Reigniting Our Why: Recognizing Member Contributions to the Field
By Lora M. Levett, PhD
AP-LS President
It is an exciting time for AP-LS! I always enjoy anticipating the annual conference, but this year is particularly poignant given our world circumstances over the past 2 years. In case you missed it, the conference grid is now available! I look forward to connecting with many of you in Denver and learning about the latest and greatest research in psychology and law.
This column marks part two of three in the series of columns introducing my presidential initiative centered on increasing the impact of our science. The TL; DR: I am forming three presidential task force committees. The first will create a plan for helping AP-LS better provide training and support our members in communicating our science to relevant legal stakeholders. The second is devoted to improving how we recognize our members for their contributions to the field and to the Society. The third is designed to explore creating an oral history project for our society, capturing our members’ stories and contributions related to the intersection of psychology and law. Today, I am introducing the second task force committee devoted to recognizing our members for their contributions to the field and to AP-LS.
To read more about the first task force committee, please see part one of this series in the January 2022 newsletter. To nominate yourself or someone else to serve on one of the task forces, please click here.To learn more about the second task force read on, and then check back in March for a preview of the third task force committee.
Presidential Task Force Committee Two: Recognizing Member Contributions
Part of increasing the impact of our work in the public sector involves recognizing the effort and lengths that our members go to ensure impact. However, traditional academic culture does not typically recognize this form of service in the traditional pillars of research, teaching, and service. With some exceptions, academic culture generally relies on the individual scholars to do the work of ensuring the impact of their science independent of their positions as academics.
In examining how we recognize our members’ contributions, our award structure has generally followed academic culture with some exceptions. We have an Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring Award, research grants and awards to recognize outstanding research contributions, and some awards to promote our organization’s goals of making significant strides in values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access. We also have the Distinguished Contributions to Psychology and Law Award, which could apply to folks who have made distinguished empirical, theoretical and/or applied contributions at the highest level.
However, we do not have awards that recognize members for their service to the community through the application of psychological science. We do not recognize particularly influential papers in a particular year. We could improve the way we recognize members for significant contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, or Access. Part of changing the culture is recognizing ourselves that our members contribute beyond what is traditionally expected in academia – we can start to change that culture through recognizing it as a Society.
The purpose of this task force is to strategically re-examine our award structure. How are our members contributing to the world in ways that are consistent with our mission and values? How are they contributing to the Society? Are we sufficiently recognizing our members for all these contributions? How can we do better? The product of this task force will be recommendations to the Executive Committee on how to revise our award structure based on the goal of better recognizing members for their good work. Click here to nominate yourself or someone else to serve on this task force.
In March, I’ll introduce the third task force designed to capture some of those contributions in an oral history project.Thank you for the opportunity to serve you all in this role. By working together, we can better recognize our members for their diverse and vast contributions to psychology and law.
AP-LS Practice Committee & The Society for Personality Assessment
TheAP-LS PracticeCommitteestrives to meet thedistinct needs of forensic clinicians.To that end, the Practice Committee is excited to announce our 2nd year of partnershipwith The Society for Personality Assessment(SPA), the largest organization dedicated to advance the evidence-based practice and impact of personality assessment through research, education, training, and advocacy.
This partnership affords all AP-LS members theSPA Member ratefor all of their workshops, as well as theSPA Convention, which is scheduled to be in personMarch 9-13, in Chicago, IL at the Westin Michigan Avenue hotel. AP-LS members save on average between $30-$75 dollars on registration depending on AP-LS membershiplevel. AP-LS members will also get access to the discounted rate at the hotel. Room reservations must be made by February 14, 2022, more information on the hotel can be found here.
This year Featured Lecturers include our AP-LS Practice Committee Chair, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh. In addition to Dr. Kavanaugh’s lecture, The Elephant in the Room: Whiteness in Psychology and Law, SPA will have the following lectures:
- Bruno Klopfer Award Lecture | Dr. Aaron Pincus
- Who are the Game Changers? Why We Need to Study Leadership in Adolescence | Dr. Jennifer Tackett
- School Threat Assessment: An Evidence-based Violence Prevention Strategy | Dr. Dewey Cornell
All featured lecture abstracts can be found here.
