Dr. Katherine C. Nordal served as Executive Director for Professional Practice for the American Psychological Association and the APA Practice Organization from January 2008-May of 2018. In that capacity, Dr. Nordal oversaw a wide range of legislative, legal, regulatory, advocacy and marketplace activities designed to advance and protect the professional practice of psychology and to promote the availability of quality psychological services to the public. Dr. Nordal also served as the interim Executive Director of the APA Ethics Office from September 2015 until her retirement from APA in May 2018.
Dr. Nordal received her Master’s degree from Georgia State University and her PhD from the University of Mississippi. She began her professional career as the director of child and adolescent services at the Warren-Yazoo CMHC in Mississippi. She owned and managed a full-time group private practice in Mississippi for 28 years before her tenure at APA. Her clinical interests included learning, behavioral and emotional disorders in children and adolescents; neuropsychological assessment; brain injury in children and adults; and civil forensic psychology.
Dr. Nordal is a fellow of APA. She served as an APA/AAAS Congressional Science Fellow (1990-91), working in the U.S. House of Representatives and with the House Select Committee on Hunger. She chaired the APA Committee on Rural Health, served on APA's Board of Directors from 2001 to 2003, and served on and then chaired the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP) from 2003 to 2007. Nordal has been honored with the APA's Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for advocacy and in 2018 was awarded APA’s first Lifetime Advocacy Award. She was also inducted into the National Academies of Practice as a Distinguished Practitioner in Psychology.
Dr. Nordal is a fellow of and past president of the Mississippi Psychological Association and represented Mississippi on APA’s Council of Representatives. She is a recipient of MPA’s Kinloch Gill Outstanding Professional Psychologist Award, Distinguished Practitioner Award and Distinguished Fellow Award. Nordal also served as executive secretary for the Mississippi Board of Psychology, which licenses psychologists for practice.
Dr. Nordal brings to the Trust a strong background in psychological association leadership at the state and national level in both management and board positions, solid business financial management skills, a history of strong relationships with SPTAs, business development experience, regulatory (licensing board) experience, public relation and public speaking skills, and a long work (independent practice) history with members of medical and allied health professions.
Dr. Nordal resides in Washington state where she is a WSPA member. She currently serves on the board of the American Psychological Foundation, APA’s philanthropic arm, and is a member of ASPPB. Her retirement interests include travel, golf, gardening, photography, and volunteer work through St. Paul’s Episcopal Church including a lunch program for homeless persons and a weekend “backpack” program for food insecure children.