Zeeshan Ahmad Butt, PhD, was awarded a Presidential Citation for his scholarly contributions related to clinical health psychology and his remarkable ability to foster professional engagement and career development among early career health psychologists.
Academically productive and clinically gifted, he has made significant advances in the development and application of patient reported outcomes in the post-surgical context, particularly for individuals following organ donation and transplantation. His scholarship is a model for other early career psychologists in his specialty. In addition to being a dedicated clinician and productive scholar, his leadership as an early career psychologist is noteworthy. In 2010, Butt was appointed the first chair of the Div. 38 (Health Psychology) Early Career Professionals’ Council (ECPC). Under Butt’s strong and enthusiastic leadership, more than 20 ECPC members developed a regular newsletter column, a moderated listserv and a podcast series. His group helped expand the division’s training/teleconference series and its presence on social media. In addition, Butt served as an exceptionally effective advocate for early career psychologist involvement in division governance. Indeed, at the national and local levels, across his numerous professional service roles, Butt has demonstrated a clear talent for building communities where young professionals can get what they need to launch their careers and hopefully grow and develop as health psychologists. Butt serves as an exemplar for how to engage early career professionals and connect their work to the larger mission of the APA (both within and beyond the organization).