Presidential
Programming
This specially curated selection of programs, hand-picked by APA’s 2025 president, Debra M. Kawahara, PhD, features leading experts, researchers, and practitioners converging at APA 2025 to explore topics like Asian American mental health, women’s issues, disaster preparedness, and Engaging Psychology’s Future.
A Letter From the 2025 APA President
Dr. Debra M. Kawahara
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
It is with great joy that I welcome you to APA 2025 in Denver, Colorado! Whether you are joining us in person amid the beautiful Rocky Mountain landscape or connecting virtually from across the globe, you are an essential part of our professional community.
This year’s convention theme—Perspectives Power Possibilities—celebrates the wide array of perspectives and expertise that strengthen our profession and the collective impact we have on societal well-being. In a world facing uncertainty, our profession stands as a beacon of understanding, healing, and positive change.
APA 2025 is about more than your growth as a professional—it’s also about coming together as a community. Throughout these days, I invite you to prioritize connection and belonging, focus on small meaningful actions, and practice mindfulness by observing and naming our collective experiences and interconnectedness. In doing so, we draw strength from one another and from those resilient individuals who came before us.
I encourage you to approach each session, conversation, and interaction with openness and curiosity. Connect and engage at social events for those attendees in Denver or in live chats for virtual attendees, share your insights generously, and receive others’ perspectives with compassion. The collective wisdom in our community flourishes when we engage fully with one another.
As we gather in Denver, let us remember that what we do each and everyday matters. I look forward to learning alongside you and being inspired by you and your dedication to our field, to society, and to humankind.
With gratitude and anticipation,
Debra M. Kawahara, PhD
President, American Psychological Association
Thursday, August 7
Friday, August 8
Saturday, August 9
Question 27, Question 28
4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Four Seasons Ballroom 1
A performance from the perspective of Japanese American women and their non-Japanese contemporaries reveals lived experiences of confinement during the WWII Japanese American incarceration. Performers focus on the 1943 “loyalty questionnaire” meant to determine which incarcerees were a threat, and they bring to life firsthand accounts of the civil rights violations.
Presenter:
Tamlyn Tomita
Engaging Psychology's Future: Join us in inspiring high school and community college students about diverse Psychology careers
8:00 - 9:00 a.m.
Room 304
Join us in inspiring high school and community college students about diverse Psychology careers. The APA Engaging Psychology’s Future presidential initiative task force will showcase Psyched for Success events held around the U.S. and will invite participants to host events during Fall 2025.
Session Co-chairs:
- Jaye Van Kirk, MA, San Diego Mesa College
- Kathryn B. Anderson, PhD, Our Lady of the Lake University
Presenters:
- Debra M. Kawahara, PhD, 2025 American Psychological Association President, Alliant International University - Calif
- Jessica S. Reinhardt, PhD, Temple University
- Heather Schoenherr, Psi Beta Honor Society
- Hideko Sera, PsyD, Executive Director of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Morehouse College
- Catherine Vieira-Baker, PhD, Psychologist, South Coast Educational Collaborative
- Virginia Welle, MS, Chippewa Falls Senior High School
Buddhist Psychotherapy: Connecting Early Buddhism to Mindfulness and Western Psychotherapy
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Mile High Ballroom 2-3, Feature Stage
CE Credits: 1
Mindfulness is a concept that migrated from Buddhism to psychology. Mindfulness is used as a technique without a theoretical context. One psychologist, a Buddhist academic and practitioner (Tien Liang), teamed up with a multicultural feminist psychologist (Debra Kawahara) to ‘translate’ the fundamentals of Buddhism into a theoretical framework for psychotherapy.
Presenters:
- Debra M. Kawahara, PhD, 2025 American Psychological Association President, Alliant International University - Calif
- Liang Tien, PhD, Alliant International University
Midlife and Menopause Health and Wellbeing: A Critical Conversation about Research and Clinical Care
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Room 303
Individuals traversing menopause, a major midlife transition, often experience multiple complex physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sexual, relationship and professional challenges and opportunities. This critical conversation with interprofessional experts will highlight pressing issues in research and clinical care to improve health and wellbeing during midlife and the menopause transition across diverse communities.
Presenter:
- Debra M. Kawahara, PhD, 2025 American Psychological Association President, Alliant International University – California
- Helen L. Coons, PhD, President and Clinical Director, Women's Mental Health Associates, Women’s Mental Health Associates
- Rebecca C. Thurston, PhD, Assistant Dean for Women’s Health Research; Director, Center for Women’s Biobehavioral Health Research; Endowed Professor of Psychiatry & Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
- Vivian Ota Wang, PhD, Deputy Director, NIH Office of Research on Women's Health
- Luz M. Garcini, PhD, Rice University
Disaster Preparedness Response & Recovery: 2025 Presidential Initiative Progress
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Room 304
This discussion will present the workgroup's progress on Dr. Kawahara's Presidential Initiative focusing on disaster preparedness, response and recovery from a participatory, community-based approach. Progress on the task force's three work streams will be presented with an opportunity for feedback from participants regarding gaps seen in their communities related to mental.
Presenters:
- Kathleen Brown
- Lisa M. Brown, PhD, Palo Alto University
- Daniel Dodgen, HHS/ASPR/IO
- Melissa Brymer, PhD, UCLA-NCCTS
- Annette M. La Greca, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, University of Miami
APA 2025 SPONSORS
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