The Executive Officer recommends and participates in the formulation of new policies and makes decisions under existing policies as they have been approved by the Board of Trustees. Plans, organizes, directs and coordinates the staff, programs and activities authorized by the Board to assure that objectives are attained, plans fulfilled, and member needs are met. Maintains effective internal and external relationships. Through management and leadership, achieves economical, productive performance, forward looking programming and constructive growth of the organization.
David R. Cox, PhD, ABPP
Executive Officer Update
Year-end Board of Trustees Board of Trustees Meeting December 2024
Status of Proposed ABPP Specialties & Subspecialties
The monitoring phase of affiliation with ABPP for Addiction Psychology, Serious Mental Illness Psychology, and the newly “reformed” American Board and Academy of Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Psychology boards are ending. Each have demonstrated excellent examination processes. Monitoring of exams continues for the first 30 examinations after the initial founding members have been examined, after which the board is eligible for consideration as a fully affiliated board. At the time of this writing, ABAP is essentially done, although they may be an exam or two short; ABSMIP has made substantial progress as well. The BOT will need to decide as to the outcome of the monitoring stage for each of these boards. ABAPPP monitoring included the minimum of 5 examinations and one or two additional (not due to any problem, however). You may recall that the difference in number needed to be monitored since this board has already been conducting examinations under its prior iteration. The BOT will also consider the status of ABAPPP.
Clinical Psychopharmacology will be returning in December with a full proposal for affiliation that has been reviewed by the Affiliations Committee, that will recommend that the proposed board move forward in the process. The BOT will hear from this proposed specialty board at the meeting in December and make its determination.
Changes in the World of Professional Psychology
There have been some significant changes in our profession since my last update. The Trust Risk Management team has seen Dr. Jana Martin retire as CEO and succeeded by Dr. John Davison. John comes from a background with the Departments of Defense/Veteran Affairs. You can learn more about John here: https://www.trustinsurance.com/About/Trustees/John-W-Davison
The National Register also has a new CEO in Andrew Boucher. Andrew has been with the NR for over 20 years. More about him can be found here: https://www.nationalregister.org/ceo-announcement-from-the-board-of-directors-nov-2024/
Some very recent, and unexpected, changes occurred at the American Psychological Association (APA) in the first week of November when Dr. Jared Skillings (ABCP, ABCHP, ABCBT), who was the Chief of Practice, Dr. Cathi Grus (Chief of Education), and Ian King (Chief of Membership) were abruptly let go without notice. I have worked with all three over the years in my role as liaison to APA. Jared and Cathi are, in addition to being terrific psychologists and colleagues, friends with whom I have worked exceptionally closely in a variety of ways. Jared was previously the Chair of the ABPP Council of Presidents of Specialty Academies and has served as a member of the ABPP BOT. Cathi and I have worked together for decades on the APA Taxonomy, Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Subspecialties in Professional Psychology (CRSSPP) and the Council of Specialties in Professional Psychology (CoS), and have also published together. They will each be missed and APA and I wish them the very best in their future.
Dr. Lynn Bufka (ABCP) will now be the acting head of Practice at APA, and Dr. Sue Orsillo will be acting head of Education. The changes at APA include consolidating Practice, General Applied Psychology, Education, and Science into one “department” headed by Dr. Mitch Prinstein (ABCCAP). I have worked with both Lynn and Mitch over the years and am hopeful that they will help guide APA in a productive fashion.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the ABPP Process
The ABPP AI Task Force, chaired by Dr. Jeni McCutcheon has met monthly this year. One outcome is that we will be proceeding with discussions at the BOT about if and how to incorporate a policy regarding the use of AI in practice samples (and perhaps elsewhere). That may become an overarching ABPP policy or perhaps be done specialty board by specialty board. Following the December BOT meeting, there will be more clarity on this.
Thanks!
As always, thanks go out to the ABPP CO team – Nancy McDonald, Lanette Melville, Diane Butcher, and Kathy Holland. These invaluable team members have served ABPP for over a decade each and make up the engine that keeps ABPP running. Also, thanks to Rob Davis and his team at Cerebral Consulting who have helped ABPP with IT in such a wonderful way!
Respectfully submitted,
David R. Cox, PhD, ABPP
Executive Officer