SCCAP Elections

SCCAP Elections

SCCAP is pleased to present our slate of candidates—as well as their respective statements—for our upcoming 2023 Executive Committee election.

President-Elect Candidates

Regine Galanti, PhD

I am honored to be considered for the role of President of SCCAP. I currently serve as the Chair of the Communications Committee, which gives me a valuable perspective for the ongoing initiatives of the SCCAP board. My position has allowed me to consider new ideas for how my presidency can serve and benefit SCCAP members. Particularly, my role as a practitioner in private practice gives me a unique perspective on how we can better support our practitioner and early career members.

As SCCAP’s Communications Chair, I launched our social media presence, as a way to highlight many of the fantastic research and clinical contributions of our members, as well as to help disseminate evidence-based resources to both the field’s workforce and the public. I was also a member of our Clinical Practice Institute planning committee, in which we focused on providing long form training with practical takeaways on the topic of culturally sensitive evidence-based practices for children and adolescents.

As President, I would like to continue this dissemination and training work with an eye towards ensuring that the needs of all our members are being met, from students to seasoned professionals, as well as in all roles from clinician to academic. I would love to focus on increasing participation of our members outside research and academia, to consider their needs and increase their position as stakeholders in our society. I’d like to consider how to best support the “on the ground” clinical workforce in their training and learning, as well as how to best get practitioners up to date research and resources. If elected, I will partner with the executive board to consider how to support all our members, and best involve those who are underrepresented in our society’s initiatives: from presentations to awards to projects supporting their needs.

Getting involved in SCCAP has been a wonderful experience, and I hope to continue to build on the meaningful contributions that others have made to child and adolescent evidence-based psychology.

Representative to APA Council Candidates

Joaquín Borrego, Jr., PhD

I am excited about the possibility of serving as an APA Council Representative for the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP).  It would be an honor to serve as a Council Representative and engage in advocacy that is in line with the SCCAP’s mission of enhancing the science of practice of clinical child and adolescent psychology. I am particularly interested in moving forward our continued work related to equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI). Although APA has made some recent strides, there is much work ahead as we strive to make our professional society more inclusive and socially responsive to its members and society.  

I will work collaboratively with the Council of Representatives to ensure that APA develops and implements policies that are in line with their mission and new strategic plan, IMPACT.  We need to continue our work and focus on diversifying the pipeline from undergraduate to graduate school so our communities may benefit greatly from a more diverse psychology workforce that provides high quality culturally informed, evidence-based assessment and intervention services for children, adolescents, and families. Related, we need to continue our work on being more socially responsive to the needs of our communities. Specifically, we need to be proactive in addressing social conditions (e.g., racism, poverty, transphobia) that contribute to the inequities faced by diverse children, youth, and families. 

It would be a great privilege to represent SCCAP on the Council of Representatives as itt is vital that the voices and interests of SCCAP members are represented in APA. Thank you for your consideration.

Stephen Hupp, PhD

The SCCAP Council of Representatives board position calls to me for one simple reason – too few children and adolescents are receiving evidence-based treatments (EBTs). Facing this challenge has been the primary focus of my career, and I’ve happily observed how SCCAP has been at the forefront of identifying and disseminating EBTs. There are several ways that I regularly promote the science of psychology in my roles as a Professor of Clinical Child and School Psychology and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. For example, I’ve conducted EBT-focused research, published EBT-focused books, and provided EBT-focused services as the Mental Health Consultant Coordinator for the East St. Louis Head Start Program. Additionally, as an Editor-In-Chief for The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development, I worked with a large team to disseminate information about the evidence base of several broad aspects of our field. I believe that being a part of something even bigger, like the work done by SCCAP, is the best way for me to help make the most significant long-lasting contributions to the improvement of mental health care provided to youth. Lastly, my experience as a Professor (and the Clinical Child Coordinator) for 20 years in our Master’s program puts me in a good position to weigh in on upcoming issues such as the accreditation of Master’s programs.

Member-at-Large (Diversity) Candidates

Juventino Hernandez Rodriguez, PhD

It would be a great honor to serve as SCCAP Member-at-Large for Diversity. My professional career has centered around diversity science, training students of color, providing clinical services to minoritized children and families, and increasing representation within the psychology workforce. I strongly believe in SCCAP’s mission to improve the mental health and development of children and families. Particularly, I believe we as an organization can make great strides to help children and families who often encounter barriers to securing affordable, equitable, evidence-based prevention and intervention services. Additionally, I believe we can help empower and train members at all levels on how to incorporate and consider diversity within our professional roles. I strongly believe that as a board member I can help support current SCCAP diversity initiatives (e.g., LEAD Fellows) and develop new mechanisms and opportunities that support diversity, equity, and inclusion. I believe that my experiences as an APA Minority Fellow, APA Advocacy Summit member, and ABCT SIG Leader have given me the necessary skills to help flourish in this role.

