Monitor on Psychology - July/August 2012

FROM THE CEO
CE is part of scien(ce) and practi(ce)

BY DR. NORMAN B. ANDERSON • APA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

At APA, we recognize the importance of lifelong learning and we strive
to help members fulfill that need by providing a broad range of diverse
opportunities for continuing education (CE) and professional development.

Workshops, webcasts, online programs, books and videos all represent
important vehicles for helping psychologists fulfill their ethical mandates
and maintain professional competence. The profusion of
new knowledge in the field taxes our ability to keep pace and
challenges us to redouble our efforts to remain current. New
knowledge today, in areas such as neuropsychology and health
psychology, may be obsolete in just a few years. A commitment to
lifelong learning is the antidote to that obsolescence.

Free programs. APA recently partnered with a White House initiative called Joining Forces, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, to provide training to students and educators regarding deployment issues in military families. The archived version is available for free and offers CE credit. Future programs in this series will follow the contours of some of APA’s strategic initiatives, including programs on obesity, evidence-based practice, collaborative care and the International Classification of Diseases, among others. Four programs are scheduled to roll out the remainder of this year, and four more in 2013. Watch the APA CE home page www.apa.org/ed/ce for more information.

Stats camps. APA is partnering with the University of Kansas to bring you CE credits for a wide range of weeklong training programs in statistics and research methods. This summer is the first to offer CE credits for these intensive institutes, on topics such as structural equation modeling, multi-level modeling, confidence intervals and dealing with missing data.

CE for international delegations. In March, APA sent its first delegation of psychologists to Cuba, led by former APA President Dr. Carol Goodheart. Because of the success of this trip, plans are now under way for a second delegation to Cuba, as well as to other international locations, to foster better understanding and cultural exchange around areas of common interest within psychology and across diverse contexts. Watch for your opportunity to join a future international delegation.

Don’t forget your APA Monitor. “CE Corner” became a quarterly feature in the Monitor this year (see page 64). It has been so successful that it will be back next year. So, don’t forget that you can turn to your Monitor for continuing education, too. n