The Practice Committee members, Antoinette Kavanaugh, Danielle Rynczak, Lara Guzmán-Hosta, Ariel Breaux, Yenys Castillo, and Rebecca Rivas have joined with Dr. Tess Neal, who is a member of both organizations to bring you the session titled Can We Talk? Facilitating a Dialogue between Clinicians and Researchers on Friday, March 11, 2022, at 1:30pm.
There are also pre- and post-convention workshops where AP-LS members will receive the SPA Member rate. All workshops can be found here, but we have identified the following workshops highly relevant to AP-LS members:
SPAis approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. While SPAmaintains responsibility for this program and its content,the PracticeCommittee is pleased topartner with SPA for the aboveworkshops. Many of the live presentations sessions also have the opportunity for CEs through APA. Specific sessions and hours are still being finalized.
Registrationis now open. When you create your profile, please indicate your AP-LS membership category to receive the member rate upon registration.
If you have any questions, please reach out toinfo@spaonline.org.
If you are interested in discussing other ways the Practice Committee can meet the needs of forensic clinicians within AP-LS, please contact danielle.rynczak@umassmed.edu.
APA Convention Update
Updates regarding the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association to be held in person on the 4th - 7th August in Minneapolis.
In response to our call for Div. 41 proposals, we received 67 APA submissions, including posters, discussions, skill-building sessions, data-blitzes, and symposia. Thank you to our reviewers who have been generous with their time. As a reminder, reviews are due midnight, February 5th. We will notify successful applicants shortly after this date.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your programming co-chairs:
Stephane M. Shepherd, Ph.D. (sshepherd@swin.edu.au)
Alicia Nidjam-Jones, Ph.D. (alicia.nijdam-jones@umanitoba.ca)
Andre Kehn, Ph.D (andre.kehn@und.edu)
APA Updates
APA's Council of Representatives is set to meet virtually February 24-25. The agenda is expected to include the revisedResolution of Interrogation on Criminal Suspects,which was revised by a group of AP-LS experts and endorsed by the AP-LS Executive Committee. Also, your Council Reps (Jason Cantone and Margaret Bull Kovera) are working alongside other Council Reps including Michael Lamb (Division 7 Rep and AP-LS Secretary) on legislation that would "ban the box" and remove the felony status question from APA membership applications. A report of the meeting will be included in a later newsletter.
Additionally, the 2022 APA Board and Committee Call for Nominations deadline was extended toFebruary 7. We strongly encourage AP-LS/APA members to get involved in APA governance. Please visithttps://nomination.apa.org/to make a self-nomination or to nominate someone else.
Career Corner
TheCareerCorneris intended to highlight the individuals who work at the intersection of law and psychology, where they come from, how they got there and how their experiences influence their research, teaching, and/or practice. This edition ofCareer features CornerEmily J. Salisbury, Ph.D., the director of the Utah Criminal Justice Center.
To read this column, please click here.
Legal Update: The Impact of Reproductive Rights Laws on Health Policies
The 14th Amendment of the United States (U.S.) Constitution includes liberty and privacy doctrines upon which laws concerning marriage and childbearing depend. Under these doctrines, persons in the U.S. are guaranteed freedom from unwarranted government interference with respect to privacy in choosing their marital partners, if or when to procreate, if and what contraception to use, how to regulate what drugs are prescribed, how to assure bodily integrity, and other related medical decisions. Laws have been passed and judicial decisions made to variously facilitate or restrict the granting of these controversial liberties, with the questions of privacy and equality always looming large.
Currently, there is disparity in laws regulating women’s right to obtain an abortion and men’s right to destroy frozen fertilized embryos to exercise when and if they wish to procreate, despite the scientific data assuring safety and public opinion favoring unrestricted choice in both areas. Further, such laws discriminate against economically disadvantaged individuals and persons of color, who are less able to afford access to legal and safe healthcare. This article will discuss the current legal landscape around reproductive rights laws, health policies, and considerations for psychologists.
To read this column, please click here.
