Science & Practice Committee Update

Science & Practice Committee Update

By Jennifer L. Hughes, PhD, MPH
MAL, Science & Practice

By Jennifer L. Hughes, PhD, MPH
MAL, Science & Practice

I am excited to begin my term as the new SCCAP Member-at-Large (MAL) for Science and Practice. I am a psychologist 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. SCCAP has been my professional home throughout my career, starting when I served as the 2015 APA Convention Division 53 SCCAP Program Chair. I moved into the Newsletter Editor role from 2017-2021, and I am honored to serve in the MAL role now for our organization. I want to start by expressing appreciation for the fabulous contributions of our outgoing MAL for Science and Practice, Jill Ehrenreich-May, PhD. It has been a joy to collaborate with Jill, first in my role as SCCAP Newsletter Editor, and more recently as a member of the Clinical Practice Institute Sub-Committee. Jill’s passion and enthusiasm for SCCAP’s 2022 Clinical Practice Institute (CPI), “Culturally-Sensitive Evidence-Based Practices for Children and Adolescents”, coupled with her hard work, resulted in a highly successful experience for our members. I look forward to planning our 2023 CPI, and we will announce the dates on the SCCAP listserv in the coming month. I have already heard about topics of interest from several of our members and am interested in hearing more. Please contact me if you would like to serve on the 2023 CPI Sub-Committee, forming now!

I know that you, our members, have been busy, providing care for youth and families, developing innovative strategies to better train our child mental health workforce, testing new models and interventions to grow our evidence-based assessment and treatment approaches, and contributing to your communities to support prevention, education, and access to care efforts. How do I know this? I’m basing this assertion off the remarkable nominations and application materials we have received for our 2023 awards season! Be on the lookout for SCCAP listserv announcements of our 2023 award recipients and plan to attend their APA Convention addresses and/or webinars.

I want to highlight a few specific science and practice resources from APA. If you have not already, please sign up for the APA Science Spotlight. Additionally, APA has a helpful resource page for practitioners, available here.

As I go forward in my role as MAL for Science and Practice, I look forward to the opportunity to get to know more of you and to hear about your interests and needs within SCCAP. If you would like to become more involved in SCCAP’s science and/or practice initiatives, I am sure we can find a place for you within our Science and Practice Sub-Committees. Please contact me directly at jennifer.hughes@nationwidechildrens.org.