Div. 34 members: Working together to make a difference

The members of Div. 34 are about as diverse a collection of professionals as you can imagine finding anywhere in APA. We're interested in how the design of natural and manmade environments influences human well-being. We want to conserve and enhance our natural world and make sure it's a better place for our children to live than the planet we find ourselves on. We're population psychologists and ecopsychologists. We are, however, all united by our desire to improve our world and the lives of people living in it.

It's tough for our division to support all of us in our various pursuits — but it can and will — this is important to me as division president and to all of you.

Present your work at APA 2013

You are doing interesting work, as a researcher, a practitioner, or both if you wear two hats. I hear great stories about your work whenever I have conversations with any of you. I encourage you to talk about it at the next APA conference — please seriously consider submitting a proposal (deadline Nov. 16, 2012, submit proposals at the main APA Annual Convention site.

In addition to being the current president of the division, I am also chair of Div. 34's 2013 conference programming committee. The conference program in 2013 will reflect all of our interests. We have many programming opportunities and will creatively work to incorporate as many of the submissions we receive into the agenda as we possibly can.

It would be great to hear your suggestions for potential sessions at the convention. Want to know about the latest research in a particular field or about an innovative research methodology? Let me know and I'll work to put together a related event.

We're particularly interested in coordinating sessions with other divisions of APA; please email any related ideas you have about that to me.

Newsletter transitioning

We want to communicate with you more regularly than the newsletter process allows. After the edition you're reading, we plan to transition from a quarterly newsletter to a biweekly set of messages sent via our email list. The information sent in these biweekly posts will be archived at our division's website.

One of the advantages of this new format is that members of the division will be able to exchange information with each other more rapidly. If you'd like to share information with other members of the division or ask them a question, send me a note — I also edit the newsletter.

Thank you, Janet Swim

Janet Swim did an extraordinary job leading our division over the past year, and I'd like to thank her for all her hard work. Bravo, Janet!

The members of Div. 34 can make our world a better place to live now and in the future — let's work together to make that happen.

Sally Augustin
Telephone: (323) 244-9850