The Div. 44 Fellows Committee extends deep gratitude for outgoing chair, Glenda Russell, whose long, tireless and transformational service has shaped our field and the committee’s work to reflect more of what we value and who we are in Div. 44. She and the Fellows Committee have recognized influential researchers, innovative thinkers and leaders, inspiring educators and mentors, and impactful advocates and activists. As new cochairs, our aim is to continue this tradition of recognizing and celebrating meaningful impacts in all their forms.
During APA’s virtual annual convention in August, we heard from the 2020 fellows and enjoyed a live conversation with several Div. 44 members. Watch recorded talks on YouTubeopens in new window. Congratulations to our 2020 Div. 44 fellows: Henny Bos, Paz Galupo, Melissa Grey and Joshua Wolff.
Because APA Governance’s schedule changed this fall, council just finalized the process for the 2021 fellows on October 29, 2021. Given this schedule change, we look forward to acknowledging these fellows at APA’s 2022 annual convention. As we have newly stepped into this role, we share Past Chair Glenda Russell's descriptions of our field's luminaries who are recognized as 2021 fellows. Please join us in celebrating Div. 44's newest fellows of APA:
Stephanie Budge, PhD
Stephanie Budge, PhD, is a counseling psychologist who has dedicated much of her professional life to doing transformative work on the psychological study of gender minorities. Her research in this area has been both innovative and scientifically sound. Her work as a mentor, especially with transgender students and colleagues, has been exemplary, and her commitment to using the products of her own and others’ research to inform and lift up transgender and gender nonbinary communities has been exceptional.
Budge’s rigorous research has elucidated the systemic factors that impinge on members of gender minority communities—a step beyond where most prior research had been in its emphasis on personal and interpersonal stressors. Budge and her students have undertaken research on clinical approaches to interventions with transgender and nonbinary people. She has used randomized clinical trials to unlock the needs of this population, and she has done so with a strengths-based approach. Her work is important, insightful and impactful.
Nick Grant, PhD
Lt. Nick Grant, PhD, entered psychology with a deep commitment to using the discipline to promote social justice in general and especially for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Grant has made use of this preparation in a number of venues including a U.S. Senator’s Office, in service to Div. 44, and in the context of his current appointment as a psychologist in the U.S. Navy. Taken together, Grant’s work has resulted in critical visibility and progress related to the rights of LGBT people, with a particular impact for transgender people.
Currently, Grant has taken his commitment to the rights and needs of transgender service members through his active-duty appointment in the U.S. Navy. He serves as cochair for Naval Medical Force Pacific Training Clinical Care Team, a position that allows him to provide direction and support for psychological treatment of transgender sailors and officers. This position is consistent with Grant’s long-term efforts to work to prepare for and to work to advance the needs of a population that has existed on the margins of society. At each step on his trajectory, during politically more and less favorable times, he has made important contributions to changing policy and practice for transgender people.
Patrick Grzanka, PhD
Patrick Grzanka, PhD, has established himself as a scholar, researcher, methodologist and advocate across a variety of important content areas. Indeed, he is regarded by many as an intellectual leader in the discipline. An initial glance at Grzanka’s work might cause one to wonder at its breadth. It crosses areas from reproductive justice, the etiology of nonheterosexual orientations, race and racism, sex and gender, allies in collective action, and that list is not fully inclusive.
Undergirding all of Grzanka’s work is the study of intersectionality, a study that he has undertaken in a way that allows us to see not what psychology more typically studies in the way of inequity but rather the full range of manifestations of stigma and oppression across target groups and their intersections and their occurrence at multiple social levels. It is no wonder that Grzanka’s book on intersectionality is already in its second edition. It is also no wonder that his scholarship can be found in a broad range of outlets, including books and journals focused on a strikingly wide variety of stigmatized groups.
Nadine Nakamura, PhD
Nadine Nakamura has made groundbreaking contributions to a long-neglected and still contested area at the intersection of psychology and public policy—the experiences and rights of LGBTQ people who are immigrants and asylum seekers. She is able to integrate the private matters of therapy with the public matters of living as a marginalized person. She stands as one of the most important scholars in the field of LGBTQ multicultural psychology, and her coedited book (with Carmen Logie), LGBTQ mental health: International perspectives and experiences, is exemplary in its centering of transnational LGBTQ voices and concerns.
Nakamura’s work at this important intersection has been expressed in multiple domains, including research, policy work, clinical writing and teaching for professionals, and teaching graduate students. Nakamura has also made a major contribution through her work as cochair of APA’s Task Force for Revising the Professional Practice Guidelines for Working with Sexual Minority Persons.
Although the due date for applying for this next cycle has passed, it is always a good time to have a conversation about your interest in applying or your encouragement for someone else to apply. Please feel free to contact us with your questions and recommendations.
Melissa Grey and Sharon Horne
Cochairs of the Div. 44 Fellows Committee