Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest – March 2016

Newsletter Column for Spring 2016

Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest

Anneliese A. Singh, Ph.D.

Greetings to all and best wishes for a lovely spring to everyone! Things are blooming in the Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest position and committee in terms of new social justice projects and attention to multicultural concerns in our division. In addition to continued work with the Leadership Development Institute nurturing mentoring for ECPs of color with other CPANEMI partners, there have been some new projects underway as well. Special thanks to Niyatee Sukumaran and Theo Burnes for working on a project and statement related to keeping the conversation going related to criticisms of APA in the Hoffman Report. In addition, I have been working closely with SAS leaders, Erica Wiley Whiteman and Ashley Oliver, in a collaboration describing how students, ECPs, and training directors can use the newly endorsed 2015 American Psychological Association Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Clients. The goal of this project is to increase access to and understanding of these new guidelines, and how to increase the use of these guidelines to guide trans-affirmative psychological practice within counseling psychology programs. I am beginning some work with the Division 17 Leadership Academy, supporting Tangela Roberts and Mun Yuk Chin in writing position statements related to various social justice and multicultural issues that have been under-addressed within Division 17. There are some opportunities within SAS as well that I have been invited to participate in with newsletter article co-authorship on social justice and multicultural concerns, so I am looking forward to exploring further ways to support students and ECPs in this area.

I am also very excited that the work our committee has done over the past years related to the Black Lives Matter movement and the role of counseling psychologists in this movement now includes a collaborative submission of an article on this topic to The Counseling Psychologist. Gratitude to Candice Crowell and Kevin Cokeley for leadership in this area, and also to counseling psychologists working in and shaping the Black Lives Matter movement who are co-authors: Della Mosley, Jameca Falconer, Danelle Stevens-Watkins, and Reuben Faloughi. Next steps in this area will be to develop a webinar about how counseling psychologists can further support and participate in movements working to end violence toward Black men and communities of color.

With the APA 2016 convention in Denver on the horizon, I want to give a quick reminder that we will be holding a More Pie discussion at the convention. I will be sending out updates about opportunities to interact with our committee and other events and presentations of interest to 17’ers interested in multicultural competence and social justice change. I hope to connect with many of you there!

In closing, I am grateful to all of the Vice President for Diversity and Public Interest Committee members: Theo Burnes, Janie Pinterits, Dan Walinsky, Niyatee Sukmaran, Amy Reynolds, Saba Ali, Candice Crowell, Jonathan Ryser-Oatman, and Jasmin Llamas for generously serving on this committee.  Please contact me at [email protected] if you would like to participate in this committee, or offer feedback about what is needed related to multiculturalism and social justice in Division 17. I welcome contact and connection with fellow social change agents!

In the spirit of community~

Anneliese A. Singh, Ph.D., LPC
The University of Georgia
[email protected]