Nuri Reyes, PhD

In both my research and clinical work, I have made a priority to serve families from diverse backgrounds as these families often encounter numerous barriers when seeking services for their children, including language, stigma, discrimination, and understanding of the medical, and mental health system, and they typically have limited social and financial resources and support. It would be an honor to be considered for the position of Member-at-Large for Diversity as I hope it will help me continue my commitment to support families and their children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. My ultimate goals are (1) to increase knowledge and awareness of the needs and barriers experience by minority families, (2) to help decrease those barriers, and (3) to support and serve members, students and professionals, who serve these families. My previous efforts with the Diversity Committee have included supporting students and early career professionals to advance their professional development and scientific endeavors when working with underserved families and children. My commitment to serve culturally and linguistically diverse families aligns with SCCAP’s commitment to increase efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to decrease disparities in research and clinical services. My clinical, research, service, and teaching experiences have prepared me to serve as Member-at-Large for Diversity, and it will be an honor to serve SCCAP members, and to work with SCCAP Board of Directors to support families and children.

Member-at-Large (Education & Standards) Candidates

Meghan Miller, PhD

I am pleased to be considered for the Member-at-Large, Education and Standards position. I am highly committed to training and education in clinical child and adolescent psychology, as demonstrated by a number of my ongoing professional activities.

My involvement with SCCAP began when I served as the APA Convention Program Co-Chair/Chair (2017-2019), which involved developing convention programming relevant to SCCAP and its diverse members. I subsequently joined the Education and Standards Committee (2020-present) and have served as the Chair of the Routh Dissertation Award and Grant review committee since 2019. Most recently, I took on the role as one of SCCAP’s two liaisons to the ABCCAP Clinical Child and Pediatric Psychology Training Council’s Training Guidelines Steering Committee and Task Force, contributing to the development of training guidelines in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology. Thus, I have a track record of commitment both to SCCAP as an organization as well as to training and education within this organization.

I have also demonstrated my commitment to training and education outside of SCCAP. Within the MIND Institute, I serve as the Associate Training Director of the MIND Institute’s Clinical Psychology Training Program (doctoral internship and fellowship) and on the Leadership Committee of the MIND Institute’s NIMH-funded postdoctoral T32 training program. As the inaugural Chief of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at UC Davis, I have worked to better integrate psychologists, particularly child and adolescent psychologists, into the teaching and training of psychiatrists. These activities have afforded me the opportunity to develop and evaluate curricula across levels of training and to elevate the profession of clinical child and adolescent psychology within a department of psychiatry.  

Through my prior involvement with SCCAP, I have gained insight into the structure and functioning of the Board and would be honored to join this exceptional organization as the Member-at-Large for Education and Standards. If elected, I would look forward to building upon the Professional Development webinar series and other CE programs, incorporating input from members on topics of interest; supporting SCCAP’s student and early career award programs with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and continuing to represent SCCAP’s interests and members in the development of training guidelines for clinical child and adolescent psychology as a specialty discipline.

Heather Ciesielski, PhD

I am grateful to be considered for the Member-at-Large, Education and Standards position.  Education and training have been my great joys in my career. In my faculty position at MCW, I created an evaluation practicum for graduate students interested in psychological assessment in addition to providing training for medical residents in child/adolescent development and ethics. The opportunity to expand training opportunities for students, residents, and fellows was one of the motivators for me in accepting the position at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and the primary reason I pursued my current position at Purdue University. Service to my institution, profession, and community has always been highly important to me. In my previous institutions I served on committees responsible for upholding educational standards for psychological, medical, and allied health providers, as well as serving as liaison for a collaboration between Cincinnati Children’s Center for ADHD and a local school to provide seminars for parents and for continuing education seminars for professionals. This year, I was honored to achieve board certification in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology, with a deep appreciation for the advocacy of SCCAP in their protection of our specialty. Over the years, SCCAP and APA have been a guiding force in setting educational, training, and professional standards for psychologists and those in training. I believe my skills in this area match well for this Member-at-Large position and it would be my pleasure to be able to further these pursuits through this role. 

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