Fall 2020 AK-PA Newsletter

Greetings,

Please enjoy this Newsletter brought to you by the Alaska Psychological Association

To date 2020 has been a year of many twists and turns, ups and downs! While the AK-PA Board has not been immured we have forged ahead and have been working behind the scenes to continue to fulfilled our mission and vision.

“Mission: To promote the advancement, communication and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives.

“Vision: A strong, diverse, and unified psychology that enhances knowledge and improves the human condition.”

Here are a few of the things we have been behind the scenes working on:

In closing, we welcome you to join in our endeavor to contribute in a positive manner to the psychological health and welfare of the people in our state. If you have ideas, share them with us, join in one of our committees, identify an area we are missing-help us develop. Please come to the table and join in our committee to serve our community. As a volunteer board we have been busy and yet there’s is so many more opportunities. Accept this as a personal invitation to join us!

Thank Yous!

Jana Zeedyk, PhD – Thank you for your service as the Past President

Kara Stocker, PhD – Thank you for your service as Member at Large

Michael Reed, PsyD – Thank you for your service as Member at Large

K/J/ Worbey, MS, LPA – Thank you for your service as Secretary

Suzanne W. Strisik, PhD – Thank you for your services as the Ethics Chair

Chris Reynolds – Special thank you for keeping a pulse on community issues.

Committee Updates

Fall 2020

AKPA Legislative Committee Report

By Robert Lane, Ph.D.
Legislation/APA Federal Advocacy Committee Representative

The main focus of the committee’s efforts continues to be working on advocating for the Model Licensing Act (MLA).  The MLA effort began as an initiative within the Early Career Psychologist group at APA and AKPA responded to that.  As a quick recap, AKPA organized a series of workshops looking at aspects of our current licensing statutes and then a work group cobbled together the beginnings of a draft with recommended changes.  From there, we received legislative assistance in having our draft translated into the form of an actual bill.  We were not successful in finding a legislative sponsor during the last legislative session and you may recall that session was impacted by the virus in a way that generally made the advancement of any non-critical legislation impossible.  With the start of a new legislative session in January we will be looking for a sponsor or co-sponsors. 

Diversity Committee Report

By Ebony McClain, Ph.D.
Diversity Chair

Meet the Moment Town Hall – August 10, 2020

The Diversity Committee had its first Meet the Moment Town Hall in August. Deputy Chief McCoy from the Anchorage Police Department talked about the efforts that the APD police department have been making to address systemic racism in the police department. He talked about ideas to increase training for officers and APD at all levels. He talked about how the MH community could support these efforts. He welcomed feedback from the Alaska mental health community. 

Katie Baldwin-Johnson from the Alaska Mental Health Trust talked about the efforts to build a crisis continuum of care for Alaska.  She is a Senior Program Officer at the Trust, working on developing this model of care in Alaska. She encouraged community members to talk with representatives and local officials about their thoughts on the crisis continuum of care.  She encouraged us to contact leaders in our districts and welcomed participation and encouraged feedback about policy and advocacy efforts.  She can be reached at 907-269-1049.

Local representatives can be found here.

Learn more about the efforts to design a crisis continuum

Meet the Moment Town Hall October 27, 2020

A followup Meet the Moment Town Hall panel discussion with panelists from around the state will addressing inequality and injustice and how they are fighting for equality where they live and work.  The Town Hall titled: Anti-isms and Advocacy: What are you doing to fight inequality and injustice where you live and work? featured panelists:

E.J.R. David, Ph.D. –  Professor of Psychology, UAA
Pamela Hays, Ph.D. – Private Practice, Author
Ebony McClain, Ph.D. – Private Practice
Issa Spatrisano, M.Ed. – Program Director and State Refugee Coordinator at Catholic Social Service’s Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS)
Denise Dillard, Ph.D.

AK-PA hosts Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO American Psychological Assoc.

AK-PA virtually hosted APA CEO Dr. Arthur Evans on September 25^th and 26^th to learn about Alaska and the mental health challenges that a rural state faces.

Friday morning, he met with UUA and APU faculty to learn about their psychology programs, issues they are facing, and goals they have. He learned that both universities have a high number of students of color in their programs and that APU is on its way to become a tribal university with a high number of indigenous students. Later that afternoon he met with members of AK-PA’s student circle followed by a social hour at the end of the day – 10 PM his time!

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On Saturday, Dr. Evans met with Deputy Chief Ken McCoy of the Anchorage Police Department which laid the foundation for future collaboration with AK-PA helping to provide resources the police will need on mental health, both in training as well as with public interactions.

Saturday afternoon, Dr. Evans held a town hall discussion on Population Health and shared his vision of a direction APA will be moving to where psychology can play a role when it comes to the planning of public policy in urban as well as rural areas. After his town hall met with the AK-PA board to provide insight on how the association can grow and become the go to resource for mental health in the state.

AK-PA 2020 Board Retreat

The AK-PA board met on Saturday Aug 22 to welcome the new board members and new Executive Director, Marvo Reguindin. The 4 hour meeting started with intros about how long they have been involved with AK-PA and a fun ice breaker where those attending divulged their favorite meal the can prepare.

Marvo Reguindin hired as new Executive Director

Marvin “Marvo” Reguindin was hired as AK-PA’s new Executive Director in August. He was chosen for his experience and success as the Executive Director of Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA) and he will serve both organizations with his marketing and association management company staff based in Spokane, Washington.

As the new Executive Director for Alaska Psychological Association he enters with high praise from his SPTA Executive Director peers. In his second year with WSPA sat on the Executive Committee for APA’s Council of Executives of State and Provincial Psychological Associations (CESPPA) as a member at large and then as recording secretary for 2 years. His leadership with Washington State helped them improve their finances, increase membership, and win an APA Legislative Grant in 2019. These and other noteworthy achievements helped WSPA win the Outstanding State Psychological Association Award at the 2020 APA Practice Leadership Conference.

For Alaska, Marvo will bring guidance and knowledge of state psychology associations to a very energetic board of directors. He and his will begin increasing communications with members through newsletters and social media, keep the website updated, and attend and represent AK-PA at licensing board meetings.  He also will bring collaboration between Alaska and Washington State through continuing education and areas of interest that either association is weak on.

When not managing association clients he volunteers his time on local boards and committees. He is currently Board Vice President of AHANA – Multi-Ethnic Business Association, Board Vice President of Outreach Foundation, and on the Marketing and Gift Planning committee for Innovia Foundation. He received a B.A. in Business with an emphasis in Advertising from California State University, Fullerton, and currently teaches Graphic Design in the school of business at Gonzaga University.

His staff of two will also provide services for AK-PA and will be referred to as the office in all communications. Sierra VanderHoogt will serve as the office manager for AK-PA. She is detailed oriented and will be the primary contact for members with billing and login questions. She as been with Thinking Cap for 6 years since graduating from Eastern Washington University with a BS in Biology. Karena Kliefoth is Thinking Cap’s graphic designer and has been with the company for 11 years. She has a BA in studio art from Smith College, BFA from California Institute of the Arts, and an AAS in Graphic Design from Spokane Community College. Karena is a talented illustrator and knows her way around website HTML coding. Both Karena and Sierra have experience in website design and programming.

Since March, Marvo and staff have set up a virtual office and all are working from home but connected using online communication and apps as well as a VOIP phone system that has allowed them to keep a professional office presence. The company is currently contracted to provide 20 hours a month of service to AK-PA and will work to grow the account to increase the hours and services. A four month transition period is anticipated before Marvo and staff will have the AK-PA account fully under control and running smoothly.

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