President’s Message

Sustaining What We’ve Built Together

President’s Message

Sustaining What We’ve Built Together

By Regine Galanti, PhD

When I began my term as SCCAP president, I asked you to get involved: to bring your voice, your service, and your energy into our society. At our inaugural conference in June, I called on us to broaden our scope and ensure that all of the voices that make up clinical child and adolescent psychology have a place in leadership. Now, as I write my final column as president, I’ll ask us to consider how we sustain this momentum. How do we help our society, and the field, continue to grow?

One of the things I’ve learned as president is that big visions only matter if we have the structure to support them. This kind of work isn’t flashy, and it rarely grabs attention. But a conference doesn’t organize itself, a budget doesn’t magically balance, and inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. All of it requires deliberate work — including the unglamorous work of changing bylaws, establishing committees, and managing transitions.

Much of the Board of Directors’ work this year has been about building a foundation that allows for SCCAP to flexibly meet the needs of its membership and society, more broadly. We’ve been rethinking our structure to make sure it reflects the society we want to be. To that end, we’ll be proposing some changes to our society’s bylaws. These proposed changes include:

• Creating a new Diversity Officer position (elevating the Diversity Member-at-Large)
• Changing the portfolio of responsibility for the Members-at-Large. While these are currently named, we will propose leaving them undefined so that future boards can pivot as SCCAP’s needs evolve
• Streamlining the board’s hierarchy to give committees more autonomy while ensuring the full board remains informed and engaged
  

These changes may look technical on paper, but they’re about building flexibility, responsiveness, and sustainability into our organization.

All of these ideas come back to the same principles I’ve focused on over this year: belonging and power. If we want SCCAP to represent the full spectrum of clinical child and adolescent psychology — researchers, practitioners, students, educators, community providers — then we need leadership pathways that make space for everyone. That means creating structures where new voices don’t just enter, but rise.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be asked to vote on the bylaws changes. I encourage you to take the time to read them carefully and to cast your vote. Because this is how we move from ideas to action, and from action to lasting change.

I want to take a moment to thank both the SCCAP board and our membership. This year has been an extraordinary opportunity for me, and it has been a privilege to serve as your president. I’ve been constantly inspired by the dedication, creativity, and care you bring to this field and to this organization. While my role is shifting, I’ll continue to serve as past president, and I look forward to working closely with our incoming president, Adam Lewin, to keep building on this forward momentum.

We’ve accomplished a lot together. I know we can continue to build – and sustain – a society that serves and strengthens our field, as well as prepares it for whatever comes next.