Kalyani Gopal PhD, HSPP for APA President-Elect
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Founder/President, SAFE Coalition for Human Rights (safechr.org)

President, Mid-America Psychological and Counseling Services, PC 

President, Psychology Coalition at the United Nations (psychologycoalitionun.org). 

Past-President, Society of Clinical Psychology, American Psychological Association (APA).

Past President, Illinois Psychological Association

 2025 Council of Representatives, Division 56

2024 Board of Directors,  Division 12

2025, EC,  Healthcare / Health Science Caucus

2025 MAL, Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Caucus

2024-2026 APA Membership Board, International Affairs Representative


Endorsements: 

Divisions 12 -IV, 55, Women's Caucus


See Testimonials below:

Division Presidents, Past-Presidents, President-Elects from:


Divisions 1, 12,  35, 42, 46, 52, 55,  


Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies - ABCT




ABOUT

About Dr Gopal

Dr. Kalyani Gopal is a seasoned clinical psychologist with 35 years of experience leading a thriving multi-clinic practice and conducting multicultural research on Adverse Childhood Experiences. Her impactful work spans the globe, advocating for refugees, climate justice, reproductive rights, adoptees, gender diversity, and survivors of gender-based violence, teaching graduate students, while managing a shelter for women affected by sexual assault and trafficking. With a distinguished governance leadership background, including SPTA/APA presidencies at state, national, and global levels, she brings a wealth of insight, compassion, and skill-sets to her roles. 

Mother and Daughter - Psychologists

As a mother of a licensed clinical psychologist and Harvard faculty member Dr Shifali Singh, Dr. Gopal has a profound understanding of the unique challenges faced by graduate students and early career professionals, making her a powerful ally and mentor in their journey. 

About Dr. Gopal

Dr. Gopal is an award-winning keynote, and international speaker and trainer on foster care and adoption, human trafficking, child sexual abuse, Autism Spectrum and neurodevelopmental disorders, and psychopathology. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Alliant University, San Diego and began her doctorate degree in Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. Dr Gopal has trained foster parents, adoptive parents, administrators, judges, Secret Service, FBI, police officers, firefighters, Sheriffs, attorneys, case managers, nonprofits, and governments on issues related to infants, children, adolescents, and adults.  She has coined the term "Displacement Trauma" to describe the complex trauma caused by frequent disruptions of childhood attachment bonds. She is the bestselling author of "The Supportive Foster Parent", "Foster Parenting Step-by-Step", the grief and loss workbook "In My Heart" and workbook on child sexual abuse and co-editor of a Springer publication, “Sex Trafficking: Feminist and Transnational Perspectives.” She is currently contracted to write a book on the “Clinical Psychology of Human Trafficking” by Springer Press. Dr Gopal has developed an internationally accredited human trafficking training curriculum for professionals and advocates, a training manual for clinicians in Mongolia, identification tool for the Ukraine and Myanmar, and worked with rape and war victims. She serves on the boards of the Indiana Lake County Child Protection Team and Indiana Lake County Child Fatality Team, was the Chair for the Illinois Psychological Association’s Working Committee on Hate and Harassment, served as its 

Presidential Experience Section

President Section IV, Division 12, APA (2012-2014), Section Rep, and is now Past-President of the Division (Society for Clinical Psychology) for APA. She is the President of Mid-America Psychological and Counseling Services, PC and assists in managing six mental health clinics in Indiana.

 Dr Gopal chairs the SAFE Conferences and has hosted SAFE 2014 in Chicago, SAFE 2016 in DC/VA, SAFE 2018 and SAFE 2019 in Chicago, and will be hosting SAFE 2026 in India. The SAFE conferences bring together organizations from around the globe working ceaselessly to form collaborative national and international coalitions from rescue to rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking and violations of human rights.

