Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI): 2012 Annual Report

The mission of BAPPI shall be to encourage the generation and application of psychological knowledge on issues important to human well-being. It shall have general concern for those aspects of psychology that involve solutions to the fundamental problems of human justice and that promote equitable and just treatment of all segments of society. BAPPI shall encourage the utilization and dissemination of psychological knowledge to advance equal opportunity and to foster empowerment of those who do not share equitably in society's resources.

The Board shall be concerned with increasing scientific understanding and training in regard to those aspects that pertain to but are not limited to culture, class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age and disability. The Board shall support improving educational and training opportunities for all persons in psychology and continue the promotion of culturally sensitive models for the delivery of psychological services. The Board shall be sensitive to the entire range of APA activities as they pertain to the mission of this Board and make recommendations regarding ethically and socially responsible actions by APA when appropriate. The composition of the Board shall reflect diversity in terms of ethnic minorities, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and religion, as well as the range of interests characteristic of psychology in all its aspects.

BAPPI met during the Spring Consolidated Meetings on March 30 – April 1, 2012 and during the Fall Consolidated Meetings on Nov. 2-4, 2012. BAPPI members also met individually with their respective committees during the first round of Consolidated Meetings on Oct. 5-7, 2012.

The members of BAPPI in 2012 were: Karen F. Wyche, PhD (Chair); Toni Antonucci, PhD; Meg A. Bond, PhD; Y. Barry Chung, PhD; Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, EdD; Claire G. Gastañaga, JD (Public Member); J. Douglas McDonald, PhD; Linda R. Mona, PhD; Allen Omoto, PhD (Chair-elect); and Luis A. Vargas, PhD.

Drs. Wyche, Chung, and Mona completed their terms on the Board at the conclusion of 2012. M. Dolores Cimini, PhD; Linda M. Forrest, PhD; and William D. Parham, PhD are joining BAPPI beginning in Jan. 2013.

Public Interest Committee Chairs-elect attended BAPPI’s Fall Consolidated Meetings and reported on the activities and accomplishments of their respective groups over the past year, and received commendation for the quality, amount, and relevancy of their work. Each committee provided BAPPI with a summary sheet that highlighted activities, initiatives, and projects (current and upcoming). The chairs-elect met amongst themselves during the afternoon session to discuss potential opportunities for collaboration among committees during convention and on projects that have the potential to cross programs in the future. Two local members, Angela Ferguson (CLGBTC Chair-elect) and Lawrence Pick (CDIP Chair-elect) planned to meet with Karen Wyche, BAPPI Chair or Chair-elect Allen Omoto, to offer feedback from that meeting.

BAPPI will continue with a health disparities theme for the 2013 convention programming. Thus, BAPPI invited PI committees to design programming addressing health disparities that included clarifying a particular health disparities issue for their constituent groups in addition to addressing cross-cutting and intersectional issues that influence the well-being of constituent groups represented by the PI committees. Proposals that included specific focus on a single constituent group but that also addressed intersectional concerns or perspectives within a single symposium or programming session were especially encouraged.

BAPPI will sponsor the following sessions during the 2013 APA convention in Honolulu:

• Health Disparities: Emerging Biopsychosocial Challenges of Older Adults Living with HIV
   Committee on Aging (CONA); Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology (CDIP); Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA); Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns (CLGBTC); ad hoc Committee on Psychology and AIDS (COPA); Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES); Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP)

• Culture and Health Disparities among Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians: Indigenous Theory, Research, and Practice
  Committee on Children, Youth, and Families (CYF); Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA); Committee on Aging (CONA); Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology (CDIP); Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES)

• Can Psychology Accommodate Divergent Views on Size? Barriers to a Nuanced Understanding of Obesity
  Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology (CDIP); Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP); Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA); Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES)

• Abuse of Women with Disabilities as Reflected in Health Disparities
  Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP); Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology (CDIP); Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns (CLGBTC)

• Older Women and Health Disparities
  Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP); Committee on Aging (CONA); Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA); Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns (CLGBTC); Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES)

During its Fall 2011 retreat meeting, the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI) discussed at length the growing need for a PI Leadership Conference. Reasons given included: (1) the need to bring PI constituent groups together in ways that would strengthen, empower, and consolidate them while also providing a platform for greater collaboration among these groups; (2) APA’s strategic plan’s focus on health, the large amount of health focused work within the directorate, and the PI health disparities initiative all provide fertile ground for a more in depth discussion of psychology’s contribution to the health of health disparity populations; (3) each of the other directorates has annually held leadership conferences for a number of years; and (4) the recent budget crisis that prevented the PI Directorate from requesting funding for its own leadership conference has subsided.

The Board of Directors was provided a detailed item that included background information, budget implications, and expected outcomes.

After an extended discussion, largely due to budget concerns, during their December 7-9, 2012 meeting, the Board of Directors voted to reject the main motion: That the Board of Directors recommends that the Council of Representatives approve the addition of $186,300 in the 2013 Budget to establish a Public Interest Leadership Conference. .

An extensive review is underway to update the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists (2002). A working group has been established, reporting through BAPPI. Drs. Nadya Fouad and Patricia Arredondo are providing leadership as Co-chairs. Both Drs. Fouad and Arredondo served on the working group that originally developed the Multicultural Guidelines and will work with a consultancy group comprised of current and past members of COPPS to finalize the revision. Processes are in place for the draft MC Guidelines to come before Council in Aug. 2013.

BAPPI discussed at both meetings its nascent Human Rights Initiative and potential activities and goals. There was general consensus that a variety of terms are currently used as stand-ins for “human rights” across the Association and its work, and also that these definitions may not be consistent with human rights standards and principles from international contexts and documents. Thus, BAPPI prioritized the need for definitional clarity about “human rights” while also exhorting that the term should be as inclusive as possible so as to include BAPPI constituent groups, the rights of the child, and other recent international (and specifically United Nations) initiatives. In addition, BAPPI reaffirmed its desire to having a broadly constituted working group move forward with this initiative and to have this group prioritize potential activities to be undertaken.

BAPPI conducted an extensive review of the current Public Interest Awards Call for Nominations. The board decided to take a closer look at the language used to determine the early and senior career Awards. Currently the Early Career Award recognizes an individual whose terminal degree was conferred 15 years or fewer prior to the date of nomination; the Senior Career Award recognizes an individual whose terminal degree was conferred more than 15 years prior to the date of the nomination. The board asked their staff liaison to pull together information regarding what constitutes “early career.” With the information gathered from other directorates, it was determined that the definitions vary across the Association. A working group (Karen Wyche, Allen Omoto and Luis Vargas) was formed to clarify some of the language, and if necessary, modify the current call for nominations to include new criteria for submissions. With the new information, the working group developed a revised Public Interest Call for Nominations for the 2014 awards cycle and thereafter.

BAPPI also decided to conduct an extensive review the current process for determining the recipients for the Public Interest Award. The working group (Wyche, Omoto, and Vargas) formed to review the current call for nominations will also clarify some of the criteria used to evaluate and score nominees when determining the recipients of the Award (Spring 2013). Staff provided information from other directorates about their processes and were surprised about the lack of consistency.