News from the Committee on Early Career Psychologists

The Committee on Early Career Psychologists (CECP) has been hard at work, putting forth efforts to reconnect and build engagement among early career psychologists in this era of COVID. CECP welcomed and engaged with many early career psychologists at the American Psychological Association Convention 2022, held in Minneapolis, MN, as well as at the Pre-Convention virtual programming offered the week prior to convention. In Minneapolis, the CECP joined forces with the APA Graduate Student Association (APAGS) to welcome students and early career professionals to the “Emerging Leaders Network (ELN),” a space dedicated to all things early career, including food, fellowship, networking, and programming. CECP also held an extremely well-attended social hour, sponsored by the American Professional Agency. This social hour provided an opportunity to connect with ECPs on a broader scale. Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO of APA, attended and provided a brief, encouraging speech to the group. CECP also held a coffee break sponsored by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards as well as several diverse and riveting symposia and educational sessions. The National Register of Health Service Psychologists also graciously sponsored several convention grant award winners, and those recipients were recognized as part of an awards presentation in the ELN space. Of note, the incoming CEO of the National Register, Dr. Daniel M. Elchert, is also an ECP. Finally, we took the opportunity to gather feedback from early career psychologists at convention by way of a QR code survey. We received several excellent suggestions and are reviewing our current ECP resources, including the CECP website and other offerings, and we will be updating them accordingly based on feedback and high priority needs. In addition to efforts at APA convention and pre-convention, CECP is working with other units such as APA Membership and APA Communications on an ongoing basis to identify ways to promote the work of ECPs, identify leadership opportunities for ECPs, and ways to connect with ECPs early on and throughout their membership and/or engagement with APA activities. One such way we are promoting ECPs is via our CECP Achievement Award. Be on the lookout-- winners of this award will be announced this fall.