Staff Perspective: Why Aren’t You a Member of Division 19?
Are you a member of Division 19? Division 19 of the American Psychological Association (APA) is the Society for Military Psychology and is one of the original divisions of APA having been established in 1945 as a charter division. If you are a military psychologist or someone who works with service members, veterans or military families I highly encourage you to take a look at all that Division 19 does for military psychology and has to offer its members.
I first joined the Division in 1997 while on internship in the US Air Force and have seen the Division’s strong advocacy for military psychology firsthand. I left APA after the convention in 2007, the last convention I attended in uniform, because I felt unsupported as a military psychologist by some in the APA. I didn’t feel that the APA had our back, but Division 19 always has. The division has very strong representation on the APA Council of Representatives and over the years has, for example, worked with other divisions to develop a statement on DoD Transgender Policy, to advocate for the policies that were enacted in April 2021 and to end the ban on DoD advertising in APA publications due to DADT polices of the 90s. In addition, the division has worked hard to identify and highlight errors in the “Hoffman” report and to define military psychology rather than have us defined by a subset of APA members. I’m proud of the work the Division has done in these areas.
The Division also has several other ongoing advocacy efforts including advocating for appropriate incentives and bonus pay for military psychologists, veteran retirement benefits, increased scientific funding for treatment and research in evidence-based approaches (such as telehealth and PSYPACT and military suicide prevention), scientific funding for applied psychology practice and research and veteran and family transition issues. The Division has a strong diversity committee that is actively engaged in advocating for policies that improve the diversity of military psychology and to increase the diversity of our members and our field.
That is just some of the work being done in Division 19. Our Division is professionally diverse with over 1200 active duty and civilian members working in military, national defense and national security settings, psychologists in all types of public services settings, researchers, applied psychologists and clinical providers. We come together to network, collaborate and share knowledge during our Research Symposia Series in the fall, our Military and Veteran Psychology Summit (coming up in June - https://www.militarypsych.org/summit/) and our really fun APA Convention Division activities and social gatherings. Division 19 also has international members who work with allied militaries around the world and we co-host the International Military Testing Association (IMTA) meeting which was just held in North Carolina in March.
The Division’s most visible and active members are our student members and early career psychologists. If you are a student interested in military psychology or an early career psychologist just staring in a public service position I cannot say enough about the opportunities in the Division and the efforts of our Student Affairs Committee (SAC) and our Early Career Psychology (ECP) Committees. There are student chapters of Division 19 in graduate programs across the country and endless opportunities for mentorship and engagement by student members. The Early Career Psychology Committee has developed great mentorship and networking opportunities as well as professional development grants of up to $2500 to support professional development and to fund a research project, cover continuing education or for licensure preparation fees. Learn more about all that is happening across the Division at https://www.militarypsych.org/.
So that’s not enough to interest you in joining Division 19? Consider that you also get your first year’s membership free! You get the Division 19 Military Psychology journal quarterly, the Military Psychologist newsletter triennially and access to all of our continuing education opportunities year around. The Division also provides research and travel awards as well as writing contests and networking and mentorship opportunities. And…you don’t have to be an APA member to be a member of Division 19. Learn more about membership and apply at https://www.militarypsych.org/prospective-members/.
I hope you will join us!
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Bill Brim, Psy.D., is the Executive Director of the Center for Deployment Psychology and a member of Division 19. He is currently the Division 19 APA Convention Chair and the Chair of the Division 19 Continuing Education Committee. He is the Faculty Advisor for the Division 19 student chapter at the Uniformed Services University..
Are you a member of Division 19? Division 19 of the American Psychological Association (APA) is the Society for Military Psychology and is one of the original divisions of APA having been established in 1945 as a charter division. If you are a military psychologist or someone who works with service members, veterans or military families I highly encourage you to take a look at all that Division 19 does for military psychology and has to offer its members.
I first joined the Division in 1997 while on internship in the US Air Force and have seen the Division’s strong advocacy for military psychology firsthand. I left APA after the convention in 2007, the last convention I attended in uniform, because I felt unsupported as a military psychologist by some in the APA. I didn’t feel that the APA had our back, but Division 19 always has. The division has very strong representation on the APA Council of Representatives and over the years has, for example, worked with other divisions to develop a statement on DoD Transgender Policy, to advocate for the policies that were enacted in April 2021 and to end the ban on DoD advertising in APA publications due to DADT polices of the 90s. In addition, the division has worked hard to identify and highlight errors in the “Hoffman” report and to define military psychology rather than have us defined by a subset of APA members. I’m proud of the work the Division has done in these areas.
The Division also has several other ongoing advocacy efforts including advocating for appropriate incentives and bonus pay for military psychologists, veteran retirement benefits, increased scientific funding for treatment and research in evidence-based approaches (such as telehealth and PSYPACT and military suicide prevention), scientific funding for applied psychology practice and research and veteran and family transition issues. The Division has a strong diversity committee that is actively engaged in advocating for policies that improve the diversity of military psychology and to increase the diversity of our members and our field.
That is just some of the work being done in Division 19. Our Division is professionally diverse with over 1200 active duty and civilian members working in military, national defense and national security settings, psychologists in all types of public services settings, researchers, applied psychologists and clinical providers. We come together to network, collaborate and share knowledge during our Research Symposia Series in the fall, our Military and Veteran Psychology Summit (coming up in June - https://www.militarypsych.org/summit/) and our really fun APA Convention Division activities and social gatherings. Division 19 also has international members who work with allied militaries around the world and we co-host the International Military Testing Association (IMTA) meeting which was just held in North Carolina in March.
The Division’s most visible and active members are our student members and early career psychologists. If you are a student interested in military psychology or an early career psychologist just staring in a public service position I cannot say enough about the opportunities in the Division and the efforts of our Student Affairs Committee (SAC) and our Early Career Psychology (ECP) Committees. There are student chapters of Division 19 in graduate programs across the country and endless opportunities for mentorship and engagement by student members. The Early Career Psychology Committee has developed great mentorship and networking opportunities as well as professional development grants of up to $2500 to support professional development and to fund a research project, cover continuing education or for licensure preparation fees. Learn more about all that is happening across the Division at https://www.militarypsych.org/.
So that’s not enough to interest you in joining Division 19? Consider that you also get your first year’s membership free! You get the Division 19 Military Psychology journal quarterly, the Military Psychologist newsletter triennially and access to all of our continuing education opportunities year around. The Division also provides research and travel awards as well as writing contests and networking and mentorship opportunities. And…you don’t have to be an APA member to be a member of Division 19. Learn more about membership and apply at https://www.militarypsych.org/prospective-members/.
I hope you will join us!
The opinions in CDP Staff Perspective blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science or the Department of Defense.
Bill Brim, Psy.D., is the Executive Director of the Center for Deployment Psychology and a member of Division 19. He is currently the Division 19 APA Convention Chair and the Chair of the Division 19 Continuing Education Committee. He is the Faculty Advisor for the Division 19 student chapter at the Uniformed Services University..