President’s Message

Dear Members,

In 2023, we celebrated our 75^th anniversary as an organization! Our first 75 years were spent legitimizing and advocating for our identity through establishing Psychology as a recognized and independent profession. We must never forget that we were recognized as a specialty and granted licensure in 1964 and only in the 1980s did we earn the privilege of independent practice without supervision from physicians. These are humbling dates and should serve as a strong reminder to all psychologists that our profession, while scientifically established since the 19^th century, has been in existence as an independently licensed field for less time than I, an elder millennial, have been alive!

Our 2024 convention recently wrapped up, closing out Jesse Lambert’s busy 2023-2024 year as president. It was certainly fitting in such an intense, productive, and (let’s face it) stressful legislative season that we finished the year with the inspiring Amy Beck from Missouri as our keynote speaker at our convention in June. Her teaching on everyday advocacy serves as a reminder that we all have a role to play in protecting our profession and advocating for the vulnerable populations we have the privilege to serve.

My ask of our membership is this: consider your own role in advocacy for our profession. As Dr. Beck put it so nicely – advocacy can happen in big and small ways. Simply renewing your membership each year is an act of advocacy as LPA uses funds to support our legislative efforts and provide value to our membership through educational offerings and colleague support. Other ways to be an advocate for the profession and the people we serve might include:

• Paying attention and remaining informed by following LPA updates through our listserv, newsletters, and calls to action
• Encouraging other psychologists to join LPA (we are only as strong as our members) and educating them on the importance and value of collective action through professional organizations
• Answering calls from our legislative committee and our national organizations (like APA) to contact legislators about important bills affecting psychology
• Contacting your district’s legislators, letting them know a psychologist resides in their district, and offering to provide education on any mental health legislation that comes up for discussion
• Serving on our legislative committee to shape and influence our state legislative agenda
• Serving on one of the many LPA committees to get involved with communications, continuing education, and outreach
• Running for an LPA officer position to impact the organization from a leadership position
• Considering service on our state licensing board to protect the public

I have been so proud to participate in LPA through many levels including membership, serving on the Executive Council, and currently as your President. I look forward to continuing to provide our membership value through incredible continuing education offerings, opportunities for professional networking, and legislative advocacy. I am excited to see where the next 75 years take us!

Sincerely,

Amy Henke, PsyD