Research Scientist, ETS

James C. Kaufman, PhD, has always wanted to make a difference in the world.  As a researcher who ferrets out possible bias in educational testing---as well as a part-time playwright and lyricist-he has paved a gratifying road for himself doing just that.

Kaufman is an associate research scientist for the Center for New Constructs at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the world's largest testing service, administering 12 million tests in 181 countries per year.

He works with other researchers to investigate non-cognitive constructs and how these constructs affect testing.  "At ETS, I feel like I can really make an impact and help people in a practical way, while still doing research on topics I love," he says.

While earning his psychology degree at Yale, he figured he'd pursue an academic career but wasn't completely  wedded to the idea.  Things changed when his adviser forwarded an e-mail announcing an opening at ETS.

"The Center for New Constructs seemed to be a really good match with my pet interests in creativity, thinking styles and motivation," he notes.

One research proposal he's working on looks at how thinking styles "might mediate racial or ethnic differences on the SAT," he says.  Another will explore creativity and how it affects scoring on writing tests, such as the GRE writing assessment.

The proposals, Kaufman notes, aren't much different from grant proposals, except the audience is much more targeted.  He says, "I have to show that the work will have real world importance.  Will it make testing more fair?  Will it help people perform better?"

Kaufman finds the teamwork aspect of his job appealing.  He works with eight other psychologists at the Center for New Constructs, as well as an exceptionally talented" support staff.

"In academia, there is almost implicit competition.  Here, we work together and root for each other.  It's much more akin to what graduate school is like," he says.
And if he ever decides he'd like to go back to academia, it's a route that's wide open.  Many researchers at ETS "go back and forth between academia and ETS," he says.

When he's not researching the possible links between creativity and test taking, he's moonlighting as a successful playwright and lyricist.  Kaufman has written about a dozen short plays, several full-length plays and two musicals.  His works have been performed in small theaters, festivals and schools all over the United States, Canada and Australia.  "My Very Elegant Mother," a one-act play, received great reviews during its 1999 run at The Fritz Theater in San Diego, Calif. The play takes a comic, yet truthful, look at family relationships through dialogue between a teen-ager and her newly single uncle.  Several of his plays were performed off Broadway last year.

"It's a fun side thing, but it doesn't really pay," he says. 

At 26, Kaufman has certainly learned how to harness his own creativity.  He's chosen a career with "lots of freedom," he's enjoyed success as a playwright and he's making a difference.

return to menu

Chief Mental Health Services, Maxwell Air Force Base

Calling an Air Force recruiter isn't the obvious first step for a psychology student in search of an internship.  But that's just what Karen A. Orts, PhD, did.

Orts had never considered a career as a military psychologist until a flier promoting opportunities in the Air Force landed in her graduate school mailbox at Ohio State University.  When she got an internship at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, she was almost as surprised as her friends and family.  By 1999, she was chief of mental health services at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and a captain in the U.S. Air Force. - "The Air Force offers so many opportunities for psychologists," says Orts.

As one of two psychologists on the base, Orts spends about half her time providing traditional outpatient psychotherapy.  Although most clients come in with the same sorts of problems civilians have, there are key differences between military and civilian psychology.  For one thing, civilian psychologists' training doesn't include tents, helicopters and simulated gas attacks.  And civilian psychologists typically don't have to learn how to handle combat stress in their clients.

"What you do for combat stress is almost a 180-degree turn from what you would do in traditional psychotherapy," explains Orts.  "In a traditional mental health clinic, you might think of difficulty sleeping or concentrating as symptoms of depression.  In combat situations, these are perfectly normal reactions to abnormal environments."

Confidentiality is another issue.  Since Orts may be treating people with highly sensitive jobs, she must help them work with their commanders to ensure that they can do their jobs without jeopardizing the safety of others.

Because Maxwell is home to Air University, Orts also has a chance to teach officers and enlisted members.  As an adjunct instructor at the university's Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Orts teaches students how to prevent suicide, handle alcohol-related incidents and identify other potential problems among the men and women they lead.  Orts also teaches at the university's academy for first sergeants, who are responsible for the welfare of the troops in their units.  Orts teaches them how to recognize when troop members are having problems and how to tap into the resources available on the base.

"In the Air Force, we take care of our own people," she explains.  "Preventing mental health and substance abuse problems is very much a communal effort."
Orts is also standing by for disaster.  Thanks to training she received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for example, she is ready to serve as part of the base's hostage negotiation team.  She is part of the critical incident debriefing team.  And she could be deployed along with the troops should war break out.
"When you stand up to take the oath to support and defend our Constitution, you know that's part of what could be expected of you," she says.  "For me personally, I'd love to have that opportunity." 

return to menu

Director of Research, Ucounsel Corporation

David Aboussafy, PhD, admits that choosing to work at a start-up technology company over faculty jobs and hospital staff positions may not have been the most financially secure decision for a new psychologist.  But the decision feels less like a risk and more like serendipity every day, he says.

Not only is the company expanding and making money, he's pioneering new territory-and loving it.  "Emerging technology as an effective health education tool really intrigues me," says Aboussafy, manager of content development and research at Ucounsel Corp., a Vancouver, Canada based company that offers online behavioral health self-help courses as part of benefits packages for businesses "This is the direction that self-help manuals are going."

At Ucounsel, Aboussafy creates multi-session, interactive online courses, or "self-help manuals come to life," on topics such as stress management, stopping smoking, panic, insomnia and asthma control.  He oversees every step of the development, including the writing and editing, testing and research, and digital production.

"We take the written material and we storyboard it ... looking at where we want to add video and animation," says Aboussafy.  "It has been an incredible learning experience for me, almost like producing miniature movies."

Words like "streaming video" and "flash media," which meant nothing to Aboussafy a year and a half ago, are part of his daily lingo now.  And he's picked Web design skills through his daily collaboration with animators, graphic and technology experts.  In fact, his career is 180 degrees from what he expected to be doing with a doctorate clinical psychology from McGill University in Montreal and an interest in behavioral medicine and health psychology. But it was his health expertise that him down the digital path.

While developing health education materials on smoking and stress management during his clinical postdoc at Vancouver General Hospital, he impressed psychologist Robert Wilson, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Wilson Banwell, a Vancouver based psychological services and employee-assistance program provider, and founder of Ucounsel.  Wilson asked Aboussafy to draft an online course for the then-fledgling company.  Six months later he offered Aboussafy a full-time job that paid more than the academic positions and hospital staff positions he'd been interviewing for.

Not to say he signed on for the money.  Instead, Aboussafy saw it as a great way to merge his psychology  training with the excitement of the technology boom.
 And while he foresees his future will involve technology, he hasn't cut his ties with research or practice.  He's running a smoking-cessation program for the British Columbia Ministry of Health and conducting research on asthma self-management at Vancouver General Hospital.

"People just keep telling me to keep my options wide open," he says.  "I follow everyone's advice."

return to menu