John C. Cavanaugh
President, Division 20
It hardly seems possible that my year of service as your President is nearly over. To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, itís been an eventful time in Division 20, where all members are above average! Since my last opportunity to write to you, the Division Program for the upcoming annual meeting in Chicago was finalized, award winners have been selected, our application to have geropsychology recognized as a proficiency was filed, a series of papers based on the Divisionís teaching symposia have been submitted for publication, and numerous individual efforts continue to raise the Division about its peers.
Elsewhere in this newsletter, you can see firsthand the fruits of Jane Berryís efforts in putting together a dynamic and well-rounded program. The broad range of topics this year is indicative of the many varied issues in adult development and aging studied by our membership. The overall quality of this yearís program is also very high, and should stimulate many conversations and additional research. But thatís not all to anticipate at the convention. Thanks to the efforts of the current APA President and Division 20 Fellow Norman Abeles, aging will be additionally represented by a miniconvention this year, which nearly doubles the amount of program time devoted specifically to issues on aging. Due to the work of Sara Qualls, who helped organize the miniconvention, the convention weekend will also be filled with symposia and papers on even more aspects of aging (see the May, 1997 issue of the APA Monitor for a list of symposia). In total, the Chicago meetings represent the largest number of program hours dedicated to adult development and aging ever! This is one convention not to be missed.
The impending convention also means that the time for the Divisionís annual awards is also approaching. It is my pleasure to announce that this yearís winner of the Division 20 Distinguished Contribution Award is Anderson Smith. A former Division President and our current APA Council Representative (among numerous other positions), Andy has been a major force in aging and cognition for the past quarter century. Andy not only built the aging program at Georgia Tech, but was the creative energy behind the Cognitive Aging Conference, which has become the preeminent meeting in the field. All of us owe Andy a great debt; I know I speak for the membership in congratulating him on this well-deserved award.
Thanks to the generosity of APA President Norman Abeles, the Division was able to award 5 travel awards to students who will be presenting their research in Chicago. The winners of these awards are: Wendy Heberlein (Florida State), Shannon Jarrott (Penn State), Jodi Levy (Michigan State), Heather Lyons (Brandeis), and Tonya Watson (Georgia Tech). Additional winners of the Springer Award for Early Career Achievement in Research on Adult Development and Aging and our annual research competition supported by the Retirement Research Foundation, as well as the new Fellows in the Division will be announced in Chicago, so plan to attend our business meeting.
The Division also owes a debt of gratitude to Barry Edelstein and George Niederehe who shepherded our application for recognizing clinical geropsychology as a proficiency. The application was submitted to CRSPPP in March, and is currently under consideration. Weíll keep you posted on progress. This application took months to prepare, and thanks are extended to all Division members who helped with data and reading drafts.
As you know, the Division sponsors an annual symposium on teaching adult development and aging. Rosemary Blieszner is currently serving as the point person in pulling together several papers that have been presented in our symposium recently. The hope is that they will be published as a set so that readers will have a broad introduction to various types of techniques and courses. With the next installment of our symposium this year under the guidance of Cindy Berg, I hope that we can continue to examine ways of getting the word out on the teaching talents in the Division.
In closing, Iíd like to take a moment to thank all of the members for your support this year. It has been truly eventful, with many accomplishments of which we should all be proud. But none of this would have been possible without the dedication of many individuals. In addition to those mentioned earlier, several others deserve special mention. Cameron Camp, our outgoing (in many senses of the term) Treasurer, has served as a model steward of Divisional resources. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, our Past-President and incoming Program Chair, has been my sounding board and friend throughout the year. Michael Marsiske kept us in touch with each other electronically, and oversees the finest Web page in APA. Denise Park has served us well in APA Council, managing to raise the visibility of aging. Roger Morrell and Fredda Blanchard-Fields continue to produce the finest newsletter in APA. Lisa McGuire presided over another excellent year of membership growth. If you need excellent minutes that capture the essence of a meeting, Karen Hooker is the best Division Secretary in the business. Ellen Bouchard Ryan kept the Divisionís standards high as the Fellows Committee Chair. Elizabeth Stine-Morrow continued to do a superb job at coordinating our student research awards. We owe our excellent elections slate to Judith Sugar. Peter Lichtenberg served us well on the Clinical Geropsychology Task Force, as did Mary Ann Parris Stephens on the Applied Developmental Task Force. Forrest Scogin gave us insights on the Executive Board, as did Rachel Whitmer (graduate student) and Lisa Jenkins. As I pass the gavel to Joan Erber, I know that the Division will be in good hands.
It has been both an honor and a privilege to serve as your President.
My wish for you and for the Division is that you may ìLive
long, and prosper.î
To direct comments about the information contained in these pages, please write to marsiske@ufl.edu