Professor to Take Leadership Posts with National Organization

The director of Radford University's Doctor of Psychology in Counseling Psychology program has been appointed to a three-year term on a committee of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Professor James Werth is one of two appointees to the Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology for the national scientific and professional organization, which promotes the psychological welfare of people with disabilities and the awareness of disability issues in psychological research as well as specific research activity in disability areas.

A board-certified counseling psychologist, Werth recently completed a three-year term on the APA’s Committee on Rural Health.

Werth also is president-elect of the Section for Clinical Emergencies and Crises of the Society of Clinical Psychology, a division of the APA that provides a forum for the development and exchange of scientific information and research about clinical emergencies and the underlying psychological contexts from which emergencies develop. Werth will become president in 2013.

Werth has led numerous workshops, including an online version related to ethics that has been APA’s most downloaded workshop the past several reporting periods.

The professor said he will focus his presidency on responding to rural suicides; getting “back to the basics” regarding clinicians’ responsibilities in dangerous situations; and developing a resource guide for how to incorporate training about clinical emergencies and crises into existing graduate psychology courses.