President-elect’s column

It is an honor to assume the role of president-elect of Division 18 and I am looking forward to working alongside Drs. Jacquie Wall, Linda Bodie, Mary Lu Bushnell, David Kazar and the section chairs. Linda and Jacquie and I were together in Boston for the Division 18 fall conference and were able to spend some time talking about the year to come. Boston was actually a great opportunity for the start of numerous division-wide conversations. The planning committee met for dinner with our speakers the evening before the conference. Drs. Bob Kerns, Steve Nisenbaum, Dolly Sadow and Linda Bodie regaled us with stories about their experiences as  Division 18 presidents. Dr. Suzanne Bennett Johnson was extraordinarily gracious and attentive, adding to the conversations and offering stories about her own leadership experiences. She truly goes above and beyond to make herself accessible to the APA community and fully supports the work of public service psychology. We all enjoyed spending time with her and with one another. As we think about recruitment and retention of members, advocacy and division-wide programming, it is great to have opportunities outside of the APA convention to come together.

In thinking about the division and what we offer to our membership and the profession-at-large, Psychological Services comes quickly to mind. I am looking forward to getting more involved with the journal to support the editors and promote readership. Psychological Services is well-respected and well-representative of the work we do in public sector psychology. It is important to have a journal to showcase our work and serve as a resource to our field. There are currently calls out for manuscripts to be considered for three special sections. The first on secondary trauma and burnout (due Dec. 1, 2012), a second on children and families finding themselves separated from one another due to various life events (due Dec. 1, 2012) and a third on innovations in addressing mental health care disparities (due Feb. 22, 2013). Please share these calls for papers with colleagues.

Though the APA convention is over nine months away, Drs. Howard Steinberg and Erika Fitzgerald are already hard at work planning the programming and events for next year’s convention in Honolulu. Proposals are due on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012, a couple of weeks earlier than last year. As featured in the call for programs supplement of the September 2012 edition of the APA Monitor, Division 18 is seeking poster presentations and one hour symposia in public sector psychology. Areas of interest include: Veterans, criminal justice, public safety, serious mental illness, Native Americans, ethics, advocacy, diversity, telepsychology and integrated care. Paper submissions are not accepted. Please consider showcasing your work at the convention and joining Division 18 colleagues in Hawai‘i.