President’s Column

Why Read a President’s Column? 

Before answering that question let me give all of our members a BIG SHOUT OUT and THANKS for casting enough apportionment votes to allow Division 50 (Society of Addiction Psychology) to have two seats at APA’s Council of Representatives meetings.

Why Read This Column? To learn how Division 50  has become very successful in a short time period, and how a recent capstone conference, the Collaborative Perspectives on Addictions (CPA) has further shaped the success of the SoAP. 

To understand why Division 50 has become so successful is to appreciate that it has only been an official APA division for 17 years (1993) whereas the first 19 divisions emerged 76 years ago (1944). Last month. I reviewed some of SoAP’s historical milestones starting in 1975.

Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction (CPA) Annual Conference

One of SoAP’s successful milestones, CPA,  first held in 2013, has grown and flourished. Starting and sustaining any conference large or small is no small feat. CPA, now in its 8th year, has not only sustained itself, but as shown in the table below, has been well received by our members, particularly our early career psychologists. 

Table: CPA Conferences: 2013-2020

One reason we go to conferences is to connect with colleagues and students. However, some conferences are so big that I have on

more than one occasion only been able to wave to a colleague as we passed one another going up and down the escalator. 

CPA was designed to be a small boutique, friendly, addiction psychology-focused conference that fosters professional networking

and offers sessions for clinicians and researchers, and where we can sit down and spend time with our colleagues and students.

Importantly, CPA supports the ‘career pipeline,’ with programming specifically aimed at early career psychologists with an interest

in addiction. 

Please join us this year in San Diego (April 2nd-4th). The theme is: Substance Use and Addictive Behaviors Across the Lifespan (more information can be found on our division’s website).