Diversity Committee Update

Diversity Committee Update

By Juventino Hernandez Rodriguez, PhD
Member-at-Large: Diversity

The Diversity Committee has been busy with several DEI initiatives in SCCAP over the last few months!

In April, we collaborated with the Education and Standards Committee and the Bilingual Psychologists SIG to host SCCAP’s first ever webinar in Spanish! Dr. Cecilia Montiel-Nava presented “Empoderando a las Familias Intervenciones Mediadas por Padres para Niños Autistas Latinos” (Empowering Families: Parent-Mediated Interventions for Latino Children with Autism) to a group of engaged psychologists and trainees! Members can access slides from the webinar here.

We were also thrilled to provide 11 Diversity Professional Development Awards to SCCAP members this year. These awards provide financial support to help graduate students and early career professionals attend professional conferences and disseminate their work. In fact, several 2025 awardees attended our inaugural SCCAP Conference in Chicago in June, where they presented posters or participated as panelists.

The Diversity Committee was also excited to participate in the planning of the in-person Leadership Education to Advance Diversity (LEAD) Institute, which was chaired by Dr. Erlanger Turner and Dr. Marilyn Sampilo.  Held a day prior to the SCCAP Conference, this event provided programming focused on professional development, leadership skill building, and networking. LEAD fellows had a packed day with leaders in our field including Dr. Roberto Abreu, Dr. Robyn Gobin, Dr. Raquel Martin, Dr. Ali Mattu, Dr. Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, and Dr. Earl Turner. The end of the LEAD institute was marked with a community building dinner with the SCCAP Board. The Diversity Committee was excited and hopeful to see our future leaders in the making! As planning for the next LEAD institute begins, please visit the SCCAP website to learn more and watch for information about the next application cycle.

Lastly, the SCCAP Diversity Committee is looking for new committee members. Our committee focuses on diversity and multiculturalism initiatives within SCCAP. Some of our past initiatives have focused on developing research awards for student and early career members and enhancing leadership skills (e.g., LEAD Institute). If interested in volunteering, please contact me at Juventino.hernandezrodriguez@csun.edu