APAGS's newest staff addition, Renée F. Romero, brings over a decade of experience helping psychology students achieve their goals. As a former faculty member in the psychology department at Adams State College in Colorado, she advised students about their career plans and also helped the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) student group advocate for LGBT issues on campus. She worked with students to promote diversity at all levels and advocated with students for equality in their postsecondary experience.
In her new position as APAGS's committee operations and programs officer, which she started in May, Romero looks forward to continuing her work with students and helping them connect to federal and state legislative issues.
"I'm excited about working with students and advocating with them and on their behalf here in Washington, D.C.," she says.
Romero will serve as staff liaison to several APAGS committees, including the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns, the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Advocacy Coordinating Team and the Division Student Representative Network, for which she will help keep students abreast of--and influence--relevant policy developments. To do this, she'll draw from her experience coordinating programs, including an annual 160-person legislative advocacy training and congressional visit.
A master's-level counselor who is completing her doctoral dissertation, Romero vividly recalls what it was like to be a student.
"I hope to help graduate students connect to APAGS and APA in an effort to enhance their academic training experience and ultimately, to enhance the future of the field of psychology," she says.
-S. Dingfelder
Romero can be reached via e-mail.