As an educator and university professor for 30 years, I believe I have an unusual record of mentoring women graduate students.  I am proud of the percentage of all of my students who have gone on to academic careers (~80%)  and who have taken leadership roles in professional psychology.  The majority of these students are women.  To mention a few of my students, I would list: Nadine Kaslow, Emory University, who is very active in APA, APPIC, and elsewhere; Adele Rabin, Director of Clinical Training at the San Diego CSPP; Beth Todd-Bazemore, University of South Dakota and representative to Council (Beth won the Division 12 Blau Early Career award this year in San Francisco); Alice Carter, recently moved from Yale to the University of Massachusetts and active in Division 37; Debbie Huntley, Governor's State University; and Janet Yang, Clinic Director at Fuller Graduate School. I also note that each of these women has developed a unique and independent identity in psychology.  They are not mere extensions of my academic interests. Nearly all of the rest of my students are active in one way or another in professional and scholarly activities.

Much of my research efforts have focused on women's mental health issues. My research has centered on depression and I have developed a structured, cognitive-behavioral group treatment program for depression.  The original set of six outcome studies supported by NIMH were offered to women participants.  Adaptations of my program have been used in a number of settings such as prisons (women's unit as well as men's), middle school adolescents in a prevention program, the elderly, and battered women at the Houston Area Women's Shelter.

In my roles in professional psychology (APA, ASPPB, state and local associations), I have also had a record of bringing women and minority psychologists into active participation. As two examples, Robbie Sharp, current President of Texas Psychological Association is someone who I originally recruited into TPA leadership.  I might also mention an undergraduate research assistant at UCLA for whom I wrote letters of recommendation to graduate school, Alice Chang.

As the demographics of psychology and APA have changed over the last decade or so, it has been clear to me that although the number of women going into the field has greatly increased, these percentages are not reflected in university faculty nor in professional association leadership positions. If elected APA President I would continue my record of inclusion, mentoring, and outreach to help to improve this situation.

Department of Psychology at University of Houston
Comments to: lprehm@uh.edu