Past president's column

In my role as immediate past president, I have the privilege of overseeing the elections and awards processes for the division. Several of us from across sections have been exploring new awards categories for the division. We have also been making strides to add more information to the current awards criteria. Thank you to Mira Brancu, Bret Moore, Will Newbill, and Wendy Peters for their work with me on this.

As we enter election season, I hope many of you step forward and run for a division or section position. By the time the newsletter goes to press, we will likely have finalized the slates for president-elect, secretary/treasurer, member at large for communications, APA council representative and student representative. Several sections have positions to fill this year and there is still time to run for one of them. Please contact Shelia Brandt‎‎‎ regarding openings in the criminal justice section, Mike Tilus for opportunities in the Indian country section, Ginger Hays for police and public safety section positions and Howard Steinberg if you would like to be slated for the VA section . My involvement with the division over the past ten years has been incredibly rewarding on professional and personal levels. Working alongside of and learning from socially minded colleagues who want to make a difference in public mental health has been inspiring. I hope many of you consider getting more involved.

I also want to take the opportunity to update everyone about Div. 18's fourth annual conference on March 27 at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. Lauren Lussier, our conference chair, has again done an impressive job putting together an outstanding program with the support and help of committee members Erika Carr, Andrea Dinsmore, Dolly Sadow, Shirley Glynn, Ellen Scrivner, Howard Steinberg, and Femina Varghese. Public Mental Health Innovations: From Theory to Practice is focusing on a range of cutting edge topics from the Crisis Intervention Team model to addressing the needs of our returning service members to the heroin epidemic. We are very fortunate to have a lineup of renowned experts including in order of appearance:

• Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD, commissioner of Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.
• Randolph DuPont, PhD , founder of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model.
• Barbara Van Dahlen, PhD , founder of Give an Hour.
• Margaret Middleton, JD, executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Clinic.
• Barbara Bunk, PhD, immediate past president of the Connecticut Psychological Association.
• Patricia Rehmer, MSN, ACHE, commissioner of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

In the division's tradition of accessibility and inclusivity, this conference is highly affordable at $15 for students and $40 for members and includes lunch. Register online to attend.

On a related note, if you, too, are interested in public mental health innovations and believe your program is making a difference, please consider submitting an article to a special edition of Psychological Services . For Public Mental Health Innovations: From Theory to Practice, t he journal is interested in articles that offer a fresh look at continuing problems and challenges in public mental health, and first looks at addressing emerging issues. Papers should focus on organized care settings, such as police departments, jails, schools and community health centers. The journal will give priority to manuscripts with empirical data on process, outcome and effectiveness, but will consider well-developed manuscripts on conceptual and policy issues. The submission deadline is May 31st . Questions should be directed to Associate Editor Philip Magaletta, PhD.