APA President Thema S. Bryant, PhD, appoints six members of the Advocacy Coordinating Committee

In early October 2023, the APA Services board of directors approved the appointment of six new members to the ACC. ACC’s primary charge is to recommend advocacy priorities to guide the work of association throughout the year. It is comprised of no fewer than 12 members who broadly represent all aspects of the association’s diverse membership, including disciplinary focus, demographic diversity, student membership, career stage, and employment setting.

The association thanks departing ACC members Sharon Berry, PhD, ABPP; Eugene Borgida, PhD; Debra Major, PhD; Jonathan Metzler, PhD, CMPC; and Nadika Paranamana, ABD for their service and contributions on the committee over the years.

Lee is a clinical psychologist/team leader at Counseling and Wellness Services in Student Health Center at New York University. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of New York, Ohio, and Virginia. She is a first-generation immigrant from South Korea. She completed a PhD in counseling psychology and human systems at Florida State University, a predoctoral internship at Purdue University, and a postdoctoral residency at James Madison University. Her areas of interests and expertise are multicultural identity development, cultural adjustment, ADHD assessment and coaching, career development, racial justice, diversity, and intersectionality issues, AOD (alcohol and other drugs) issues, supervision and training, and mentoring.

For the past decade, she has worked extensively as a psychologist at university counseling centers. As a scientist-practitioner, she has been involved in Asian and Asian international mental health in the U.S. for mentoring, teaching, and advocacy. She has been involved in various leadership positions in Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) and SCP International Section community as well as International Association of Applied Psychology (Division 16—Counseling Psychology) to serve her community with advocacy work. Recently, she served as a member of APA Petition Working Group in SCP at APA and contributed to submit a “Request for Counseling Psychology to be Added to the STEM Designated Degree List” to the Department of Homeland Security to be eligible for the STEM OPT extension for international graduate students and ECPs, which motivated her to continue doing advocacy work for the SCP and international communities to make effort for improving the wellness of all public.

M Pease (they/she) is a doctoral student in counseling psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Their research broadly explores race, gender, and sexuality and how systems and experiences of oppression contribute to mental health disparities. They have several years of experience working on research-based advocacy and teaching efforts to promote social and organizational policy change, especially around promoting ethnic studies, LGBTQ+ rights, and culturally competent and accessible mental health services. Their policy research experience includes efforts with UCLA Williams Institute, Trans Lifeline, and the Maryland House of Delegates. M’s work seeks to bridge science with advocacy and activism efforts that tangibly improve conditions for marginalized communities in the pursuit of social justice, equity, decolonization, and liberation.

Schneiderman is senior vice president and cofounder of New York Foundling’s Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection, a national child protection center focusing on the primary prevention of child maltreatment. He is the former senior vice president of Mental Health Services at the New York Foundling. He is currently chair of the executive committee of the National Initiative to End Corporal Punishment and the New York State Initiative to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and serves on the executive committee of the Psychological Maltreatment Alliance.

Schneiderman served on the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Board of Directors from 2015 to 2022 and he was elected as member at large for Advocacy at the Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice (Division 37) from 2020 to 2022. He has served on several Board of Directors including Prevent Child Abuse New York and the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children-New York. He is the recipient of several awards including the APSAC 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2022 City and State New York 100 Responsible Citizens Award and he was honored at the 2022 New York Foundling Fall Fete for his pioneering work at the Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection.

Trotta (she/her) has been the co-chair of the Public Policy Committee for APA’s Division 44 since 2021. She is a current clinical and forensic psychologist. She currently works for the State of California at the Department of State Hospitals Atascadero (DSH-A) as a treatment psychologist working with those who have been found incompetent to stand trial and other forensic commitments. She is currently serving on several committees for DSH-A creating and implementing affirming LGBTQIA+ policies. Trotta also has a private practice where she engages in both clinical and forensic work alongside speaking, training, and consulting around the country. Her desire and passion for policy and advocacy work began when she interned for the White House, the D.C. federal court system, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Her passion for social justice and advocacy is rooted in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion broadly but is focused on LGBTQIA+ individuals, those with disabilities, and forensic patients.

Newton is a fully licensed psychologist and clinical assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of North Dakota. Newton is also the owner of Legacy Mental Health Services, PLLC. She has over 20 years of experience in clinical, academic, and community settings, including teaching experience at both undergraduate and graduate levels of higher education. Her areas of expertise include multicultural counseling, healing racialized trauma, research methods, tests and measurement, and clinical supervision of master’s-level counseling practitioners and students. In addition to her clinical and teaching expertise, Newton is also a member of the Michigan Board of Psychology, appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

She is a sought-after psychology expert featured in prominent magazines and newscasts, recently featured in Newsweek for an article she wrote entitled “Racial Trauma Is Real. Here's How We Heal.” She is also coauthor of the book, Black Lives Are Beautiful: 50 Tools to Heal from Trauma and Promote Positive Racial Identity, published through Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC., as well as coauthor of the recent peer-reviewed article, “Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behavior Therapy as a Model to Address Internalized Racism Among African American Clients,” published in the April 2022 issue of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling. She is a proud member of APA’s Division 45 Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race. In 2022 Newton was awarded the Distinguished Psychologist of the Year award by the Michigan Psychological Association for her work around race-based issues and psychology.

Bharat is a second-year graduate student in the Health Track of the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Miami (UM), under the mentorship of Steven Safren, PhD. He graduated from the University of South Florida with an MA in psychological sciences and a graduate certificate in data analysis. His earned his BS in biomedical engineering from Boston University with a concentration in technology innovation. Bharat’s experiences in both quantitative and qualitative research methods have allowed him to appreciate the significance of being a mixed methods scholar. His research interests revolve around LGBTQ+ mental health, resilience, intersectionality, implementation science, and developing new interventions aimed at preventing HIV and bolstering resilience in marginalized communities, especially for queer people of color.

In terms of advocacy, he is currently a member of the American Psychological Association’s ACC. At the state level, he actively serves on the Social Justice as well as on the Diversity and Cultural Competence Committee within the Florida Psychological Association. He collaboratively wrote several time sensitive briefs and position statements on issues such as the “Stop woke Act”, abortion rights, access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He is also a passionate advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and aims to help pass legislation banning sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts (commonly known as conversion “therapy”) for LGBTQ+ youth in Florida and nationally. He is a member of UM Psychology Department’s Diversity and Equity Committee, where he assisted with the Citizen Scientist series initiative, interviewing psychologists from different settings who make a social impact in their communities. Bharat believes in channeling his intersectional experiences to engage in activism through scholarship, which can help enact necessary changes to ensure the wellbeing of our queer communities of color. In his free time, Bharat loves to run, meditate, explore Miami’s culinary scene, and drink copious amounts of coffee. One of his favorite quotes is by Harvey Milk, who famously said, “Hope will never be silent.”

For more information, please contact Director of Governance and Operations Andrew J. Ferreira, staff liaison to the ACC.