[Updated (7/14/2015, 3:10 p.m.) with reactions to the announcement.]
The American Psychological Association announced on Tuesday that three of its longtime senior leaders would leave their posts. Their departures come in the wake of an independent investigation that found that APA officials worked closely with the Department of Defense to ensure that the association’s ethics policy permitted psychologists to participate in the military’s often-brutal interrogation program during the George W. Bush administration.
The association’s chief executive officer, Norman Anderson, will retire at the end of the year. A news release called his tenure “distinguished” and said he had planned to retire at the end of 2016 but moved up his retirement date in order to allow the APA “to take another step in the important process of organizational healing.”
The deputy chief executive, Michael Honaker, will retire in August. The release called him “one of the staff’s most beloved officials.”
The departure of Rhea K. Farberman, APA’s executive director for public and member communications, is being called a resignation rather than a retirement. She worked for 22 years at the association. The APA’s board cited the need to “provide a fresh start to the association’s communications needs.”
The laudatory tone of the announcement struck some critics as off-key. “There should have been no words of praise for Anderson, who presided over a scandal of historic proportions that may destroy the very organization he led,” wrote Nathaniel Raymond in a message to The Chronicle. Mr. Raymond is a former director of the Campaign Against Torture at Physicians for Human Rights and has worked to expose APA collaboration with the government’s torture program.
Another veteran critic of the APA, Stephen Soldz, wrote in an email that the departures were “Not enough. A great start.” He argued that more APA officials were involved and should be forced out.
The departures are part of an effort to give the maligned association a fresh start, said Nadine Kaslow, a board member and part of the special committee responsible for making recommendations in light of the investigation’s revelations. Speaking of the three departing officials, Ms. Kaslow said: “I think they have done wonderful things for APA that I value highly … This is a very, very difficult time. We need to find ways to move forward.”
For more, see this Chronicle article.
