for students and ECPs, and reward systems of academia and industry to encourage a more robust workforce. I would also like to see APA to support funding for more interdivisional and SPTA involvement in these areas.
Q. How should APA respond to recent Supreme Court decisions, including the decision implicating Roe v Wade, concerns regarding the future of protected same-sex marriage, guns?
A. APA should be unrelenting in offering the evidence of our extensive psychological science to inform these areas: Loudly, Consistently, and Comprehensively using all the tools at our disposal – from policy, advocacy, and our amicus program, to press releases and podcasts – at the federal, state, and local levels (because we know some district attorneys have the discretion to prosecute violations of certain laws, and some mayors are declaring their jurisdictions are sanctuaries from prosecution).
Q. What are the most significant issues facing the American Psychological Association in the next 3 years?
A. 1) We must continue to support practitioners and their unique workplaces by advocating for a better mental health infrastructure that includes parity (to include hospital oversight and prescription privileges), telehealth, interstate licensing, and the integration of mental and physical health services with primary care, all with the goals of advancing equity and reducing disparities. Integrating mental health into primary care services is a critical, affordable, and cost-effective approach to delivering services for people living with health and mental health conditions.
A2) In February of 2021, Council adopted as official APA policy “Standards for Accreditation for Health Service Psychology: Master’s Programs.” I expect that accreditation of these programs will begin in the next few months. In anticipation, APA needs to be in the room and at the table to provide guidance to legislators as they make decisions that affect our work and workers in psychology. This is too important to leave to other professions and other accrediting bodies. Therefore, we need to work to inform the public (including legislators) on what psychology is and who gets to practice it. We need to update our competencies to reflect all levels of training in Health Service Psychology. We need to clearly define titles and scopes of practice that help us, and the public distinguish between the types of practice and practitioners. And we need a single model licensing act.
A3) To fulfill our promise to the future of psychology and psychologists, we must address student debt load on every front possible by continuing our federal advocacy efforts for more affordable pathways to graduate study and student loan forgiveness options. Student debt loads (and fear of them) are tremendous barriers to our field that have implications for the “supply” of trained scholar-practitioner psychologists, particularly those who deliver health care services since they don’t tend to have the level of “science” grant funding for their studies. If we don’t solve this problem, other professions will continue to fill the “demand” need.
Applied Psychology
A. We must continue our work to expand our own and the public’s views of who a psychologist is and what a psychologist does. I sincerely believe that applied psychologists are one of psychology’s brightest lights and that championing them, and their work, is important to strengthening our profession, broadening the public’s perceptions of the usefulness of psychology, and attracting future psychologists into exciting parts of our discipline whether in Industrial/Organization, Occupational Health, Consulting, Engineering and Human Factors, Sports Psychology, Law and Policing, among others. The contributions applied psychologists make to a wide range of organizations and institutions are critical to us all as their work informs the real-world concerns whether we are talking about marketing messages that encourage people to recycle, to detecting bias in algorithms that inform mortgage loans, to anti-bias training for judges, to informing us on best practices for reducing science skepticism, and even best practices in meeting management, among other things.
Q. Vastly disproportionate numbers of those in the criminal justice system have substance use and mental health issues, and minoritized identities. How can APA and psychologists address those needs within forensic settings generally?
A. Black and Brown communities in the US are still dealing with the consequences of the federal policies that reduced funding to states for mental health and increased funding to the incarceration part of the “war on drugs.” Unfortunately, those same communities will be most impacted by the recent SCOTUS decisions involving Dobbs, the weakening enforcement of Miranda rights, denying detained immigrants access to bond hearings, threatening the legality of DACA, among others. We have the science that can address these situations and more, including the inhumanity of solitary confinement, life sentences for juveniles, and our unairconditioned prison buildings that are causing life-threatening health consequences for the people who live in them. I love APA’s amicus brief program and it is needed now more than ever.