Trailblazer Award

Awards: In recognition of her work, 


*Dr Gopal was awarded the Indiana Lake County Award for Excellence in 2004


*Indiana Attorney General’s Voices for Victims Award in 2015, 


*Top 20 Global  Women of Excellence United States Congressional Medal of Honor in 2019.


*In 2023, Dr Thema Bryant presented her with  the American Psychological Association Presidential Citation Award for Human Rights and Global Leadership and promoting Health Equity. 


*In 2024, Dr Gopal received the Indiana Commission for Women’s Trailblazer Award.


* In 2025, Dr Gopal was awarded the GENDER RIGHTS CHAMPION AWARD by the AFRICAN  CONSORTIUM  at the UN.

Dr Gopal began her Presidency of the Psychology Coalition at the United Nations (PCUN) as their first Asian American President in August 2024. She also began her tenure on the Council of Representatives for the American Psychological Association Division 56-  Trauma in January 2025. Dr Gopal is committed to the welfare of children and abused persons, advancing the public’s awareness of mental illness, removing stigma, and promoting mental health awareness and cutting-edge treatments around the globe. In her spare time, she loves to read, write, garden, travel, spend time with her adult children and her dogs, and develop outreach programs that benefit the mental health community and victims of crimes.

ENDORSEMENTS: DIVISIONS

THANK YOU!

ENDORSEMENTS Division 55: Society for Prescribing Psychologi

THANK YOU!

TESTIMONIALS: PRESIDENTS, PAST-PRESIDENTS, PRESIDENT-ELEcts

TESTIMONIALS

Dr. Kalyani Gopal is the perfect person to lead APA through these troubled and turbulent times and I am delighted to support her. Dr Gopal’s leadership, both within Psychology and outside the field is characterized by compassion, integrity, and perseverance, always with an eye towards bridging diverse perspectives and seeking healthy resolutions. A fierce advocate for our field, Dr. Gopal is the perfect candidate to unite the many facets of Psychology as APA President. 

J. Gayle Beck, PhD

Past President, Div 12

Past member, Board of Scientific Affairs (APA)

Trustee, American Psychological Foundation

Past President, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

TESTIMONIALS

I am writing to endorse Kalyani Gopal, PhD, HSPP, for APA President. 

I met Dr. Gopal through Section IV of Division 12 – the section focused on the Clinical Psychology of Women. I was impressed by her enthusiasm for the organization and for all aspects of her work as a psychologist. She was welcoming, energetic, well-informed, creative, and had a vision for clinical psychology. She soon became President of that section and later President of Division 12. That was but a small sample of what she accomplished. 

Dr. Gopal is a talented multitasker who engages whole-heartedly in the full range of scholarly, leadership, pedagogical, and practitioner endeavors within psychology. She simultaneously trained and mentored BIPOC, immigrant, and multilingual students and clinicians from around the world while creating and leading a therapeutic residential shelter for women and children escaping sex trafficking and sexual violence. The shelter supports resilience and survivor-led healing through culturally responsive care. Dr. Gopal has also trained peer-survivors to become trauma coaches and helped them reclaim their lives. As a scholar, Dr. Gopal authored a book and chapter about enculturation within the United States. Finally, she advocated for inclusive, anti-racist policies at the UN, where she served as President of the Psychology Coalition (PCUN).

I am not the only one impressed with Dr. Gopal. Dr. Gopal was presented with an APA Presidential Citation in 2023 for her lifelong commitment to promoting human rights as a psychologist, global leader, and advocate to empower survivors of human trafficking and promote health equity.

All of this is evidence that Dr. Gopal would make a talented, impactful, successful APA President. She has a knack for welcoming and engaging others, pulling together people from a wide range of local through global constituencies and motivating them to take on challenges. She has the organizational, interpersonal, clinical, and scholarly background to make her an effective APA President as well as the energy, network, consensus building, and motivational skills to set APA on a dynamic, forward-thinking trajectory. 

Lynn H. Collins, Ph.D.

