President's Message

Jack Tsai Welcome to the official website of Psychologists in Public Service, Div. 18 of the American Psychological Association. As a division of APA, we share APA's mission, and consistent with our focus, our division’s specific mission is to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge in public service settings to benefit society and improve people’s lives.

We currently have seven sections that are tailored for psychologists and psychology graduate students with interest in a broad array of topics and fields associated with psychologists in public interest. Specifically, we have the following sections: Community and State Hospitals; Criminal Justice; Police and Public Safety; Psychologists in Indian Country; Serious Mental Illness — Severe Emotional Disturbance; Student; and Veterans Affairs. I encourage you to review information about each of our special interest sections on our website and join as many sections as you like.

Our division’s success and continued growth and productivity depends on our membership and the work of our leaders — our executive board, our committee chairs and committee members, and our task group chairs and members. We hope that each of our section boards, committees and tasks groups will include a good balance of senior, mid-career and early career psychologists as well as student members.

I will provide monthly updates on our division listserv: PUBSERV. And we hope this year to have more active dialogue on our listserv. I encourage you to join our listserv, if you have not already done so.

To join the listserv, go to the PUBSERV home page and follow these steps:

  • Click on the "Subscribe or Unsubscribe" link (on the right).
  • Enter your name and email address.
  • Select whether you want the regular or digest version.
  • Click "Subscribe (PUBSERV)".

Our division is becoming increasingly active on social media:

  • Twitter: @APADiv18 — Please follow us on Twitter, and we will link to our members who are active on Twitter.
  • Facebook: Psychologists in Public Service — Please follow us on Facebook, where we post more frequent updates of our activities, and utilize this platform as a means of communication and connection with our division.

We are very proud of our journal, Psychological Services, which is edited by Patrick DeLeon, PhD. He is joined by an outstanding group of associate editors: Lisa K. Kearney, PhD; Jacqueline S. Gray, PhD; Philip R. Magaletta, PhD; Femina P. Varghese, PhD; and Anne Klee, PhD. We also have a division newsletter, Public Service Psychology, which provides updates and articles on topics of interest three times each year.

Psychologists in Public Service is proud to recognize the outstanding achievements and contributions of psychologists who work in these settings through APA fellow status in the division as well as through the various awards that we offer each year for distinguished public service, education, service to specific groups of individuals served in public service settings, and to students. Please consider nominating colleagues or yourself by contacting the Fellowship Committee or the Awards and Recognitions Committee. 

As the 2019-20 president of Psychologists in Public Service, I welcome your interest and active engagement. The theme of my presidential year is “expanding public service psychology through technology and collaboration,” and I have several initiatives that I'd like to focus on this year, including:

  • Promoting the use of technology in public service psychology.
  • Increasing our online presence through social media, podcasts and webinars.
  • Engaging more students and psychologists in various career stages with our division.
  • Participating in more collaborative activities with other divisions and outside organizations to increase our visibility and support APA’s broader mission.

If you are a division member, we are happy to have you as part of our family! I look forward to connecting and working with you. Please reach out to me if you are interested in becoming involved in our division’s activities or if you have questions, suggestions or comments.

If you like what the division does, but are not yet a member, please join us. Only $49/year supports everything that we do to advance psychology in public service, and for you personally, it provides opportunities for interacting with colleagues with similar interests and passion in professional development activities, professional service and advocacy as well as a copy of our journal.

Warmly,

Jack

Jack Tsai, PhD
President, 2019-20