Behavioral health issues remain highly stigmatized, which means they are often hidden until there is a crisis. Court involvement is frequently the point of entry to identifying needs and connecting individuals with care. That opportunity must be capitalized upon, and APA and our psychology-law colleagues have a role in working with mental health courts and mental health public defenders and private court-appointed attorneys by advocating for our science whether on identifying mitigating circumstances that can impact adjudication decisions or recommending evidence-based and trauma-informed treatments and other diversion programs for mental illnesses and substance use disorders in reducing recidivism and homelessness and improving reentry outcomes. Certainly need more mental health and substance abuse treatment programming within the prison systems.
Furthermore, we can advance justice and mental health collaborations by employing our science-based strategies that improve the outcomes of encounters between law enforcement and BIPOC and law enforcement and people who have mental health conditions. We can offer antibias education and training to courts with the goal of advancing non-racist decision-making in adjudication.
Q. What do you perceive as being the issues of greatest concern to SPTAs, as organizations or SPTA members, and how would you address as APA President?
A. The information I’ve collected from meetings with SPTA governance leaders prioritized (a) advocacy as a predominant priority; (b) many SPTAs are struggling financially and need help with funding and membership; and (c) most of them only feel connected to APA via Practice Leadership Conference and representation on Council and are longing for a stronger alliance.
I believe if we're going to advance APA's strategic priorities and have a successful impact where we're leveraging what psychology and psychologists have to offer our communities, then there's no greater importance right now than APA and the SPTAs working together. It is critical that the relationship between the national organization and the state organizations is strengthened, because so much of the work that we need to do requires both a national perspective and resources and the local expertise and knowledge for us to be effective. Areas for growth may be in enhancing the Director of Professional Affairs network and the relationship between APA and the Executive Directors and the Council of State Leaders. Furthermore, APA may be able to help bring more academic/science/applied psychologists into the SPTA membership rolls by sponsoring speakers (as they do for regional conferences).
I plan to work closely with SPTAs to organically develop initiatives that meet the needs of all our members, including those in SPTAs. Via our collaboration, together we can assure the strengthening of our APA-SPTA alliance and work toward mutual goals that consist of financially stabilizing SPTAs, increasing membership, and enhancing engagement at all levels from local to national.
A. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives should rely on the best available science, and the best science should advance DEI. DEI is on every organization’s lips, but what works best to fulfill its vision and promise? DEI initiatives should seek the scientific expertise of our members – not only quantitative research that results in needed data but also qualitative research that could add significant depth to our understanding of DEI, and of society. I am especially excited to explore how our applied psychology colleagues can assist APA’s DEI initiatives by collaborating on the design, implementation, and evaluation of impact studies.
Q. APA’s strategic plan aims to prepare the discipline and profession of psychology for the future. How can APA support psychological practice and practitioners in light of the ongoing broad social impact that the pandemic is having regarding the critical need for accessible mental health services?
A. The biggest systemic-level barrier many people face in obtaining mental health services is access. This means having health insurance and money for co-pays; having transportation and technology that accesses broadband to attend appointments; and securing culturally competent providers who understand the burden and concerns that engaging in therapy brings up for many people. Supporting practitioners and their practices as they address the mental health needs in our communities requires APA to both continue building a robust workforce and advocating for a better mental health infrastructure that includes parity and the integration of mental and physical health services with primary care.
Q. The vision statement of APA’s strategic plan includes a charge to improve the human condition. How will you use the presidency to highlight and promote to the public the outcomes that improve the human condition? Which outcomes seem most useable and relevant?
A. In our search and advocacy for outcomes that improve the human condition, APA must help psychologists better communicate their findings to the public in ways that facilitate desired impact and address the science skepticism that exists in contemporary society. Psychologists have knowledge to offer, whether we are examining the spread of communicable diseases, or migration and human responses to inequity, war, poverty, and climate change. While there are already some mechanisms in place to promote psychology-based outcomes, I will advocate for science-based literacy programs to help society better evaluate and understand science and psychology's role in improving lives.
Q. How will you lead APA in engaging and supporting the public and the profession across the many ethical and systemic societal challenges for which we have expertise to contribute to the dialogue (e.g., racism, COVID-19 mental health issues, etc.)?
