Allison Ponce, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, co-chaired the conference "Social Responsiveness in Health Service Psychology: Recalibrating Our Collective Mission" on September 24 and 25.
The virtual conference of the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) drew psychology education leaders from the United States and Canada. It was to take place in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic was converted to a two-day virtual event with four subsequent working meetings to take place between October 2020 and February 2021
Conference participants included nearly 160 members of the boards of directors of CCTC member councils, students, and subject matter experts who represent all areas of Health Service Psychology education and training.
The goal of the initial conference event and subsequent work meetings is to produce a series of toolkits for educators and trainers that support socially responsive training for doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral programs. Topics of focus include diversifying the pipeline, integrating models of shared governance, decolonizing curricula, and ensuring socially responsive evaluation processes for students, faculty, and supervisors.
Ponce is Director of Education at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. She is Past-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and serves as an internship site visit chair for the American Psychological Association's Commission on Accreditation.