Fayth M. Parks, PhD, chair
Tiffany A. Chenneville, PhD, chair-elect
Kristi E. Gamarel, PhD
Martin Y. Iguchi, PhD
Christina S. Meade, PhD
Monica D. Ulibarri, PhD
Sherry C. Wang, PhD
Cherie D. Mitchell, MHS
The mission of the Ad Hoc Committee on Psychology and AIDS (COPA) is to guide the development and implementation of the American Psychological Association's organizational response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Members of COPA carry out this mission each year by attending one face-to-face meeting held during fall consolidated board and committee meetings and by participating in monthly, one-hour web meetings. Additionally, members of COPA regularly communicate with the APA staff liaison to plan and implement the committee's various initiatives.
COPA was established by the APA Council of Representatives (the Council) for an initial three-year period in 1990, reauthorized for an additional five years in 1993, with subsequent five-year reauthorizations in 1998, 2003, and 2008. In 2013, COPA’s reauthorization was determined by Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI), its parent board, and the APA Board of Directors (BOD). BAPPI, approved its reauthorization for an additional five years with final approval by the Board of Directors on Feb. 19, 2014. COPA’s current authorization expires in February 2019.
Since its formation in August 1990, the membership of COPA has historically consisted of eight demographically- and professionally-diverse psychologists with extensive HIV/AIDS experience and one non-psychologist with community-based HIV/AIDS experience. In the fall of 2007, COPA proposed to BAPPI a revision of COPA membership that would enable community perspectives to be obtained from a variety of individuals who live openly with HIV/AIDS. Instead of having just one non-psychologist member, COPA now identifies and involves people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) on various COPA initiatives. This procedure enables COPA to identify individuals with expertise related to specific matters. This change was needed because HIV/AIDS research and practice has become highly specialized as efforts are tailored to address distinct sub-populations with each sub-population having specific needs and issues that require specialized expertise. It became untenable to expect that one person could fully or accurately reflect “the community perspective” on such a diverse array of matters. In 1997, COPA membership was changed to seven members. In 2012, COPA membership was reduced to six members per term under the direction of BAPPI, consistent with the standards for membership across APA Public Interest committees.
COPA aspires to involve a diverse group of psychologists, including persons of color, persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, disabilities and persons living with HIV. Additionally, committee membership typically represents a range of areas of expertise or specialization within psychology and across career stages. In 2017, COPA’s membership was diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and gender — one African-American woman; one Latina woman; one Asian man; one Asian woman; and two Caucasian women. Two members were early career psychologists.
During the past year, COPA was active in various initiatives. Ongoing activities, consultations, publications, and projects are briefly summarized below:
In 2009, the APA Office on AIDS was awarded funding from the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to continue the HIV Office for Psychology Education (HOPE) Program for an additional five years. In 2011, additional funding was provided to expand its HIV/AIDS training efforts in the 12 U.S. metropolitan areas most affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2014, members of COPA assisted by providing ongoing consultation to HOPE program staff as they developed new programs. Funding for this program ended in September 2014.
In 2014, SAMHSA released an announcement of continued funding for this federal program under a different funding mechanism emphasizing a different model for delivery of services. The result was a collaborative effort among the Educational Development Center (EDC), APA, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the American Psychiatric Association (ApA) to launch a national educational program using distance learning methodology and technology for mental health providers beginning in October 2014.
The APA HIV Professional Development Program was established to address these efforts. In 2016, more than 380 psychologists and allied health providers had attended webinars. An additional 120 attended in-person training events hosted by the program. From its inception and throughout the program’s development, COPA provided consultation.
The federal contract that supported the APA HIV Professional Development Program ended on Sept. 14, 2017. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) discontinued the Mental Health Care Provider Education in HIV/AIDS Program after Congress failed to include dedicated funding in the FY 2018 continuing resolution. The contractual arrangements ended, and the final two years of the contract period terminated.
Past, Present and Future of HIV/AIDS Science and Practice in Psychology" Symposium.
COPA developed a collaborative symposium "Past, Present and Future of HIV/AIDS Science and Practice in Psychology"opens in new window for the 125th Annual APA Convention held in Washington, DC. This collaborative program was both broad and timely, and offered Continuing Education credits. It examined historical, current, and future issues related to HIV/AIDS science and practice in psychology. This symposium addressed the changing roles and influence of psychology as they relate to research and practice in HIV prevention and care over the past 30-plus years. Current challenges and barriers psychologists are facing and proposed future roles for psychologists were also addressed.