AP-LS Conference Information
AP-LS 2022 is just around the corner, and we’re excited for a program packed with great presentations. On March 16th, we’ll kick things off with four outstanding pre-conference workshops relevant to both practice and research. The conference itself, from March 17-19, will have eight simultaneous rooms of programming, including 270 individual paper presentations, 71 data-blitz talks, 39 symposia, around 200 posters, and a number of special sessions.
We’re especially looking forward to our plenary speakers: Dr. Arthur Lupia will give the presidential plenary discussing his experience and research on science communication; a panel of AP-LS members will share their vast expertise on a variety of routes to increasing the impact of our science; and Prof. Kristin Henning will give our final plenary on race, adolescence, and the trauma caused by policing. These plenaries will help each of us to leave the conference with new ideas for how to do meaningful work in our field.
Keep checking the conference website for updates, conference registration, and the link for hotel reservations:https://ap-ls.org/2022-apls-conference
We’re so excited to see everyone in Denver!
Sincerely,
Emily Haney-Caron and Kelly McWilliams
2022 AP-LS Conference Co-Chairs
Conference Update from the CAC
Dear AP-LS Members,
With March and the annual AP-LS conference not long away, please review three new critical announcements from the Conference Advisory Committee (CAC).
Change to CEs:CEs for pre-conference programming will remain available; however, due to changes by APA,CONCEPT has recently informed that they will not be able to offer CEs for primary conference programming this year. The CAC is taking the issue seriously in working with the Continuing Education Committee and relevant presenters to attempt to secure CEs for limited programming (i.e., plenaries, award sessions, and AP-LS Committee sessions, but not symposia or paper sessions).
Important Registration Update:There will be no on-site conference registration permitted this year.All conference goers must register online in advance of the conference by March 15. This is necessary to ensure vaccination verification and smooth registration for everyone.
Mask Requirement:For the safety of all conference attendees,masks will be required in all conference spacesexcept when actively eating or drinking. This requirement extends to all conference sessions as well as conference social events.
In addition, all hotel employees are currently required to wear masks. The city of Denver has required everyone to wear masks indoors since mid-December. The city requirements are set to expire on February 3. Therefore, we will notify the membership regarding the general city requirements closer to the conference. However, the mask guidelines in conference spaces will not change based on city policy.
The CAC appreciates the collective fatigue with the ongoing pandemic, and we hope that members will remain patient as the CAC works with our dedicated conference co-chairs to ensure a safe, enjoyable, and professionally stimulating conference for all.
Nicholas Druhn
Chair of the Conference Advisory Committee
Druhnn@icloud.com
Essentialism and Legal System Working Group
We are putting together a working group of researchers who are interested in essentialism and/or generic language in legal settings. The goal of the group is to discuss past research, as well as future research questions and collaboration. If you are interested in becoming a part of this group or learning more, please provide your contact information in this survey:https://fiu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5uM9uXeXHcTxOFU.If you have any questions, please feel free to direct them to Dr. Colleen Berryessa (colleen.berryessa@rutgers.edu) or Dr. Deborah Goldfarb (deborah.goldfarb@fiu.edu).
TTC Solicits Column Topics
Do you have a teaching, training, or career strategy or topic that you want to share with the APLS membership? Have you ever thought about developing that idea into an essay for the Teaching column for the APLS newsletter? This is your opportunity to share your ideas and experiences. The APLS Teaching, Training, and Careers (TTC) committee is seeking solicitations for column topics. Send your ideas or brief abstract to Kim McClure, Chair of the TTC (ttc@ap-ls.org).
Saleem Shah Early Career Award
On behalf of AAFP and AP-LS, theSaleemShahEarly Career Award Selection Committee is pleased to announce this year's recipient of theSaleemShahEarly Career Award:Dr. Ashley Batastini.
SaleemShahwas one of the godfathers of our field. In 1968, he established law and mental health studies as a formal program priority for the National Institute of Mental Health and became the guide and mentor for a new generation of scholars who, through their empirical and theoretical work, transformed the field of law and mental health studies – among them Tom Grisso, John Monahan, Loren Roth, Bruce Sales, Henry Steadman, Linda Teplin, and David Wexler, to name but a few. GivenSaleem’s history of support and mentorship for so many in this field, AAFP and the American Psychology-Law Society established this award to focus on one of his major interests - nurturing the careers and talents of young forensic psychologists.
