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This specially curated selection of programs, hand-picked by APA’s 2024 president, Dr. Cynthia de las Fuentes, features leading experts, researchers, and practitioners exploring some of the most pressing challenges facing our communities today. Join us as we delve into key topics, like healing, immigration, the safety of our children, and more.
I’m excited to welcome you to APA 2024—our biggest and most diverse event of the year, where psychologists from all over the country and world come to celebrate our work, our profession, and each other. It’s a fantastic chance to connect with, learn from, and have fun with brilliant, interesting, and compassionate colleagues, whether clinicians, researchers, educators, or students.
Whether you are attending in person in Seattle or virtually, I encourage you to make the most of this special experience. After all, this is your APA, and it is you that makes our association as strong and vibrant as it is. This year’s convention theme—“All In”—speaks to our need to make the greatest impact we can in our work with and for others.
My presidential programming isn’t mine alone, but the work of many respected colleagues. It focuses on three areas related to the convention themes. One is how the tools of compassion and healing can help bridge the many divides in our country, a sorely needed set of skills and actions. Another is the heated topic of immigration, where speakers will discuss an updated APA report, Crossroads, that delves into current issues related to immigration and deportation and how psychologists can improve their work in this domain. The third is child and school safety, where researchers will share ways to ensure that our kids feel safe to learn and that we don’t experience another Uvalde–one of the greatest tragedies my home state has experienced.
At the beginning of the year I set the simple intention to do good work with good people. I see APA 2024 as a fantastic opportunity to expand that mission further. I can’t wait to see you in Seattle or virtually!
Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD
2024 APA President
Thursday, August 8
Headline Event
8:00-8:50 a.m. PDT
Seattle Convention Center, Arch Building, Ballroom 6BC
We live in a world that is deeply fractured, with growing political, cultural, and social divisions. We must learn and practice ways of living in community with each other that can produce a sense of harmony and healing. This session will explore foundational elements of compassion through the national campaign, CompassionateUSA.
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Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD
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Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD
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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER Terrie Moffitt, PhD
ButtonProfessor of Psychology, King’s College London
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Alfonso Mercado, PhD
ButtonAssociate Professor, University of Texas–Rio Grande Valley
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SYMPOSIUM
Compassion as an Antidote: Healing Through Action in the Age of Disconnection
The Arch at Seattle Convention Center, 3B
3:00-3:50 p.m.
We live in a world that is deeply fractured, with growing political, cultural, and social divisions. We must learn and practice ways of living in community with each other that can produce a sense of harmony and healing. This session will explore foundational elements of compassion through the national campaign, CompassionateUSA.
Speakers
Eric Castillo, Alamo Community Colleges District
Ann Helmke, Compassionate San Antonio
Friday, August 9
SYMPOSIUM
Psychological Science on the frontline of the U.S. Immigration Landscape
9:00-9:50 a.m.
Seattle Convention Center, Arch Building, Ballroom 6E
CE Credits: 1
Findings from the APA Presidential Task force on Immigration and Health will highlight innovations in psychological science over the last decade and describe how existing conceptual approaches are striving to address the changing U.S. immigrant context including clinical practice, research efforts, training, and advocacy with immigrants.
Speakers
Chair, Cynthia de las Fuentes
Advocating for and with Immigrant Populations
Sita Patel, Palo Alto University
German A. Cadenas, PhD, GSAPP - Rutgers University
Maryam Kia-Keating, PhD, University of California–Santa Barbara
Immigration, Psychology, and APA: Why Now?
Chiachih Wang, University of North Texas
Luz M. Garcini, PhD, Rice University
Alfonso Mercado, PhD, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
New Perspectives in the Changing Immigrant Context
Giselle Hass
William Martinez, PhD, University of California San Francisco
Dina Birman, University of Miami
A Call to Action: Applications and Recommendations for Science, Education, Practice, and Advocacy
Amanda Venta, PhD, University of Houston
Miguel Pinedo, University of Austin Texas
Gail M. Ferguson, PhD/JD, Institute of Child Development
SYMPOSIUM
The Cries of Our Children - Filling the Hollow: The Work of The SOS Taskforce
4:00-4:50 p.m.
2B
The Safety of Schools (SOS) Taskforce is dedicating it’s time to understanding and identifying successes in keeping our children safe. The panel will integrate community voices with taskforce members to elucidate on the work to date. Attendees will learn to communicate and integrate strategies useful across school and community stakeholders.
Speakers
Enedina Vazquez, PhD, The University of Iowa
Tammy Hughes
Saturday, August 10
CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
8:00-9:50 a.m.
2A
Kaoru Ishibashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII Japanese American incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today. When a media interview links the Muslim ban and the immigration crisis with the WWII incarceration, Ishibashi learns about this history and its relevance.
Participants
JJ Gerber, Producer, Movement Content
Satsuki Ina, California State University, Sacramento
Shirley Higuchi, APA
Gordon C N Nagayama Hall, PhD, University of Oregon
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