2024 APA Council of Representatives Candidates – Slate 1

All candidates were asked to provide a brief statement, introducing themselves and answering the following question: 

How would your skills and vision help you contribute to and lead SCP’s efforts to center its new values, uproot anti-Black racism, and promote liberation, in SCP and beyond?

Kimberly M. Burdine, PhD

Being an SCP Council Representative would provide an opportunity to serve, intervene for collective wellness, and facilitate change that reaches our communities, especially through direct practice. I have been a practitioner and trainer for the majority of my career, with a focus on community intervention, affirmation, belonging, and equity, supervision and training, and group therapy services. My values and sense of responsibility to collective wellness inform who and how I aim to serve. Through the love and support of my community, I have learned that much of my purpose as a psychologist is to help people lean into their presence and become more authentic to their intentions, desires, and needs. From this place, people, businesses, and institutions are able to love themselves toward transformation. It is an honor and spiritually fulfilling to be a counseling psychologist.

As an SCP Council Representative, I intend to be in community with other representatives to bring awareness to issues impacting our division and to work toward the collective healing and liberation of our members and the communities we serve. I intend to hold awareness and listen for the ways that SCP might gain coalition and collaboration around other divisions’ shared values and mission. Highlighting SCP’s commitment to uprooting anti-Black racism and promoting liberation is essential in meeting the mental health needs of our communities, and I believe our values are a tremendous help in guiding movement toward accountability and away from the policies and traditions that uphold white supremacy. Serving alongside other representatives with the momentum of our mission and values, I feel confident in my ability to give voice to concerns that matter, support SCP executive board in leading with integrity, and serve on committees to help the APA be accountable to and uphold its ethical principles.

Watch Kimberly's Candidate Video HERE!

Monica J. Johnson, PhD

I am honored to be considered for the APA Council of Representative for SCP. I am currently an Adjunct Professor at SUNY Buffalo and a Staff Psychologist at Princeton University. Within SCP, I have been a fellow in the Leadership Collaborative and the SCP Leadership Development Institute, and I served as a 2022 Liberation Lounge Co-Chair. Currently, I am on the SCP Advisory and Implementation Council (AIC) and a Programming Tri-Chair for the 2024 APA Convention. My engagement in these leadership initiatives has helped prepare me for Council Rep.

If elected, I believe that my values, skills, and vision will complement SCP’s new values, efforts to uproot anti-Black racism and promote liberation. I attend to issues related to social justice, advocacy, and oppression, and am intentional about centering marginalized and Black voices. Additionally, my identity as a counseling psychologist helps me establish spaces for communities to come together in support of social justice and inclusion efforts. I believe that we are truly stronger together, and the SCP value of collectivism highlights the importance of collaboration over competition. This seems imperative to the work on Council.

Our new SCP values charge us to actively work together and towards freedom from oppression for all people. Liberation requires action, and I am committed to being a change agent in my work with APA, through collaboration, flexibility and advocacy. I am thankful for the mentorship, training, and leadership opportunities that I received from SCP and hope to bring my experiences to the Executive Board to continue to support our work. 

Watch Monica's Candidate Video HERE!