One of the best ways to accomplish APA's vision of partnering with others to advance psychology worldwide is to meet one-on-one with psychologists from other cultures to discover common ground and explore collaborative research.
To that end, the association is fostering travel and exchange with members in the 17 psychological associations around the world with whom it has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement. The new program provides travel grants of up to $3,000 for American psychologists to attend partner conferences in 2015. Eight of these awards were granted to attend the annual meetings of the Colombian and Mexican national psychology associations.
"We talk a lot about the importance of international collaboration for moving beyond our North American/European cultural lens, and for promoting broad exposure to research and theories in other contexts. This new program helps us make that concrete by supporting on-the-ground exchange," says Merry Bullock, PhD, director of APA's Office of International Affairs.
The travel goes both ways. APA also invites MOU partner association representatives to attend the annual convention and to participate in APA's annual leadership conferences.
The following members traveled to the joint 2015 meeting of the Colombian Congress of Psychology/Latin American Regional Conference of Psychology in Armenia, Colombia, in September:
- Ryan Blucker, PhD, clinical assistant professor at Oklahoma State Health Sciences Center.
- Kristina Gordon, PhD, professor at the University of Tennessee.
- Kameron Sheats, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Oakridge Institute for Behavior and Prevention.
- Diana Leyva, PhD, assistant professor at Davidson College.
The following grant recipients traveled to the 2015 annual meeting of the Mexican Psychological Society in Cancun, Mexico:
- Saskias Casanova, PhD, assistant professor at Arizona State University.
- Rachel Casas, PhD, assistant professor at California Lutheran University, who extended the grant to include two graduate students, Liz Ornelas and Shauna Perry, both also at California Lutheran University.
- Lizette Ojeda, PhD, associate professor at Texas A&M University.
- Elizabeth Terrazas-Carrillo, PhD, assistant professor at Texas A&M International University.
For information on APA's international outreach and resources to support international exchange, see Funding.
— Stacy Lu