President-elect's Column

I am excited about some things other division members and I have been and are currently involved in and will talk about a few of these activities. Some of these are first steps and others represent larger tasks; all are designed to meet the needs of division members and find ways for the group to grow. These actions converge with one of my goals for the year, to identify and sustain the value of membership for our division.

Psychological Services

I've been invited and have been able to attend most of the monthly conference calls held for the journal's editorial team. This invitation, graciously extended by the editor, Dr. Pat DeLeon and the managing editor, Dr. Gary VandenBos, has allowed me to learn more about our journal's premier publication. After mainly listening on these calls, I've recognized that the entire editorial board is instrumental in making the journal as successful as it is! The entire board of associate editors, Drs. Michi Fu, Lisa Kearney, Phil Mageletta, and Doug McDonald, and Morgan Sammons, are committed to the journal; not only are they instrumental in the offering of special calls for cutting edge papers, they coordinate and conduct reviews of submissions and are now developing two conference calls for Division 18 (D18) members to help publish their work in Psychological Services. Keep your eyes open over the next few months to see some of these articles and journal sections, and look online for new calls to come out soon. Watch your email for announcements of the specific dates in April when the two conference calls, "How to Publish in Psychological Services", will be scheduled.

In addition to learning from the editorial board, I've had the opportunity to start working with Daniya Tamendarova, the managing editor for EPF journals at the American Psychological Association (APA). We've been communicating about ways that the journal and the division can support each other. Although at this point our conversations are preliminary in nature, I'd encourage you to look at the divsion website and the newsletter over the next few months to see what we are planning. We're examining publishing more information about the journal in our newsletter and posting information on the website. To start, we have included the Psychological Services  table of contents from the current issue. The newsletter also features summaries of work recently published in the journal written by current doctoral students, Meredith Tumilty and Kristen Cole. Let me know if you like these additions and would like for more to come.I'd also like to highlight one other piece that Daniya has shared. One of the recent articles published in the journal has been highlighted in the "Article Spotlight" on the APA journal Facebook and Google+ pages. Eric Meyer and colleagues, Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Other Psychological Symptoms in Trauma-Exposed firefighters, is the article that's highlighted on these webpages. This paper will be highlighted in the May issue of the APA Monitor, too.

Convention

Drs. Jay Supnick and Howie Steinberg are developing a fabulous program for the 2012 APA Annual Convention. To be held from August 2 - 5, 2012 in Orlando, Fla., the D18 program offers sessions that will highlight the work going on in our different sections and there will be lots of opportunities to socialize with colleagues. Please keep monitoring emails from the division about the program and watch the APA and division websites for more information. Convention registration and housing reservations open on April 16, 2012.

Continuing Education

We've got a great group in Massachusetts, led by Dr. Anne Klee, who've been planning a mid-year CE program. I'm going to be working with them and with our new CE chairperson, Dr. Joseph Hansel, as the program is planned and delivered. If you are in Boston on October 20, 2012, plan to attend.

Newsletter

The newsletter, edited by Drs. Marcia Baruch and Victor Wolski, is a tremendous asset of the division. Updates on division and section activities, informal reviews of books and media, and articles of member interest are included. Contact Marcia or Victor and consider sending your work to this periodical.

Advocacy

As the Division's Federal Advocacy Coordinator, I've just attended the State Leadership Conference, where I joined practicing colleagues to advocate on Capitol Hill. Representing the states and territories, as well as many of the divisions, concerns were expressed to support our profession as it helps those whom we serve. I will continue to serve as the Division's FAC, and am working with Dr. Chris Loftis, our APA Practice Representative, on ways that we can effectively interact with the APA practice committee and the practice organization (APAPO). I would encourage you to contact me if you are not receiving messages about advocacy efforts or if you have ideas to share with APA or APAPO.

I hope that these small steps will make positive changes. Send me a note to let me know what you think needs to happen in our division. I'm looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you in Orlando in August, 2012.