Wright Institute Students and Faculty Present at APA Research Conference

Wright Institute Psy.D. students Arwin Cotas and Crystal Cajilog and Wright alum, Dr. Sahar Dorani, alongside full-time faculty Dr. Alicia del Prado, presented posters at the APA Division 45 Research Conference Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Research on July 8, 2016 at Stanford University.

Dr. Dorani and Dr. del Prado presented a quantitative study examining the effects of acculturation, acculturative stress, and ethnic identity on the psychological well-being of second-generation Iranian Americans entitled "The Impact of Acculturation and Ethnic Identity on Iranian Americans." Arwin Cotas, Crystal Cajilog, and Dr. del Prado presented a quantitative study entitled "How Filipino Are You?: Strengthening the Construct Validity of the Enculturation Scale for Filipino Americans with Colonial Mentality and Acculturation" which further investigated the validity of an existing measure of enculturation by correlating it against a Filipino American acculturation scale and a measure of colonial mentality.

Justine Leichtling Wins Essay Contest

Fourth year student, Justine Leichtling has won the APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) Section V graduate student essay contest this year.

Justine was presented with the award last month at the Division 39 conference in Atlanta, and the essay is posted on the Section V website here: http://www.sectionfive.org/students/2016studentessaywinner

Please join us in congratulating Justine.

Meiyang Kadaba receives MFP Fellowship

Meiyang Kadaba, 4th year Psy.D. student, was recently awarded the APA Minority Fellowship Program's Predoctoral Fellowship.

The MFP is a nationally competitive program that supports the training of clinician leaders committed to serving ethnic minorities. She is the first Wright Institute student to receive this distinction. Congratulations to Meiyang for her accomplishment!

Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Susana Winkel has received the Distinguished Service Award from the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, bestowed upon those most deserving for their dedication and work to further the mission of the center.

Congratulations Dr. Winkel!

Dr. Gilbert Newman Awarded the 2016 Political Advocacy Champion Award

In January, the American Psychological Association Practice Organization Political Action Committee (APAPO-PAC) held its first "It's PACademic" fundraising reception in Atlanta, GA to raise awareness and support for the PAC's Education Fund.

At the reception, Jim Diaz-Granados, PhD, APA Executive Director for Education and Vice Chair of the PAC, awarded Gilbert H. Newman, PhD, Dean of the Wright Institute, the 2016 Political Advocacy Champion Award for his leadership and commitment to advancing education advocacy. Each year, the Political Advocacy Champion award is given to one psychologist who demonstrates their commitment and dedication to increasing the political engagement and advocacy of our members and contributes to those efforts by supporting the PAC's Education Fund. Newman was honored for his tireless grassroots and political advocacy efforts on behalf of psychology education and training, as well as professional practice.

Filipino American Psychology: Past, Present, and Future Inaugural Conference

On January 30, 2016, the Division on Filipino Americans (DoFA) of the Asian American Psychological Association hosted an inaugural conference, "Filipino American Psychology: Past, Present, and Future", at the Wright Institute.

Pioneers of Filipino American psychology presented on its history, current theory and research, as well as future directions. Dr. E.J.R. David, author of "Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino-/American Postcolonial Psychology", delivered the keynote address. DoFA was proud to present its very first Virgilio Enriquez Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service of the Filipino American Community to Assemblymember Rob Bonta.

In 2012, Assemblymember Rob Bonta was sworn in as the first and only Filipino to serve in the California State Legislature. In his first year in office, Bonta authored AB 123, which Governor Jerry Brown signed, to teach students about the contributions of Filipino Americans to the California Farm Labor Movement. Bonta is chair of the Assembly Health Committee and the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California.

Publicaton: Congratulations to Ian Faerstein

Congratulations to Ian Faerstein (PsyD '15) who just had his paper (co-authored with Hanna Levenson, PhD) accepted for publication in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. The paper, based on his dissertation (which was awarded outstanding dissertation of the year at this year's WI graduation) is entitled: "Validation of a Fidelity Scale for Accelerated-experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)." His findings indicate that with some further refinements the AEDP-Fidelity Scale may be a useful tool for describing essential AEDP interventions, investigating outcome in AEDP, and training AEDP therapists.

Join us in congratulating Ian Faerstein!

Dr. Kim awarded APAGS 2015 Guardian of Psychology

GUARDIAN OF PSYCHOLOGY

This award goes to a graduate program and/or individual (SPTA member, faculty or staff member) who communicates the importance of student advocacy in psychology. The person or program is nominated by a current member of ACT through the APAGS grants and awards portal and will receive a framed certificate, public recognition, and invitation to blog about their passion for guarding psychology and inspiring advocacy at gradpsychblog.org. Congratulations to:

CPA Student Poster: Congratulations to Tanisha Stewart

Congratulations to Ms. Tanisha Stewart who will be presenting her poster at the 2015 Student Leadership & Advocacy Conference on November 14th in San Diego.

Title: Attending College While Black: Neighborhood Diversity, Ethnic Identity, and the Perception of Racial Microaggressions

The presentation will demonstrate how today's neighborhood racial segregation negatively influences how Black youth are learning about race and their racial identities. It will outline how growing up in either homogeneous or diverse backgrounds affects not only racial socialization and ethnic identity, but also self-esteem, academic performance, college adjustment, and the ability to take the perspectives of others.

Jeri Mares to Co-Lead International Survivors of Suicide Loss Conference in Livermore, CA

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s International Survivors of Suicide Loss Conference is held in over 300 sites across six continents with AFSP volunteers driving the coordination of each individual site.

MA Graduate Jeri Mares will co-lead the Livermore conference and also deliver the opening address.

The conference examines the issue of suicidality worldwide while discussing grief & mourning, self-care, and resources for survivors of suicide loss – those that have lost a loved one to suicide. Most sites secure a mental health clinician or member of the survivor community to speak, and a video is aired in all 300+ sites at the same time. This year, the video will feature families from all over the nation that have endured suicide loss.

Additionally, the Livermore site will feature break-out process groups for post-video processing based on distance from loss (0-1 years, 2-3 years, etc.). Each group will be facilitated by two mental health clinicians.