President’s Column

TheHealthPsychologistWelcome

Kim Dixon

Kim Dixon

Kim Dixon, PhD

Wow! Where has the year gone? This has been an incredibly busy (but productive) year; nonetheless, it is still hard to believe that my year as President is coming to an end and this is my last column. It is apparent that the Division will be in good hands when our President-elect, Alex Rothman, accepts the gavel in Toronto. I look forward to working closely with Alex during my year as Past-President.

Speaking of Toronto and Convention, Teresa Fecteau has done a wonderful job with convention planning. As always, the Division programing is excellent, and this year we made a concerted effort to highlight the important work of our early career members in our invited talks. A copy of the full Division 38 program is provided in this issue. We hope you all are planning to be with us in Toronto.

I think you will agree that the Division’s accomplishments over the past year are many. I am particularly excited about the progress being made in developing our Integrated Primary Care curriculum. Course development is being led by William Gunn and Barbara Ward-Zimmerman, with the devoted contributions of Nancy Ruddy, Barbara Cubic, Mark Vogel, Christopher Neumann, Lisa Kearney, and Shanda Wells – as well as innumerable additional subject matter experts. I cannot tell you how many hours these folks have devoted to this much-needed project. Please plan to attend the preview of four foundational modules and a number of special topics modules at convention. The modules are suitable for individual presentations or can be grouped into a full-semester course.

I am also very grateful for the work of our Branding Task Force, chaired by Josh Eyer. The task force is represented by our past-presidents and future leaders: Elizabeth Klonoff, Tim Smith, Ranak Trivedi, Kristine Diaz, Stephanie Hooker, and John Updegraff. Our members will soon have an opportunity to see first-hand the incredible work of the Branding Task Force as we move toward launching our new brand, including a new logo, a new website, and our new name, the Society for Health Psychology. On behalf of the Division I thank you for your hard work! The Division name change will be voted on at our annual membership meeting in Toronto.

I offer a hearty thank you to Beverly Thorn for chairing the Health Psychology Editor Search committee. As is often the case with these types of processes, all of the final candidates were exceptionally well-qualified, making the work of the committee and the final decision even harder. I am happy to report that Kenneth Freedland will assume the editorship of HP for the 2017 volume.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to publically acknowledge and congratulate our incoming Board members: Dawn Wilson, President-elect, Dan Bruns, Member-at-large, and Ron Rozensky, Council of Representatives. We look forward to the valuable contributions that each of you will bring to the Division over the next few years. I am also happy to report that many of our Division members were elected to leadership positions in other divisions: Danny Wedding, Council of Representatives, Division 12 (Clinical); Larry James, Council of Representatives, Division 19 (Military); Connie Sung, ECP Rep, Division 22 (Rehab); Mary Gregerson, President-elect, Division 34 (Environment, Population and Conservation); Thomas Plante, Council of Representatives, Division 36 (Religion); Linda Sobell, Council of Representatives, Division 50 (Addiction); Anne Kazak, Council of Representatives, Division 56 (Trauma), and Sherrie Wilcox, Professional Affiliate Representative.

Please enjoy the rest of this newsletter. I look forward to seeing you all in Toronto!