Psychology Alum Appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer for American Psychological Association

Cynthia Belar

Cynthia D. Belar ’74 Ph.D., ABPP, became interim chief executive officer on Jan. 1, 2016, succeeding Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D., who retired. She will serve in that position until a permanent CEO is named.

Belar had retired from APA in 2014 after spending 14 years as executive director for education. In that post, she launched APA’s Education Leadership Conference, established the Graduate Psychology Education program, facilitated the development guidelines for teaching high school psychology and principles for undergraduate psychology education, worked to address the internship imbalance, and initiated the articulation of competencies for health service providers in psychology among other accomplishments.

Belar is professor emerita in the department of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida Health Science Center where she developed academic and clinical tracks in medical psychology at the doctoral, internship and postdoctoral levels. Her research has been in the areas of psychosocial aspects of illness, applied psychophysiology and reproductive endocrinology. From 1984-90 she served as chief psychologist and clinical director of behavioral medicine for the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Los Angeles, where she developed a number of integrated health programs for both primary and specialty care.

Belar has chaired three national conferences on educ

ation and training in psychology on topics such as the internship, postdoctoral training and the scientist-practitioner model. She has chaired the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers, the Council of Chairs of Training Councils and the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology. She served as president of the APA Division of Health Psychology and the American Board of Clinical Health Psychology. She received the 1996 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology and the first Timothy B. Jeffrey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Health Psychology. In 2005, she received the Alfred M. Wellner Memorial Award. She has published extensively on psychology’s role in health care, including a handbook for scientifically based clinical practice used in many doctoral programs.

Belar received her PhD in psychology from Ohio University in 1974 after an internship at Duke University Medical Center.