SCCAP Fellows Committee Update

SCCAP Fellows Committee Update

By Martha C. (Marcy) Tompson, PhD
Chair, SCCAP Fellows Committee

By Martha C. (Marcy) Tompson, PhD
Chair, SCCAP Fellows Committee

APA/SCCAP Fellow status is a valued honor and recognizes outstanding contributions, with national impact, to Psychology overall and to SCCAP specifically.

It was a busy spring for the SCCAP Fellows Committee.  I would like to thank the other committee members whose contributions are essential to this work: Rhonda C. Boyd, PhD and Jarrod Leffler, PhD, ABPP. We reviewed previous APA Fellows who were eligible for SCCAP Fellow status, and Initial Fellows who had not yet received fellow status in any APA division.

Six APA/SCCAP members who were already Fellows in other APA divisions were selected this year as SCCAP Fellows: Roberto Abreu, PhD, Julie Cerel, PhD, Meghan McAuliffe Lines, PhD, Sunnye Mayes, PhD, ABPP, Leo Wilton, PhD, and Wendy Ward, PhD, ABPP. Congratulations to this outstanding group of SCCAP Fellows! 

For Initial Fellows, which are those who are not yet Fellows of any APA Division, the process includes a few more steps. First, the SCCAP Fellows Committee reviewed candidates and provided our endorsements. Second, these candidates were forwarded to the overall APA Fellows Committee for final review. Third, the candidates will be voted on by the APA Council of Representatives. Finally, the new APA Fellows will be announced at the APA Annual Convention in August.  Stay tuned!

As Fellows Chair, I am excited to showcase some of our wonderful SCCAP Fellows and their contributions to our field. This month we introduce (or re-introduce to the many who know her and her stellar work) Dr. Jennifer L. Hughes, who became a Fellow on January 1, 2026.

Featured Fellow: Jennifer L. Hughes, PhD, MPH

Jennifer L. Hughes, PhD, MPH, is a Psychologist in Behavioral Health and Principal Investigator in the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, College of Medicine, and the Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion, College of Public Health, at The Ohio State University. Dr. Hughes is part of the Methods Core and multi-PI on two projects in the NIMH P50 Center for Accelerating Suicide Prevention in Real-world Settings (ASPIRES: PIs Jeff Bridge and Cynthia Fontanella), which aims to accelerate the development and use of effective interventions to reduce suicide in children and adolescents. Dr. Hughes is a co-developer of two evidence-based treatments, one for relapse prevention of depression in children and adolescents (Relapse Prevention CBT; Kennard, Hughes, & Foxwell, 2016) and one utilizing family-based CBT for suicidal youth and their parents (SAFETY; Asarnow et al., 2015, 2017, 2021; Hughes & Asarnow, 2022).

Dr. Hughes has funding from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to adapt the parent component of SAFETY to a web-based tool for therapists to use with parents in outpatient therapy. The SAFETY intervention has also been implemented across Sweden as part of an RCT led by Dr. Johan Bjureberg. Dr. Hughes’s work has also focused on universal suicide prevention in youth through a school-based mental health promotion and suicide prevention program called Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM).  

She is an international trainer for YAM, involved in dissemination efforts in the United States, Australia, England, and India. Dr. Hughes recently received a PCORI award to examine YAM and SOS Signs of Suicide in middle and high school students in 4 states. Dr. Hughes also leads current studies of yoga for adolescents with depression and sleep health interventions for middle and high school students. Dr. Hughes has received funding from organizations including the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).  Dr. Hughes values implementation science and dissemination work, training psychologists and clinicians in evidence-based practices for youth suicide prevention and depression. Dr. Hughes is a past Chair (2017-2018) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Child and Adolescent Depression Special Interest Group (SIG) and has served as the Newsletter Editor (2017-2021), APA Convention Program Chair (2013-2015), and Member-at-Large for Science and Practice (2023-2026) for the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 53, Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Broadly, Dr. Hughes’s research explores the efficacy and effectiveness of psychosocial treatments for building resilience, the prevention and treatment of youth depression, and addressing suicide in youth. For more information, please visit Dr. Hughes’ profile.

If you are interested in becoming an SCCAP Fellow, you are encouraged to apply! Applications for the 2027 cycle are not due until December 1, 2026, so you have time to prepare your materials. Please note that your APA dues must be up-to-date and membership in both APA and SCCAP must be current at the time of application. For information on requirements, please visit the SCCAP website.