Professor, Psychology Department

La Salle University

Philadelphia, PA 19141

APA Fellow (12, 35, & 52)

President-Elect, Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) 

Former President of APA Divisions 35 (Women) and 52 (International Psychology)

Recipient of APA Division 35 Heritage Award & AWP Christine Ladd-Franklin Award

TESTIMONIALS

In times like these, APA needs steadfast leadership rooted in integrity, passion, common sense, kindness, and inclusion. For that reason, I am pleased to offer my endorsement for APA president-elect to Dr. Kalyani Gopal. She has a significant amount of experience in leadership, as well as in the field of psychology in general. Dr. Gopal embodies and practices the aforementioned qualities and is well-poised to lead APA into the future.  

Derek Phillips, PsyD, MSCP, ABMP

Past President, APA Division 55

Past President, Illinois Psychological Association

Past Chair, APA Board of Convention Affairs

Trustee, American Psychological Foundation

Secretary, APA Division 42 

TESTIMONIALS

From my years of leadership in APA I have seen that, especially during these challenging times, it requires a person combining exceptional talent, energy, and grace to be an effective President of our APA. Happily, Kalyani Gopal is just such a person, in at least 3 ways. (1) Her 35 years of experience in psychology cover all five areas of psychology today. She is a prolific SCIENTIST who has published her research on diverse social issues, a respected THERAPIST delivering direct service to a wide variety of clients, a gifted EDUCATOR who has taught psychology to students at many levels (college, graduate, medical), a skilled CONSULTANT who has worked with government and NGOs in the USA and globally, and a passionate ADVOCATE for migrants and abused women and men.  (2) Kalyani has shown effective leadership as the head of many groups, now including our Psychology Coalition at the United Nations (PCUN). (3) Not least of all Kalyani is a gracious colleague with a heart for others, ready to apply her talents to advance psychology in the USA and globally.

--Harold Takooshian, 

Past-President, APA Divisions of International Psychology and General Psychology, and Psi Chi, the International Honor Society for Psychology. 

TESTIMONIALS

I support Dr Kalyani Gopal, a seasoned clinician and activist in the field of human rights and human trafficking. She’s an inspirational leader, a scholar and a practitioner with a global vision, which APA needs in these critical times. 

Dr Dinesh Sharma, Director & Chief Research Officer | Psychology, Human Development, Princeton, NJ

TESTIMONIALS

Dr Kalyani Gopal is a compassionate, intelligent, intuitive and service minded leader. Dr. Gopal leads with vision, collaboration and consensus. A strong and principled person, whose genuine warmth brings individuals together to do important things, it has my pleasure to collaborate with Dr. Gopal over the past ten years. Her commitment to supporting practitioner’s professional development in the health care industry, is essential for this challenging time in our profession. 


Jane D Conron, PhD and Associates. Senior Practitioner and Clinical Educator 

TESTIMONIALS

TESTIMONIAL ENDORSEMENT

Dr. Kalyani Gopal has my strong support for APA President. She brings extensive experience as both clinician and activist, as well as a scholar and an educator. Her work with immigrants, refugees, gender-based violence (GBV), adverse childhood experiences (ACES), trauma and resilience is much needed in today’s world. 

Dr. Gopal brings both needed local and global perspectives to APA; this fact is evidenced by her service as both President of the Illinois Psychological Association and President of the Psychology Coalition of the United Nations (PCUN). Her organizational and leadership abilities are also evident in her service as President of APA’s Clinical division. Furthermore, having worked with her, I personally attest to her integrity, excellence, and collegial interpersonal warmth.

A tireless advocate for human rights, and a psychologist who bridges and unites diverse cultures, issues and perspectives, and both research and practice communities in APA, she is ideal to lead our organization.

Grant J. Rich, PhD

Past-President, Society for Media Psychology & Technology (APA Division 46)

Recipient, 2023 Frances Mullen Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Psychology (ICP: International Council of Psychologists)

Fellow of APA and of APS

www.safechr.org
https://abetterwayhome.org/


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