A. James Baldwin wrote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We can help society face the fact that our wellness is a social justice and human rights issue. We must advocate for population-level interventions that focus our attention on fighting the root causes of poverty, racism, violence, health disparities, and social inequities. These problems put us at higher risks of preventing us from living our best lives. I will promote models that acknowledge the profound impact that social environments and lived experiences have in shaping our health and mental health.
Q. APA’s strategic plan aims to attract, diversify, develop and support the next generation of psychology. How will you focus on engaging graduate students and ECPs as members of APA and in APA leadership?
A. APA’s future depends upon engaging colleagues-in-training and new professionals as members and governance leaders. The next generation of psychologists is committed to the values and goals of social justice and brings a heightened awareness of structural and cultural barriers that block access and inclusion to participation at all levels of our association. To uphold our APA strategic plan, we must facilitate opportunities that give voice at the entry point of membership, create pathways that leverage technology and social media to enhance engagement at all levels of leadership, build networking and mentorship opportunities, and eliminate financial barriers to access and inclusion.
Q. Embracing a global perspective is one of four of the operating principles of APA’s strategic plan. How do you envision advancing psychology globally through international engagement, association efforts, and meaningful collaborations?
A. Psychology touches every aspect of humanity and the societies and cultures we inhabit. Whether through globalizing science, decreasing barriers to regulatory mobility, or ceasing the trafficking of women and girls, collaborating multinational psychological associations means we can address psychological concerns that affect us all. This perspective makes us less ethnocentric, more culturally humble, and facilitates our being more inclusive and collaborative partners. Key to enacting a global perspective is supporting the APA’s Office of International Affairs and its many initiatives (e.g., U.N. team, Global Psychology Alliance, International Learning Partner Program), Division 52, and international initiatives within Divisions and SPTAs.
Q. What are some areas psychology can improve to address the issues facing today’s world?
A. Because working in silos is inadequate toward solving our 21st century challenges, we must leverage our intersectional strengths that reflect the contemporary realities of our work and lives. For example, the pandemic and global warming didn’t stay within certain national boundaries, just like human migration as a response to war, violence, and poverty doesn’t. Therefore, to strengthen our position, we must encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary and international collaborations that take advantage of research and practice opportunities that can inform and impact real world and global problems. Certainly, we must focus on science funding, science infrastructure, diverse career opportunities for students and ECPs, and reward systems of academia and industry to encourage a more robust workforce. I would also like to see APA to support funding for more interdivisional and SPTA involvement in these areas.
Q. How should APA respond to recent Supreme Court decisions, including the decision implicating Roe v Wade, concerns regarding the future of protected same-sex marriage, guns?
A. APA should be unrelenting in offering the evidence of our extensive psychological science to inform these areas: Loudly, Consistently, and Comprehensively using all the tools at our disposal – from policy, advocacy, and our amicus program, to press releases and podcasts – at the federal, state, and local levels (because we know some district attorneys have the discretion to prosecute violations of certain laws, and some mayors are declaring their jurisdictions are sanctuaries from prosecution).
Q. What are the most significant issues facing the American Psychological Association in the next 3 years?
A. 1) We must continue to support practitioners and their unique workplaces by advocating for a better mental health infrastructure that includes parity (to include hospital oversight and prescription privileges), telehealth, interstate licensing, and the integration of mental and physical health services with primary care, all with the goals of advancing equity and reducing disparities. Integrating mental health into primary care services is a critical, affordable, and cost-effective approach to delivering services for people living with health and mental health conditions.
A2) In February of 2021, Council adopted as official APA policy “Standards for Accreditation for Health Service Psychology: Master’s Programs.” I expect that accreditation of these programs will begin in the next few months. In anticipation, APA needs to be in the room and at the table to provide guidance to legislators as they make decisions that affect our work and workers in psychology. This is too important to leave to other professions and other accrediting bodies. Therefore, we need to work to inform the public (including legislators) on what psychology is and who gets to practice it. We need to update our competencies to reflect all levels of training in Health Service Psychology. We need to clearly define titles and scopes of practice that help us, and the public distinguish between the types of practice and practitioners. And we need a single model licensing act.
