The 126th APA Annual Convention in San Francisco from Aug. 9 –12, 2018, had an outstanding mix of posters, symposia, discussions, skill-building workshops and conversation hours in addition to several invited and award lectures for the Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology (SSEPP). The society was excited to invite Cindy Chang, MD, clinical professor in primary care sports medicine with the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Family & Community Medicine at the University of California - San Francisco and co-director of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in the Sports Concussion Program for the 2018 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Exchange Lecture. We also invited Kensa Gunter, PsyD, who delivered the 2018 Steven R. Heyman Memorial Lecture and she presented a phenomenal talk entitled “The A.I.R. We Breathe: Advocacy, Inclusion, and Representation in Sport Psychology.”
The society had the opportunity to present several awards including the Distinguished Contributions to Public Interest Award to Lindsey Blom, EdD, and the Early Career Professional Award to Jessica Bartley, PsyD. Rena Goodwin, MS, received the Thesis/ Master’s Project Award for her thesis, “Self-Stigma, Attitudes, and Preferences When Seeking Mental Health and Sport Psychology Services: A Student Athlete Point of View,” and Daniel Brown, PhD, received the Dissertation Award for his dissertation, “Human Thriving: A Conceptualization, Understanding, and Application to Sport.” Danny O’Rourke, PhD, also received the Sport, Exercise and Performance PsychologyJournal Paper of the Year Award and presented his work on “Psychosocial Correlates of Young Athletes’ Self-Reported Concussion Symptoms During the Course of Recovery.”
Finally, the society hosted a poster award session with the most highly ranked posters for students and professionals and awarded the Student Poster of the Year to Kayla Carrigan Balcom and the Professional Poster of the Year to Jessica Strübel, PhD.
The society also held a business meeting and provided reports from each Executive Committee member as well as thanked several Executive Committee members for their service to the division: Vince Granito, PhD (president); Shane Murphy, PhD (Council representative); Mitch Abrams, PsyD (member-at-large); Brandonn Harris, PhD, CC-AASP (program chair); and Ryan Sappington, MS (student representative).
We also hosted a speed mentoring session for students and early career professionals with various professionals within the sport, exercise and performance psychology field; had more than 130 participants in the 40th Annual Ray’s Race 5K; and a very well-attended off-site society social at The Perennial, about a half-mile from the convention center.
We are already preparing for the next APA Annual Convention, in Chicago from Aug 8 – 11, 2019. The first deadline on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, is for innovative collaborative programming proposals on a selected topic of interest involving between two to six divisions. The next deadline is Nov. 13, 2018, for Continuing Education Workshops. Divisional programming is due Nov. 30, and we will continue to accept posters, symposia, discussions, skill-building workshops and conversation hours.
The presidential themes for SSEPP will include:
- Adolescent athletes: Using sport psych interventions with teens and parents for on and off the field for well-being, development and healthy striving
- Best practices for coaches: Advances in communication, leadership and enhancing the athlete’s experience
- The latest in performance enhancement strategies
The 2019 program chairs for SSEPP are Jessica Bartley, PsyD, and Dolores Christensen, PsyD. We look forward to working with the society’s members to develop another wonderful and informative program on behalf of our division!