This award is given for demonstrating significant early career achievement in forensic psychology or related fields of law. Its recipients demonstrate a broad range of qualities, including the passionate development of relevant research and its application to public service, practice, and mentoring. The selection committee for this award was incredibly impressed by Dr. Batastini’s accomplishments and her ability to translate research into policy changes within correctional settings. The following list includes some of her noteworthy achievements (though there are so many more not listed here):
- She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Texas Tech University in 2015, and is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research at the University of Memphis.
- She has 30 peer-reviewed articles, 2 edited books, 10 book chapters, and 2 treatment manuals.
- Dr. Batastini serves on many editorial boards, including Criminal Justice and Behavior, Law and Human Behavior, and Psychological Services. She has also held leadership positions in several APA Divisions (including Division 41), and was recently elected President of APA Division 18 (Psychologists in Public Service).
- Dr. Batastini’s letter writers described her as “a leading expert” in correctional treatment. She researched the psychological effects of restricted housing and then wrote the only training manual for treatment of individuals within restricted housing. Ashley began a pilot program providing treatment for women in segregation, a particularly underserved and under-researched subpopulation.
- Her focus on treatment in prison segregation units has also resulted in expertise in applying telehealth technology to forensic examinations and clinical treatment. Her 2021 meta-analysis comparing videoconference mental health services and in-person services as well as her 2019 survey of perceptions of telehealth in forensic evaluations have proved invaluable as many services became virtual during the pandemic.
- She has been described by her colleagues as having an unparalleled intellectual energy, commitment to systematic research, and lucid thinking.
- Dr. Batastini’s letter writers also emphasized her dedication to mentorship. One nominator expressed, “Like Saleem, she has extremely high standards and then helps her students to meet them.” Another nominator provided this example; “at the last in-person AP-LS conference (New Orleans, 2020), she had an impressive 8 students in attendance, all of whom were first-authored presenters or co-authors.”
Dr. Batastini was, to say the least, quite impressive. Please feel free to reach out and congratulate her atAshley.batastini@memphis.edu or learn more about her work at www.batastinipsychlab.com.
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the great work of the selection committee. We had an incredible group of nominees this year- although this makes the reading the materials so inspiring, it also makes choosing only one winner incredibly difficult. Each member of the selection committee independently reviewed all nominations and related materials (letters of nomination, CVs, etc.). They rated the candidates and spent time as a committee discussing the nominees before making the final selection. A sincere thank you to each of them:
- Jeff Kukucka, Ph.D. (past winner)
- Stephane Sheperd, Ph.D. (past winner)
- Robin Watkins, Ph.D, ABPP
Sincerely,
Shannon Bader, Ph.D, ABPP
President-Elect, American Academy of Forensic Psychology
Division 41 Election
In mid-April, an election will be held to fill the Division 41 positions ofPresident-Elect, Member-at-Large, and Council Representative. For more information about these positions, please see:http://www.apadivisions.org/division-41/leadership/executive-committee/index.aspx. You also can contact people currently in these positions for more information.
We are seeking nominations, including self-nominations, for these three positions. You must be a current AP-LS member to run for these positions, and you must also be an APA member to run for Council Representative. If you are interested in being considered for the election slate, please send the following materials to Allison Redlich (aredlich@gmu.edu), Chair of the AP-LS Nominations and Awards Committee:
- CV
- Letter(s) in support of the nominee
- Statement of interest (for self-nominations)
If you are nominating someone for the election slate, please ensure they are willing to run if they are selected to be on the ballot. All nominations are due byTuesday, February 1, 2022. All nominations and questions should be submitted to Allison Redlich (aredlich@gmu.edu).
On The Job or Postdoc Market? AP-LS Job Postings
Check out AP-LS's Job Postings Page for up-to-date information on available psychology-law positionshere.
AP-LS Contacts
Email addresses for all current EC members and Committee Chairs can be found here.
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