Early Career Professionals Committee – Winter 2015

As I pulled together the announcements our committee wanted to highlight for ECPs, I was struck by what an exciting time it is to be an ECP. Through the tireless advocacy of many, we are beginning to have a stronger voice and a greater ability to engage in meaningful ways within both SCP and APA. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the APA Council voting (with an overwhelming 96% Yes vote) to require that all APA boards and committees must include at least one ECP member. Be on the lookout for more calls for ECP involvement in governance: they’re going to need us all to step up to fill these roles!

APA2014_160ba(16)The announcement of Council’s decision was a nice boost as we arrived at APA in DC where our committee hosted seven programs targeted to ECP needs. These sessions included coffee hours with leaders and change-makers, discussions, and panels about navigating career transitions, salary negotiation, and career development. We also had a successful social hour and open-mic at Busboys and Poets. Thanks to Drs. Dom Scalise and Marianne Dunn for selecting a unique venue that supports the social justice mission of SCP for this event. Thanks also to all who attended for helping to make our community of ECPs more visible, vibrant, and connected.

During our annual business meeting, we thanked Drs. Britney Brinkman (4-year-term, outgoing chair) and Shelley Long (3-year term) for their service to the committee. Dom Scalise, PhD concluded his term as chair and “passed the gavel” to Nadia Hasan, PhD. We also welcomed Drs. Le Ondra Clark Harvey and Samantha Daniel who began their 3-year terms at convention. Le Ondra and Samantha were selected from an amazing pool of candidates and both bring unique perspectives and a wealth of experience to the committee. Check out Nadia’s chair welcome message and LeOndra and Samantha’s biographies on the SCP-ECP Webpage (https://scp.wpengine.com/ecps/) to learn more about their experience and vision. We would also like to congratulate our 2014 ECP Travel Grant Award winners: Shavonne J. Moore, PhD, Jill D. Paquin, PhD , and Lauren Woolley, PhD.

Looking ahead, we hope to see you at The National Multicultural Conference and Summit in January at our discussion, Early Career Psychologists – Discussing Struggles and Strategies for Success, Collaborating for Change. This program will provide a space for dialogue and form a working group to develop a toolkit to support the career development and transition process for ECPs. The ECP Committee will also be hosting a lunch at NMCS. Attendees can find out more about this lunch by visiting our webpage or social media connections. Finally, our committee is planning our programming for the 2015 APA Convention. If there are topics you would like to see addressed, please contact the current chair, Nadia T. Hasan, PhD, ([email protected]).

Tiffany O’Shaughnessy, PhD
Sonoma State University
Department of Counseling

Tags: , , , Posted on: December 3rd, 2014