Stephen Gillaspy, PhD, APA’s new senior director for the Office of Health Care Financing, is leading the association’s strategy for improving the public’s access to health care and ensuring that psychologists are fairly compensated for their services. For the last three years, he has served as an APA adviser to the American Medical Association’s Relative Value Update Committee, which helps set reimbursement rates for psychological services. Gillaspy comes to APA from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, where he was a professor and the director of the Pediatric Psychology Emphasis Area.
In June, former President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) retweeted to his 106 million followers a celebratory LGBTQ Pride Month photo and post by psychology graduate student Jiwandeep Kohli (@jiwandeepkohli). In the post, Kohli, a student in the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego joint doctoral program in clinical psychology, wears a rainbow turban and writes: “I’m proud to be a bisexual bearded baking brain scientist. I feel fortunate to be able to express all these aspects of my identity, and will continue to work toward ensuring the same freedom for others.” Obama’s retweet added: “You’ve got a lot to be proud of, Jiwandeep. Thanks for everything you do to make this country a little more equal. Turban looks great, by the way. Happy Pride Month, everybody!”
The National Center for Health Research has named Cristina Muñiz de la Peña, PhD, a Health Policy Hero for her work helping immigrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. She is a co-founder and the mental health director of Terra Firma in New York City, a program that provides medical, mental health and legal services to immigrant children who were separated from their parents at the border or who traveled to the United States without a parent. In addition to her work at Terra Firma, Muñiz de la Peña has visited immigrant detention centers to document conditions and testified before a congressional committee on the traumatic impact on children of the family separation policy.
Kevin Nadal, PhD, has won the Richard Tewksbury Award for Advocacy Work from the Western Society of Criminology for shining a spotlight on hate crimes that target the LGBTQ community through his research and his work with local law enforcement groups. Nadal is a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He served for seven years as a mental health trainer for the New York Police Department and has consulted with the department on LGBTQ-affirmative training.
The White House has appointed Barbara Van Dahlen, PhD, to serve as the executive director of the Presidential Task Force established by President Trump’s March 2019 Executive Order to End Veteran Suicide. The task force is responsible for creating the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End the National Tragedy of Suicide and will include a community integration and collaboration plan, a national research strategy and an implementation effort in order to end veteran suicide in the United States. Van Dahlen is the president and founder of Give an Hour, a network of 7,000 mental health professionals who provide free mental health services to U.S. service members, veterans and their families.