The Committee on Psychology and AIDS (COPA) was the lead sponsor with four divisions (Div. 27 Society for Community Research and Action; Div. 28 Society for Psychopharmacology and Substance Use; Div. 35 Society for the Psychology of Women; Div. 38 Society for Health Psychology), most of the Public Interest Directorate’s committees (Committee on Children, Youth and Families; Committee on Socioeconomic Status; Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs; Committee on Women in Psychology) as well as the Committee on Early Career Psychologists (CECP) and the Committee on Rural Health (CRH).
The symposium was co-chaired by COPA members Fayth M. Parks, PhD, Georgia Southern University and Sherry C. Wang, PhD, Santa Clara University. The symposium speakers were well known experts and federal officials: Richard Wolitski, PhD (Discussant), Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, USDHHS; Eugene W. Farber, PhD, ABPP, Emory University School of Medicine; Ramani Durvasula, PhD, California State University, Los Angeles; Karen S. Ingersoll, PhD, University of Virginia School of Medicine; and Richard Jenkins, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Why Psychology is (still) critical in the science and practice of addressing HIV/AIDS Symposium
The Committee on Psychology and AIDS in conjunction with the Committee on Early Career Psychologists sponsored the symposium entitled Why Psychology is (still) critical in the science and practice of addressing HIV/AIDS. This one-hour program was co-chaired by early career psychologists and COPA members Sherry C. Wang, PhD, Santa Clara University, and Kristi E. Gamarel, PhD, Brown University. The purpose of this special hour was to integrate the historical, current, and future issues related to HIV/AIDS science and practice in psychology. Psychology has evolved to adapt to the many roles necessary to improve the research and practice of HIV prevention and care. It highlighted that the field of Psychology itself may not even recognize its unique and important contributions. It also noted that ongoing dialogue is needed to recognize the diverse and interdisciplinary roles of psychologists as social and behavioral scientists at the forefront of HIV science and practice. Finally, it emphasized that as the Psychology discipline continues to maintain a critical role in the epidemic, it will be vital for early career psychologists to recognize the prominent role they can play from their subfields and disciplines.
In 2008, the APA Office on AIDS, was awarded a grant to administer Cyber Mentors: A Sustainable Model for Developing Minority HIV Researchers, an innovative research mentorship program run through the Office on AIDS and designed to prepare junior behavioral scientists for successful independent research careers in HIV/AIDS and health disparities. This program was renewed in 2013 with COPA member (and 2014 COPA chair), Velma McBride Murry, PhD, serving as co-principal investigator, and Tiffany Townsend, PhD, APA Senior Director (Office on Ethnic Minority Affairs), serving as principal investigator of the grant. The program incorporates the following specific aims: (1) to maintain and strengthen the Cyber Mentors Program, an innovative mentorship program delivered by the APA that is national in its scope and uses web-based technologies to prepare mentees to become independent HIV/AIDS researchers; (2) to expand and sustain the network of volunteer senior mentors who support the selected mentees in developing successful independent research careers in the HIV/AIDS arena; and (3) to recruit, train, and support mentees who are committed to independent research careers focused on HIV/AIDS in ethnic minority communities.. The Cyber Mentors ended in July 2017.COPA provided ongoing consultation and support for this program throughout its existence.
On August 4th, the Health Disparities Office and COPA hosted the Psychology and AIDS Leadership Awards at the 2017 APA Convention in Washington, DC. Fayth Parks, PhD, Chair, Committee on Psychology and AIDS (COPA), opened the ceremony with welcoming remarks. Health Disparities Office Senor Director Lula Beatty, PhD, and APA President-Elect Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, also greeted COPA alumni and guests. Distinguished Leader award recipient Jeffrey Parsons, PhD (Hunter College, City University of New York) and Emerging Leader award recipient, David Pantalone, PhD (University of Massachusetts Boston) gave acceptance remarks. Following the formal program, attendees enjoyed refreshments and continued celebrating the achievements of these outstanding scholars.
In collaboration with the Public Interest Government Relations Office (PI-GRO) and the Health Disparities Office, COPA members articulated and advanced APA's HIV/AIDS goals, including: 1) Continued federal investments in the National Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS behavioral research; 2) Integration of mental health and substance use services in HIV/AIDS medical care; 3) Sustained federal investments in domestic HIV/AIDS programs; and 4) Global AIDS, including President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and global LGBT human rights legislation.
Additional policy and advocacy activities in which COPA participated included:
Consistent with its mission and strategic plan, COPA is committed to the ongoing pursuit of the following objectives:
The objectives link to the APA mission and strategic goals, specifically with regard to Goal 2, which is to expand psychology’s role in advancing health and Goal 3, which is to increase recognition of psychology as a science.