Division 22 President

Jay M. Uomoto, PhD
National Mental Health Director for Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense Collaboration
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/Office of Mental Health Services
Washington, DC
Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and TBI
1335 East-West Highway, 9th Floor
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Email

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I assume the duties as current President of Division 22, and continue our work as psychologists whose critical work is that of addressing the biopsychosocial consequences of disability in our diverse settings.  I am also humbled to be listed among the many who have served in this role since 1958 when our Division was established as the National Council on Psychological Aspects of Disability.  Given our lengthy span of existence, our membership certainly reflects a broad range of not only interests and expertise, but also holds a wealth of institutional knowledge and wisdom.  I am very honored to lead us through another year of excellence in our mission, and I encourage you to revisit our well-crafted statements of that mission, focus of work, and reach.

I would like to first acknowledge and thank Jan Niemeier for her work this past year as our President, and to Mary Hibbard, as Past-President in providing the continuity of the Division’s prior year of work.  We are encouraging this “triumvirate” model of leadership at all levels of our Division’s leadership as it allows for visibility, continuity of effort, and passes along our evolving tradition (much like the oral tradition did in ancient times). I also wish to welcome Tessa Hart as she steps in as President-Elect to whom I will pass the gavel in about 351 days (not that I’m counting). Our first monthly teleconference meeting will occur today and I would encourage you all to provide any of the three of us input and feedback that can inform and help guide our actions on behalf of the Division. I place a high value on visibility, as have our past Presidents, and I wish to continue these messages on a regular basis. To backchannel me by email, please address to: email

Our Executive Board Meeting met back on August 3rd and was again a highly productive meeting. We had a nicely distributed attendance of students, Early Career Psychologists (ECPs), and those that have been with the Division for many a year (I’ll try not to use the word “senior” unless used in the sense of organizational hierarchy, but not to refer to amount of time on earth).  Some highlights of that meeting included an update on the Baltimore Conference on Rehabilitation Psychology Post-Doctoral Training with thanks again to Bill Stiers for having this landmark event be a success as well as coming in under budget. We are moving forward on the Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology (CRSPPP) application which is an enormous undertaking and critical for elevating our status as a distinctive discipline in American psychology. At our Executive Board Meeting, we also constituted two new workgroups (ad hoc committees). The first will focus on membership. Membership is declining across the APA enterprise, and this has been of concern for the majority of the Divisions.  We too, are facing declining membership numbers.  Most important to me is what I believe is our “value proposition” or what the key values to our stakeholders (members) are that attract those to become engaged in rehabilitation psychology as a discipline, and then move these individuals to become members.  This ad hoc committee will be tasked with developing a strategic plan to increase our membership and metrics, not simply for the sole goal of increasing numbers, but to also ensure that our value as a Division is considered in sustaining our membership and breadth of our membership (e.g., reducing our student-to-professional attrition, reach to those engaged and interested in rehabilitation psychology abroad, maintaining relevancy to our current membership, enhancement of ECPs).

A second ad hoc committee will focus on strategic planning. The goals of this group will be to examine our current plan, refresh and revise, and out of which specific action plans with metrics will be developed.  We envision the latter to reflect what Jan Niemeier discussed as a “period of transition” that we are experiencing in our Division – that is, an increasing presence of ECPs in leadership roles, in tandem with our mid-career and later career member leaders.

As you can see, we have a new website and I again wish to thank Elizabeth Letsch for her efforts in moving the Division to a new era of technology and communication. I also wish to recognize and thank Laura Dreer for agreeing to take over as the new APA Division 22 website administrator, in addition to her work as the Rehabilitation Psychology email list. To John Corrigan, we again thank profusely to developing and tirelessly maintaining with great professionalism, this important email list.  Laura has also taken on duties as the new Chair for our Communications Committee as Elizabeth steps down.  We expect this website to provide greater visibility of our work to the public at large.

Our strategic plan will need to be agile and responsive not only to what our membership values, and, while it may sound lofty, it will need to firmly plant our mission prominently in American psychology – it will need to re-address what we do, and how we do it. More to come as each of these committees work toward their respective goals, and we welcome your input.

Thank you again for allowing me the privilege to provide leadership to this Division. I do see this as a shared responsibility and I will be reaching out to you for your input, critique, guidance, and support. 

Jay