A Letter from the President

Dear LPANJ Members,

I am humbled by the opportunity to serve as the LPANJ President for 2012. This year, we will continue to focus our efforts on providing training and education regarding the mental health needs of Latina/os in New Jersey and our surrounding communities.  We will also continue to strengthen our professional collaborations with local and national organizations, including the New Jersey Psychological Association and the National Latina/o Psychological Association. 

We had a very successful 2011. We had a fantastic turnout at our 12th annual conference, which took place in Seton Hall University. The conference focused on a timely and very important issue - Latino Forensic Psychology.  We also hosted several other programs and continued to increase our membership outreach via our Facebook page. We ended 2011 with our elections for 2012 Board positions.  Mr. Enmanuel Mercedes is our President-Elect and Dr. Frances Melendez and Mr. Daniel Gaztambide are our new Members-at-Large.  Dr. Daniel Cruz is our returning Secretary, Dr. Sueli Petry is our returning Treasurer and Dr. Aileen Torres is our Past-President.   With this excellent team, 2012 will be very exciting for our Association. 

We started the year successfully. In January, our former Past-President, Dr. Aileen Torres, presented Working with Latino Families at the Essex-Union County Association for Psychologists Winter Luncheon Meeting. We are also co-sponsoring the Latina Researchers Conference: Increasing the Pipeline for Future Scholars, scheduled to take place on April 27-28, 2012 in New York City.

One of our great endeavors this year, is our co-sponsorship of the National Latina/o Psychological Association’s 2012 Biennial Conference that will take place on October 11-13, 2012 at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick. This is the first time the national conference will be in New Jersey and we are very happy to collaborate with NLPA.  At the conference, LPANJ will host several events, including a social hour and two roundtable discussions focused on engaging both mental health providers and graduate students in collaborative efforts to address the needs of the growing Latina/o population in our state. We also have several other exciting programs planned including a mentoring program for graduate students interested in psychology and Latino/a mental health, social events, workshops and much more.

As you see, we have a great year ahead!  We encourage our members to become actively involved in our programming. If you have time, we would love to see you join our committees and upcoming mentoring program.  On a last note, in keeping with tradition, don’t forget to submit all your wonderful news and expertise through our Bulletin.

We thank you for your continued support

Warmly,

Silvia L. Mazzula, PhD, NCC, LPC
President, Latino Psychological Association of New Jersey
Assistant Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY