President’s Column – Spring 2024

It is an honor to start my year as Division 56 Trauma Psychology president. I became involved with this division shortly after its inception and have been fortunate to work with great colleagues for over a decade. I want to thank our past-President, Dr. Dawn Hughes for her leadership and support and want to welcome Dr. Jessica Punzo as our President-elect to the presidential trio. Both have been active in the division longer than I have and I am incredibly appreciative of their engagement, advocacy, and contributions to our division over the years.

I have a number of priorities for the coming year; however, in keeping with my presidential theme, issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) are at the top of my list. One way to address this is to grow and diversify our division membership and leadership. I want Division 56 to be an inclusive and welcoming place for everyone so that we can better represent and serve the communities that we work with. While this is not something that can be accomplished in the single year, my hope is to lay down a foundation that can continue to move us in the direction to achieve this. We need to promote our division to others, encourage individuals to run for leadership positions, and be open to hearing from all different voices and perspectives.

We have already started to work on some concrete things that can help grow our division. Our website has been updated to be more informative, modern, and easier to navigate. Additionally, we’re having discussions about improving our social media presence, and using that as an engagement mechanism for our members and the outside public. I also want to encourage everyone to reach out to the members of our Executive Committee. I think it is incredibly important that we hear from our members so that we can better prioritize the work we are doing.

While our journal, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy continues to be one of the top scholarly outlets for trauma research, we need to look for novel and creative ways to share and disseminate our work. For many, access to scholarly publications can be difficult or costly, limiting who can benefit from the research being published. Finding alternative methods of sharing information, whether it be research briefs, infographics, or other ways of visualizing data, can help grow the audience that can learn about novel research developments. While these methods are not intended to replace traditional scholarly outlets, they provide opportunities to inform practitioners and policymakers who may not easily have access to this information. My hope is that members can share creative ways to disseminate information among each other, so that we are in a better position to inform the public.

Although it is not until August, I am incredibly excited about what we have in store for the 2024 APA Annual Convention, which will be in Seattle, WA this year. So many of the presentations are in line with my convention theme, BIPOC and Beyond: Intersectional Approaches to Trauma-Informed Care and Research, and will be highlighting the important work being done across many diverse communities.

Lastly, I want to highlight the importance of the work that our members do given the continued challenges that we are facing globally. Most prominently are the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, attacks on reproductive health and bodily autonomy, continued incidents of large-scale gun violence, and recent cases that have highlighted the constant presence of sexual violence in our society. It is easy to get discouraged when we are inundated with reminders of these collective traumas. However, it highlights the importance of the work that trauma psychologist do, and the need to continue to educate others about the significant impact these forms of violence have on individuals and their communities.

I am excited about what this year will bring and want to continue to encourage everyone to reach out and connect with your colleagues within the Division and beyond.