September’s President Message
Greetings Society of Pediatric Psychology!
Well in a blink of an eye Fall is now upon us. It has been almost two months since many of us traveled to Minneapolis for 2022 American Psychological Association conference. It was a spectacular opportunity to reunite. Huge thanks to our program chair, Melanie Noel and co-chair Thomaseo Burton who prioritized early career professionals in the program. We held our board of directors meeting at APA 2022 and had a guest appearance from Stephen Gillaspy, Director of Health and Healthcare from APA Center of Psychology and Health. Dr. Gillaspy is a proud SPP member and advocate for removing the dichotomy between mental and physical health. We are proud to have one of our family members fighting this fight! Our second guest was Adrienne Stith-Butler, Deputy Chief Science Officer in the Science Directorate. Their mission is to communicate, facilitate, promote, and represent psychological science and scientists. They are interested in hearing more from our membership so engage and reach out to their office! https://pedpsych.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Science-by-the-Numbers-Aug-2022.pdf.
Business then shifted to budget matters. We had an external review of our finances and we passed with flying colors. Good to know that we are on sound financial ground. To round out the meeting we discussed conference registration, and we are delighted to report that we will be offering a 10% discount to all underrepresented minority first time attendees to SPPAC 2023. Moreover, we are working hard this year to enhance our sponsorships and donations (stay tuned for more news on that front to come through the listserv) with the ultimate goal of fully deferring costs for our URM first time attendees. Altogether it was a highly productive board meeting at APA and it’s not too early to mark your calendar for APA 2023 in Washington DC August 3-5! Keep an eye out for call for submissions from Dr. Burton and newly minted co-chair, Colleen Stiles-Shields.
I hope that members were able to gain some respite and restoration during the summer months as it has been quite a few years and much work lies ahead as we continue to fight and advocate for the well-being of youth and families in the medical setting. I am absolutely thrilled about the conference theme for SPPAC 2023 recently announced by chair, Soumitri Sil and co-chair Naadira Upshaw, Pediatric Psychologists as Social Justice Change Agents. If you missed it, check out here. Deadline for program submissions is October 17, 2022 so make sure to submit your great work and potentially get your work published in a supplemental issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology!
It is my honor to serve you, SPP members and if there is anything I can do to support you, please reach out.
Thank you,
Laura Simons, PhD
lesimons@stanford.edu