Personalities

• Walden University has named Cynthia G. Baum, PhD, as its new president. Baum most recently served as executive vice president overseeing Walden's five colleges. She will now be responsible for the university's day-to-day management, academic quality, financial performance, accreditation and governance.

• The University of Washington has named Ana Mari Cauce, PhD, as its new provost. Cauce has served as dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences since 2008. Her research focuses on at-risk youth, including homeless youth.

• The University of New Mexico Board of Regents has selected Robert G. Frank, PhD, as the school's 21st president. Frank will take office in June. He has been provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Kent State University since July 2007. At Kent State, Frank increased enrollment by 23 percent. Before his time at Kent State, he was dean of the College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida, where he also served as a professor in the department of clinical and health psychology and helped to establish the public health program.

• The National Eating Disorders Association has given Laura Hill, PhD, its Lori Irving Award for Excellence in Prevention and Awareness of Eating Disorders. Hill was recognized for developing the Center for Balanced Living in Columbus, Ohio, which is a national model for the prevention, treatment and research of eating disorders.

• Georgetown University has named Martin Y. Iguchi, PhD, dean of its School of Nursing and Health Studies. Iguchi is a new member of the District of Columbia Development Center for AIDS Research. He is a member of APA's Board of Scientific Affairs.

• Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology has selected Dan King, EdD, as its new provost. King has been the vice president for academic affairs since 2010. He also serves as the executive director of the American Association of University Administrators and is editor in chief of the Journal of Higher Education Management.

• The National Communication Association awarded Howard University psychology professor Orlando Taylor, PhD, with its Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Service Award. Taylor was recognized for his work in communication, education and initiating the launch of the Howard Journal of Communications, one of the nation's leading journals on intercultural communication. He is now the president of the Washington, D.C., Campus of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Fostering LGBT immigration rights

The immigration process isn't easy for anyone, but it can be particularly thorny for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, who until 1990, weren't allowed into the United States and who still face persecution and discrimination today.  

In an effort to draw attention to such prejudice, APA's Presidential Task Force on Immigration, which is releasing its report this month, includes a section on the social and psychological difficulties that LGBT immigrants face and suggests ways psychologists can help. In addition, APA's Div. 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues) gave its annual Clarity Award to attorney Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, an organization advocating for LGBT immigration rights.

As Tiven knows from her organization's work in the policy arena and with clients, LGBT immigrants can face extraordinary challenges that their heterosexual counterparts do not, says task force member Nadine Nakamura, PhD, of the University of La Verne in California. As one example, American lesbians and gays cannot sponsor their spouse or long-term partner for a green card, even if they've been legally married in one of the several states that allow same-sex marriage. That's because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act forbids the federal government from recognizing any same-sex marriage, including in the immigration context. The result is that these couples—a large number of whom are raising children, according to the U.S. Census—must either separate, obtain green cards through employment or other means, or immigrate to countries that allow both partners to live there. "Our hope is that this report will inform psychologists of the unique stressors that LGBT immigrants experience so that we, as a profession, can better serve the diverse immigrant population," Nakamura says. 

Tiven is working hard to remove these barriers on the legal front—the reason Div. 44 chose to honor her and her organization with its award, says Div. 44 President Mark Pope, PhD, professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. For instance, Immigration Equality is working to pass a bill that would give LGBT permanent partners the same rights and require them to meet the same standards of proof as heterosexual married couples. Her organization also offers a pro bono legal program for LGBT people seeking asylum from persecution in their countries of origin.

Given the release of the task force report and the fact that same-sex marriage is gaining momentum, Div. 44 considered it an ideal time to highlight Tiven's work, Pope notes.  

"There are lots of positive things going on in this whole area," he says, including President Obama's Dec. 6 order directing all overseas U.S. agencies to promote and protect the rights of LGBT people. "We thought the award might provide a little more impetus to the successful conclusion of these issues."

—T. DeAngelis