2016 August Announcements

Dear SCP Member and Affiliates Colleagues, 

I am honored to serve as your 2016-2017 President. I look forward to working with you in the coming year.  I will work diligently to fulfill my duties to SCP and to earn the faith you have placed in me.

Marty HeesackerMy presidential theme is “Draw the circle bigger” (borrowing from SCP Past President Rosie Bingham). If you are feeling outside the circle of the Society, know that we are drawing the circle bigger so you will be inside it. For example, included in my list of presidential prioritiesis increasing the presence of early career professionals in SCP leadership. So, I have created a Special Task Group (STG), “Adding an Early Career Professional to SCP’s Executive Board,” chaired by immediate past chair of the Early Career Professionals (ECP) committee, Tiffany O’Shaughnessy. The mission of the STG is to propose a mechanism for adding an early career professional to our executive board, and to detail a procedure with a timeline for the completion of that Board addition on or before the August 2017 Executive Board meeting in Washington DC.

In addition to incorporating an ECP seat on the SCP Executive Board, I am encouraging the appointment of more practitioner members to SCP leadership positions. Practice is central to our profession, therefore it is essential that the perspective and involvement of practitioners is represented in the work of the Society.

Another priority shared by the SCP Executive Board is to develop a mechanism for rapid response by SCP on issues that resonate with our core values as counseling psychologists. This effort is being lead by SCP’s Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest, Dr. Anneliese Singh, and the Subcommittee for Social Change.  On a related note, the SCP Executive Board recently adopted a Statement on Black Lives Matter, which will be posted to the website shortly.

Another important aspect of drawing the circle wider involves our counseling psychology master’s students and graduates. Changes occurring at the national level in the professions of counseling and counseling psychology make their futures uncertain. So I am working with cabinet and executive board colleagues to appoint another special task group (STG) to focus on practical solutions to the challenges facing out master’s colleagues and students. 

What follows is a list of SCP announcements and news items that may interest to you:

  1. SCP’s Executive Board voted to endorse the following candidates (without ranking them) for APA president:

Jessica Henderson Daniel, Ph.D.
Rodney Lowman, Ph.D.

You can read the candidate statements online.

  1. The Fellows nomination deadline is September 23, 2016 and completed applications are due October 21, 2016. You can nominate yourself or someone else by emailing the person’s name, email address, and curriculum vita to Fellows Chair Dr. Ruperto (Toti) Perez, [email protected]. Self nominations are encouraged. More information is available on the SCP website.

The APA Fellows application website is now active at http://www.apa.org/membership/fellows/index.aspx.  The webpage has all the information you need to apply for fellow status as well as helpful information for endorsers on writing and submitting letters.

  1. The 2016-2017 Society of Counseling Psychology Awards Call for Nominations will be issued shortly.  This year’s award co-chair is Dr. Paul Perrin, [email protected]. Please nominate yourself or a deserving colleague.
  1. The 2017 APA Annual Meeting Call for Proposals is scheduled to open on September 1. Dr. Mary Ann Covey, 2017 Program Chair, will provide more information on this as it becomes available from APA.
  1. Registration for the 2017 National Multicultural Conference and Summit (NMCS), January 4 – 6, Portland, is now open! For more information and to register, go to  http://www.multiculturalsummit.org. Featured are the four founders of NMCS who will be delivering Thursday morning’s keynote addresses: Rosie Phillips Bingham, Ph.D., Lisa Porché-Burke, Ph.D., Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D., and Melba J. T. Vasquez, Ph.D.

We welcome your feedback on SCP priorities and activities. I encourage you to reach out to me or any member of the SCP Executive Board to share your thoughts or perspectives. Contact information for Executive Board members can be found at scp.wpengine.com/

Here’s to a peaceful, productive, and successful year ahead!

Marty

Martin Heesacker, Ph.D.
President, Society of Counseling Psychology (Div17, APA)
[email protected]

Tags: , , , , , , Posted on: August 28th, 2016