Executive Committee

The Div. 19 executive committee consists of the president, president-elect, past-president, secretary, treasurer, members-at-large and representative to APA council.

President: Ann Landes

Ann Landes, PhD, is a primary care psychologist and the health behavior coordinator at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla. She earned her doctoral degree in counseling psychology at Georgia State University and received her clinical training at the Audie L. Murphy VA in San Antonio, Tex. 

Landes is actively engaged in program development and the provision of individual, couples and group interventions for veterans and their spouses, for issues such as post-deployment reintegration, posttraumatic stress and behavioral health promotion. She also provides services in health behavior coaching, interdisciplinary team building, staff development and program evaluation. 

Her clinical and research interests include couples and family resilience, post-deployment reintegration, posttraumatic stress disorder, primary care behavioral health and positive psychology. Landes continues to present at major conferences on topics related to military personnel, veterans and their families.

President-elect: Sally Harvey

Past President: Thomas J. Williams

Thomas J. Williams, PhD, has over 30 years of experience in leading, directing and researching programs, the past 15 of which were focused on senior leader development in service at the strategic level. He also has directed multi-site, comprehensive executive health and fitness assessment programs linked to professional military education at the senior and mid-career levels. He has held a variety of policy and leadership roles within the Department of Defense throughout an over 30 year career in the U.S. Army. He is dedicated to military psychology with a particular emphasis on the ethical practice of operational psychology and in senior leader resiliency and performance.

Secretary: Eric Surface

Eric A. Surface, PhD, is the co-founder, president and principal scientist of SWA Consulting Inc. (SWA), an applied research and consulting firm in Raleigh, N.C. SWA’s mission is to make a difference in learning and performance for individuals and organizations. Eric has worked with military personnel and organizations since 1997 in the areas of needs assessment, training evaluation and effectiveness, learning, assessment, and organizational effectiveness. He has been the principal investigator of numerous learning and testing related projects, including training effectiveness studies and needs assessment projects across the special operations forces (SOF) community for the Special Operations Forces Language Office (SOFLO). He has presented numerous conference papers and is published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Military Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Performance and Foreign Language Annals. He also authored the chapter on training needs assessment for the “Handbook of Work Analysis” (2012) edited by Mark Alan Wilson, Winston Bennett Jr., Shanan Gwaltney Gibson and George Michael Alliger. His research interests include learning, training evaluation and effectiveness, needs assessment, work performance, context, validation and work-related foreign language. He received his PhD in I/O psychology from North Carolina State University, his MA in psychology from East Carolina University and his BA in psychology from Wake Forest University. He was a consortium research fellow and postdoctoral fellow with the U.S. Army Research Institute. Read more about his publications and conference papers.

Treasurer:  Scott Johnston

Capt. Scott L. Johnston is a native Californian and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Davis and his PhD in clinical psychology from the Pacific Graduate School in Palo Alto. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology at Harvard Medical School. He has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 1995 and is board certified in both forensic and clinical psychology.

Capt. Johnston was commissioned in 1993. During his career he has served at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan, Marine Barracks Washington, Presidential Helicopter Squadron One and Naval Health Clinic Hawai’i. He deployed with the USS Constellation Expeditionary Strike Group to the Persian Gulf; 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit; Charlie Surgical Company to Fallujah, Iraq; 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment to Ramadi, Iraq; 3rd Marine Regiment to Haditha, Iraq; and Joint Task Force, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is currently stationed at NMCSD, where he serves as the director for the Naval Center for Combat & Opera-tional Stress Control. He also serves as the specialty leader for Navy clinical psychology.

Academically, Capt. Johnston has published and lectured around the world on treatment of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), building resilience in Marines and sailors and transitional interventions for returning warriors. He is currently investigating virtual reality treatments for PTSD, stress injuries in detention operations and use of meditation in substance-abuse treatment.

Capt. Johnston’s awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal (two awards), Navy Achievement Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal (Fleet Marine Force), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal (Fleet Marine Force) and various service and unit awards.

Member at Large: Nathan Ainspan

Nathan D. Ainspan, PhD, has conducted research, written and spoken extensively about the psychological issues impacting wounded and transitioning service members. He is the research psychologist with the Transition to Veterans Program Office (TVPO) of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. This office has been tasked with revising the Transition Assistance Program that is a requirement for all service members.  Ainspan’s role is to ensure that the revision of the program is based on behavioral science and psychological research.  His research focus has been on improving civilian employment opportunities for returning service members and the positive impact that employment can have on service members with posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other injuries. He is editing the “Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans” to be published by Oxford University Press in 2015 and has edited “When the Warrior Returns: Making the Transition at Home” and “Returning Wars Wounded, Injured, and Ill:  A Handbook.”

Members at Large

Joel Dubenitz, Christopher Murphy and Arlene Saitzyk

APA Council Representative

Larry James