Thank you for your continued support and engagement. I’m honored to serve as president of our growing association. Here are highlights of the year so far that I shared with the APA Council of Representatives this month! This month with the support of our insightful members, incredible staff, and outstanding Board of Representatives and Council of Representatives, I have been able to advance the work of APA’s strategic plan by completing the following:
American Psychological Association. (2023, September 14). From the President’s Desk: August 2023. https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/updates/thema-august-2023
- Hosted successful APA Convention with the theme “You belong here!” with 11,000 participants—about 9,000 in-person and 2,000 virtually—and a record number of membership renewals onsite, more than 1,100! Other highlights from APA 2023 included:
- Multiple sessions on decolonial, indigenous, and liberation psychologies;
- Lifetime achievement award presented to Dr. Beverly Greene for her pioneering work on intersectional feminist psychology;
- A reception for global attendees who came to the convention from more than 65 nations;
- Presented multiple presidential citations including for psychology advocates, educators, researchers, practitioners, and applied psychologists, one of which was to Dr. Janet Helms for her groundbreaking research on racial identity development;
- Hosted two holistic self-care and community care rooms; one was a sacred space for contemplative connection and one was for embodied healing;
- Hosted an opening session which included an African American youth dance group from Washington, DC, Sweet Honey and the Rock, the State of the Association address from CEO Dr. Arthur Evans, an indigenous blessing, and a citation to Congressman Kweisi Mfume;
- Hosted a closing rally to encourage continued advocacy of our members, featuring leading advocates in our field and guest speaker, EDI policy expert Shavon Arline-Bradley.
- Hosted APA’s recognition of National Grief Awareness Day. The Day was recognized with me facilitating four social media conversations on Instagram with three New York Times best-selling authors and one neuropsychologist with expertise in traumatic loss (Tabitha Brown, Nedra Tawaab, Alex Elle, and Dr. Jen Worwick). More than 40,000 people have viewed the conversations on coping with grief and more than 30,000 viewers have seen the Grief Coping Wheel created in honor of the day.
- Was featured in a Virtual Book Club Session hosted by the Society for Clinical Psychology with a dialogue focused on the practice implications of my book Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole Authentic Self.
- Recorded a podcast for Web MD focused on trauma recovery, one of my presidential themes. The episode will be released in September.
- First seated APA President to present an invited keynote address (virtually) for the Nigerian Psychological Association Annual Scientific Conference.
- Facilitated APA Board of Directors meeting where the agendas covered included debriefing from the Council of Representatives meeting and the Convention, enhancing communication with the American Psychological Foundation, approval of the initial draft of the APA Color Purple Healing Guide for Warner Brothers Studios.
- Facilitated Board of Directors Executive Committee meeting to discuss requests from the Advocacy Coordinating Committee and debriefing of the Council of Representatives Meeting and the Convention.
- Met regularly with Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO, Dr. David Susman, CLT Chair, and key staff members.
- Continued individual meetings with Board members to facilitate dialogue and liaison feedback.
- Met with the Council Leadership Team to among other items discuss next steps to follow up on CLT responsibilities, both ongoing and those emerging from the Council of Representatives meeting.
- Provided support for and/or promoted my Presidential initiatives, which are:
- Advisory on Social Media and Youth (completed);
- Representation Matters Documentary (completed film, working on discussion guide, premiered at APA 2023);
- Free Public Summit on Culturally Informed Trauma Recovery to be held in October in Washington, DC;
- Culturally Informed Trauma Recovery Kits, which will be available online (written documents completed; issued call for video submissionsopens in new window);
- Enhancing Belonging and Engagement at APA, which presented findings from a survey of members at this year’s APA Convention;
- Decolonizing and Liberation Psychology, which is editing a special issue for the American Psychologist and has provided trainings for the APA Board, Boards and Committees, and Council of Representatives in alignment with APA’s EDI Action Plan (call for submissions received more than 100 submissions; the task force presented at the APA Convention).
Thank you for your support and efforts in service of society and the field of psychology. To reach me, please feel free to email me at tbryant@apaboard.org. To be more engaged, check out my monthly calls to action including the call to engage with our advocacy initiatives We thrive together!