Posted on behalf of Dr. Jennifer McGrory Cooper and the Trainers of School Psychologists (TSP) Social Justice Committee:
Dear Colleagues,
Project Background:
The Black Excellence in School Psychology Project started in 2021 as a way to increase awareness of Black leaders in school psychology through the dissemination of a flyer within graduate preparation programs. In response to your feedback from our first survey, we expanded the project to honor leaders from other underrepresented groups in school psychology. In 2021, we created and distributed flyers at the following times: Black History Month (Feb), AAPI Heritage Month (May), Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep 15 - Oct 15) and Indigenous Peoples/Native American Heritage Month (Nov). We have asked for your feedback along the way to help us in improving the Project (and each subsequent flyer), and we appreciate your continued support.
Nomination Process:
For this year’s Black History Month flyer, we worked to develop an advisory panel (Drs. Celeste Malone and Stacy Williams) to help us in nominating/identifying Black leaders in school psychology and developing broadened inclusion criteria that included national leaders engaged in school-based work in addition to faculty members. In moving forward, we plan to recruit an advisory panel for each flyer, prioritizing those who identify as part of, and/or who have meaningfully been in relationship with, the communities being featured. Our goal is to include both early career and experienced leaders in our field. If you have an interest in serving on an advisory panel or would like to share names of individuals that you feel strongly should be recognized in one of the four flyers planned for 2022, please contact us directly.
Finally, we recognize the complexity of highlighting school psychology leaders, given that it inevitably will feel that we have included some and not included others, and that some individuals even after being nominated would prefer not to be included. We welcome the nominations of others for future consideration we may have unintentionally missed. As TSP, we ourselves are continually learning about the contributions of diverse leaders in our field. As always, we are open to your feedback, and we hope you find the flyer helpful in increasing representation and honoring truly inspiring leaders in our field.
Respectfully,