Arizona
AzPA held the 16th annual Politics and Psychology Day on January 30. After several presentations on getting and staying involved in advocacy, psychologists spent the afternoon talking with legislators about current issues. The association has joined the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to support the various events throughout the community and to assist in furthering the AzPA Governing Council’s goal to draw in more diverse members. AzPA is awarding $300 to winners of the Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Fair, and President Gary Perrin will serve as a judge for Social/Behavioral projects in April. Donald Meichenbaum and Rosie Davis (APA President-elect) are keynotes at the AzPA 2018 convention held in Tucson on September 27-29.
North Carolina
NCPA will be celebrating its 70th “birthday” at the 2018 spring conference April 27 and 28 in Chapel Hill. A video highlighting 70 years of accomplishments is in the works, and there is a “history lesson” article in the upcoming spring issue of the “North Carolina Psychologist.” A special $70 for 70 drawing will be a part of the 70th celebration with proceeds going to the North Carolina Psychological Foundation. All of the living past presidents have been invited to the lunch on Saturday.
Ohio
The Ohio Psychological Association and the Foundation for Psychology in Ohio announced the winners of the Michael Sullivan Diversity Scholarship.
They are:
- Anna Abate, a third-year doctoral student at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Her research focuses on the relations between perceptions of the justice system, chances for success, ethnicity, and recidivism among juvenile offenders. Moreover, her research includes investigating the role of trauma in the development of aggression and stereotype threat on offending patterns and aggression in inpatient adolescents and justice-involved youth as well as the impact of racial differences in parental expectations on parental dysfunctional discipline.
- Kathleen Collins, a second-year doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Her research explores the intersection of LGBTQ mental health and psychotherapy process work through the use of mixed methodology. Her recent projects include testing the ability of online expressing writing interventions to reduce distress in LGBTQ adults who have experienced heterosexism and conducting a task analysis of these writing responses to identify micro-processes that progress in productive and unproductive ways.
This scholarship was begun in 2008 to recognize Sullivan, who served as the assistant executive director for state advocacy at APA. In this position, he managed the Practice Directorate’s program of making resources available to 60 affiliated psychological associations. Sullivan has been a strong supporter of state psychological association involvement as a means of promoting diverse and multicultural leadership in psychology and positively impacting communities. Gifts from Sullivan’s colleagues at APA/APAPO, Div. 31, CESPPA and numerous state associations established the scholarship fund that is managed by the Ohio Psychological Association, the Foundation for Psychology In Ohio, and OPA’s Diversity Committee. Over 20 applications were received this year for the scholarships.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma tried introducing legislation regarding Interstate Compact language per PsyPACT’s push for us to do so. We were revamping the language and lost our author in the Senate and were contacted by our licensing board to discuss the issue with them first. Therefore, next session will afford us the opportunity to focus on that, further defining a psychologist in the physician definition and be a key player in more legislative issues relating to occupational licensing and gun violence.
Vermont
The Vermont Psychological Association continues to advocate for psychologist prescription privileges; there are bills in both the Vermont house and senate, but they have not been picked up by the relevant committees yet and we are facing adamant opposition from the Vermont Medical Society. We have begun our series of nine continuing education events for 2018, hosting the first event in March and then every subsequent month from April through December, excluding July. We are very excited about our line-up of speakers for this year and know that attendees will find the events educational and interesting.
We have also just completed our winter membership drive; after sending out approximately 375 packets of information, we have gained 16 new members! Our next focus will be determining how we can improve our association to meet the needs of early career professionals and students.