Daniel Abrahamson, PhD, is awarded a 2024 Presidential Citation in recognition of his lifetime of service to the profession of psychology and his 30 years of leadership and guidance to advance the work of APA and State, Provincial, and Territorial Psychological Associations (SPTAs).
Prior to coming to APA, Abrahamson spent two decades as a practicing clinical psychologist, co-owner, and administrative director at the Traumatic Stress Institute in South Windsor, Connecticut. He co-founded TREATI, a nonprofit organization whose purpose was to take a community-centered perspective to address the harmful effects of trauma on members of the community and secondary trauma on mental health professionals.
Advocacy for professional psychology and community service are in Abrahamson’s DNA. In the early days of his career, he served as the director of professional affairs for over a decade in the Connecticut Psychological Association, advocating vigorously for health care reform and representing psychology on the Lieutenant Governor’s Mental Health Cabinet. He had over 100 television, print media, and radio appearances, in addition to a plethora of community education and service offerings, such as helping local high schools manage grief and trauma.
Abrahamson offered extensive leadership and service not only to his home state, but also to APA. He was elected to APA’s Board of Professional Affairs (BPA) and the Committee of State Leaders (CSL), serving as chair of both. He also served for five years on the Council of Representatives and one year on the Finance Committee. Beginning in 2006, Abrahamson was hired by APA as assistant executive director for state advocacy, overseeing, with care, the needs of the 60 SPTAs and their relationships with APA. He served as the lead resource on SPTA issues for the CEO and chief of professional practice, advising executive staff and governance leaders on the development and implementation of strategies that impacted the states. He worked hand-in-hand with the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP), Board of Professional Affairs, and other governance leaders on the state grant program to ensure that small SPTAs kept their doors open and that state legislation and policy were favorable to psychologists.
In 2018, Abrahamson served briefly as interim executive director of professional practice before being permanently promoted to deputy chief of professional practice. As the key partner and advisor to the chief of professional practice, Abrahamson helped to successfully guide the profession and the Practice Directorate through an unprecedented period of rapid change that included a global pandemic; telehealth and telework surges; health, racial, and social trauma, and a national mental health crisis. To maintain his career-long focus on community- and state-centered work, he also worked extensively on prescriptive authority, including serving as staff liaison for two separate APA task forces charged with reviewing and updating those policies. He directed governance operations for the Committee on Rural Health, the Task Force on Serious Mental Illness, the Committee of State Leaders, and the Designation Committee for Postdoctoral Education and Training Programs in Psychopharmacology for Prescriptive Authority.
One of Abrahamson’s key responsibilities has been overseeing the Practice & SPTA Leadership Conference (PSLC). As one of the profession’s most visible and important annual events, he has led this effort for nearly two decades with success and aplomb. PSLC’s goals are to strengthen SPTAs, invigorate APA, advance and modernize the profession, and impact critical societal issues. He was key in developing the PSLC Diversity Delegate program, which has demonstrably led to greater inclusion and diversity in STPA and APA leadership at the highest levels.
In a career full of prolific leadership and service, one of Abrahamson’s most impactful accomplishments is that every state, province, and territorial psychological association has kept their doors open and maintained their relationships with each other, and with APA. With the upheaval in the world during recent years, this is truly a remarkable outcome. It is a direct result of his depth of relationship with SPTA leaders, awareness of how SPTAs function, and his determined advocacy for SPTA needs. In this labor of love, Dan has strengthened, diversified, and lifted not only SPTAs and APA, but the entire psychology profession.
As the 2024 President of the American Psychological Association, it is my honor to present this Presidential Citation to Dr. Dan Abrahamson.