A3) To fulfill our promise to the future of psychology and psychologists, we must address student debt load on every front possible by continuing our federal advocacy efforts for more affordable pathways to graduate study and student loan forgiveness options. Student debt loads (and fear of them) are tremendous barriers to our field that have implications for the “supply” of trained scholar-practitioner psychologists, particularly those who deliver health care services since they don’t tend to have the level of “science” grant funding for their studies. If we don’t solve this problem, other professions will continue to fill the “demand” need.
Applied Psychology
A. We must continue our work to expand our own and the public’s views of who a psychologist is and what a psychologist does. I sincerely believe that applied psychologists are one of psychology’s brightest lights and that championing them, and their work, is important to strengthening our profession, broadening the public’s perceptions of the usefulness of psychology, and attracting future psychologists into exciting parts of our discipline whether in Industrial/Organization, Occupational Health, Consulting, Engineering and Human Factors, Sports Psychology, Law and Policing, among others. The contributions applied psychologists make to a wide range of organizations and institutions are critical to us all as their work informs the real-world concerns whether we are talking about marketing messages that encourage people to recycle, to detecting bias in algorithms that inform mortgage loans, to anti-bias training for judges, to informing us on best practices for reducing science skepticism, and even best practices in meeting management, among other things.
Q. Vastly disproportionate numbers of those in the criminal justice system have substance use and mental health issues, and minoritized identities. How can APA and psychologists address those needs within forensic settings generally?
A. Black and Brown communities in the US are still dealing with the consequences of the federal policies that reduced funding to states for mental health and increased funding to the incarceration part of the “war on drugs.” Unfortunately, those same communities will be most impacted by the recent SCOTUS decisions involving Dobbs, the weakening enforcement of Miranda rights, denying detained immigrants access to bond hearings, threatening the legality of DACA, among others. We have the science that can address these situations and more, including the inhumanity of solitary confinement, life sentences for juveniles, and our unairconditioned prison buildings that are causing life-threatening health consequences for the people who live in them. I love APA’s amicus brief program and it is needed now more than ever.
Behavioral health issues remain highly stigmatized, which means they are often hidden until there is a crisis. Court involvement is frequently the point of entry to identifying needs and connecting individuals with care. That opportunity must be capitalized upon, and APA and our psychology-law colleagues have a role in working with mental health courts and mental health public defenders and private court-appointed attorneys by advocating for our science whether on identifying mitigating circumstances that can impact adjudication decisions or recommending evidence-based and trauma-informed treatments and other diversion programs for mental illnesses and substance use disorders in reducing recidivism and homelessness and improving reentry outcomes. Certainly need more mental health and substance abuse treatment programming within the prison systems.
Furthermore, we can advance justice and mental health collaborations by employing our science-based strategies that improve the outcomes of encounters between law enforcement and BIPOC and law enforcement and people who have mental health conditions. We can offer antibias education and training to courts with the goal of advancing non-racist decision-making in adjudication.
Q. What do you perceive as being the issues of greatest concern to SPTAs, as organizations or SPTA members, and how would you address as APA President?
A. The information I’ve collected from meetings with SPTA governance leaders prioritized (a) advocacy as a predominant priority; (b) many SPTAs are struggling financially and need help with funding and membership; and (c) most of them only feel connected to APA via Practice Leadership Conference and representation on Council and are longing for a stronger alliance.
I believe if we're going to advance APA's strategic priorities and have a successful impact where we're leveraging what psychology and psychologists have to offer our communities, then there's no greater importance right now than APA and the SPTAs working together. It is critical that the relationship between the national organization and the state organizations is strengthened, because so much of the work that we need to do requires both a national perspective and resources and the local expertise and knowledge for us to be effective. Areas for growth may be in enhancing the Director of Professional Affairs network and the relationship between APA and the Executive Directors and the Council of State Leaders. Furthermore, APA may be able to help bring more academic/science/applied psychologists into the SPTA membership rolls by sponsoring speakers (as they do for regional conferences).
I plan to work closely with SPTAs to organically develop initiatives that meet the needs of all our members, including those in SPTAs. Via our collaboration, together we can assure the strengthening of our APA-SPTA alliance and work toward mutual goals that consist of financially stabilizing SPTAs, increasing membership, and enhancing engagement at all levels from local to national.