Abstract
Academic psychologists’ backgrounds may prepare them for many aspects of academic administration such as: understanding and working with people; prioritizing others’ needs and institutional needs; and managing projects and budgets, e.g., for research grants or training programs. Contemporary academic health centers also may provide opportunities for psychologists to serve in academic health administration. This article encourages psychologists to consider preparing for and seeking administrative and higher-level leadership roles. Six psychologists serving diverse administrative roles—from vice chairs in medical school departments to presidents of universities with academic health centers—reflected on: their paths to administration; their preparation for administrative roles; and the commonalities and differences between the work and skills sets of psychologist health service providers and the work and skill sets required for higher level administrative and leadership roles.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are gratefully indebted to the psychologists who contributed their time, wisdom, and reflections on their administrative experiences for this article: Ronald T. Brown, Edward J. Callahan, Ana Mari Cauce, Robert G. Frank, Susan L. Rosenthal, and Patrick O. Smith. We also acknowledge the thoughtful ideas and comments of seven anonymous reviewers that were incorporated throughout this article.
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Authors Karen B. Schmaling and John C. Linton declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation, the Washington State University Institutional Review Board (IRB), and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000, as well as other relevant codes of ethical professional conduct. The IRB determined that this work had “exempt” status and did not require additional IRB oversight. The contributors who were interviewed were informed that selected quotations would be excerpted from their written responses (and, in one case, from their oral responses) and then printed verbatim in final report. They were further informed that the identity of the contributor of every excerpted quoted statement would be attributed clearly and directly to the contributor who provided that statement. Additionally, all participants were provided with advance copies of the report for their review with the option that any statement attributed to them that they considered either incorrect or confidential, or that they wished to change for any other reason, would be revised or deleted in accordance with their wishes. No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.
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Schmaling, K.B., Linton, J.C. Psychologists in Academic Administration: A Call to Action and Service. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 24, 110–117 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9495-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9495-x