President’s Message

President’s Message

By Yo Jackson, PhD, ABPP

What Does it Mean to be a Member?

Hi all – Yo Jackson here – your 2023 President – hoping you are reading this with a sense of pride over all of your accomplishments this year so far and a sense of optimism for the future. This issue, I want to say a word about membership. Clearly as a member, you know that SCCAP is an important part of your professional identity. It is good to be a member of professional groups that provide you with a sense of connection not only to the science, but to the practice of clinical child and adolescent psychology. But what does it mean for YOU to be a member? Why did you join SCCAP and what keeps you renewing every year?

The Board – especially your Member-at-Large for Membership, Chrissy Cammarata – and I are always interested in finding new ways to not only increase our membership, but to keep current members engaged. To this end, SCCAP tries to find some benefit for every stage of your development as a professional psychologist.

We want to hear from you. The listserv is one of the best benefits of being a member of SCCAP, but did you know you can contact any member of the Board directly and let them know your interest in a given area? Recently, the members of Division 54 (Pediatric Psychology) have expressed to their Board an interest in assisting and supporting their clinical members who provide gender-affirming care in states where such practices are under fire. Are there other issues that affect your practice or your science where you feel that SCCAP should be more involved? Let us know!

In addition to letting the Board know more about how we can serve you—remember there are a lot of ways you can be of service to SCCAP.

If you are a student – think about joining the student board and participating in one of their many committees. You could assist in developing the student mentorship program or be a voice in helping to decide how student awards are distributed.

If you are an early career psychologist – consider joining one of the Board committees and work groups. If you are interested in diversity efforts in clinical child psychology, or training of psychologists (given you are fresh from that experience) or clinical science, the SCCAP Board  has committees devoted to each of these efforts. You could also participate in the Awards Committee helping to determine the best science in the field.

For early- and mid-career, and senior-level psychologists, I encourage you to consider running for a Board position. We are always looking for new voices on the Board to make sure that our focus of serving members met to the fullest.

If you are reading this, you likely know that it is important to join SCCAP and renew your membership each year. You, however, can get so much more from being a member – just let us know how SCCAP can better serve you as a psychologist. And when you are ready… how you can be of service to SCCAP, too!