Monitor on Psychology - January 2012 - (Page 24)

Standing up for psychology Suzanne Bennett Johnson has built a career out of demonstrating psychology’s value to medical and scientific communities. As APA’s 2012 president, she is taking that message to the masses. By S A d i E F. d i ng FE ld Er • Monitor staff uzanne Bennett Johnson, PhD, had been on the faculty of the University of Florida’s medical school for less than a year when she found herself in trouble with the chief of pediatric endocrinology. He called Johnson to his office to ask why she, a psychologist, thought she should be the principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health grant she had written to study pediatric diabetes management. The physician disagreed, arguing that he had the medical bona fides it would take to get the grant funded. Johnson, however, insisted she be treated as an equal by her physician colleagues. “I didn’t want to be relegated to being this guy’s grant writer for the rest of my professional career,” she says. “The stakes were high.” For Johnson, that was just the start of a 30-year career contributing psychological expertise to medical research and practice. She’s been a principal investigator on 15 NIH grants, conducting groundbreaking studies on diabetes management, childhood obesity, family therapy, genetic testing and more. In doing so, she’s improved the lives of countless children who 24 S struggled to control chronic illness while helping pioneer the field of health psychology, says Larry C. Deeb, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist in Tallahassee, Fla., and former president of the American Diabetes Association. “Psychologists have become welcome additions to diabetes teams, partly because of Suzanne and a handful of other leading psychologists,” Deeb says. “She is held in such high regard in the medical community. She was the first distinguished professor elected at Florida State’s medical school, and she’s not even a physician.” As APA’s 2012 president, Johnson will take her message, that psychology has much to contribute to the larger medical and research community, to a national stage. “I have learned from experience that when psychologists join health-care and medical research teams, their contributions become obvious very quickly ... and the quality of care you can deliver is so much better,” she says. Her presidential-year aims — maximizing APA’s organizational effectiveness, expanding psychology’s role in M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y • J a n u a ry 2 0 1 2

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - January 2012

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
Contents
From the CEO
Apa’s Statement on the Dsm-5 Development Process
Girl Scouts Badge Promotes Positive Psychology
Early Investments Pay Off for Poor Children, Study Finds
Apa Meets With Chinese Psychological Society to Further Interaction and Exchange
Unique Opportunity for Psychologists to Travel to Cuba
In Brief
Government Relations Update
On Your Behalf
Psychology’s Growing Library of Podcasts
Standing Up for Psychology
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Questionnaire
Science Watch
Beyond Psychotherapy
Perspective on Practice
Yes, Recovery Is Possible
Inequity to Equity
Making E-Learning Work
New Standards for High School Psychology
A Trailblazer Moves On
Psychologist Profile
Plan Now for Psychology’s Regional Meetings
New Journal Editors
Apa News
Division Spotlight
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - January 2012

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