President-Elect

Leila Islam, PhD | Curriculum Vitae

I believe I echo many others as I identify APAHC as my professional academic “home” – one I was delighted to be welcomed into while on internship. As a conference and Early Career Bootcamp (ECBC) attendee the following year, I received a richer sense of the full value of being an APAHC member. I went on the serve as chair of the Early Career Committee and was fortunate enough to co-chair the ECBCs in 2017 (Detroit) and 2019 (New Orleans), and the first ever virtual ECBC in 2021, during which applications to the boot camp increased significantly along with the overall size of the boot camp. I currently serve APAHC as Member-at-Large and have reviewed for the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, mentoring my trainees to serve as reviewers as well. APAHC also has experienced impressive growth in recent years, which brings with it evolving opportunities for and responsibilities to its membership and psychology in AHCs overall. I would be honored to serve as President-Elect and feel poised to join the executive board and work alongside the entire board to lead the organization on projects and initiatives aligned with priorities identified by the membership, while channeling the unique sense of connection and comradery that embodies APAHC. Currently, I am a clinical health psychologist, assistant professor and program director of the clinical health psychology postdoctoral fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) SOM. I received my doctoral degree from VCU and completed internship and fellowship at VA Connecticut Healthcare System and Yale University. After several years as director of behavioral science for a family medicine residency, I “boomeranged” back to VCU where I enjoy working in clinical care, research, teaching, fellowship administration, and program development, as well as hospital-wide efforts focused on interprofessional education and hiring more clinical psychologists. I have served in other national roles, including receiving a presidential citation for work on taskforce for SfHP (Div 38), and hope to have the opportunity to continue to use such experience and my eight years on the Board to date to continue to promote the mission of APAHC.

Amy Williams, PhD, LP | Curriculum Vitae

I joined APAHC as a health psychology fellow in 2014, attending my first APAHC conference and Early Career Boot Camp in Atlanta in 2015. I was hooked – APAHC has been my professional home and a source of connection and belonging ever since. I have been proudly involved in APAHC leadership since 2015, when I was appointed to co-chair the 2017 biennial conference. With the invaluable collaboration with my co-chair, Dr. John Yozwiak, we brought the conference to Detroit, MI in 2017 and to New Orleans, LA in 2019. After joining in 2014, I have served on the Membership Committee, on the 2021 and 2023 Biennial Conference Committees, on the Interprofessional Education SIG, and the Wellness SIG and interdivisional group. I have been an active member of the Research Committee – both as a member for the past 7 years and as a co-chair for the past 4 years. Finally, I served as the APAHC Member-at-Large from 2020-2022, representing APAHC on the Clinical Health Psychology Specialty Council in 2022. My journey in leadership started in APAHC, and, with these experiences, mentorship, and modeling, I have also engaged with other psychological associations. I am currently one of three representatives serving the Society for Health Psychology on the APA Council of Representatives from 2020-2023. There I work with other psychologists from across the country and in different (non-clinical, non-healthcare) areas of psychology, to develop and move APA policy forward policy. As a health psychologist, my focus has been on health policy - whole health - at both the individual and population-level. Within the Council of Representatives, I also serve as the Early Career Representative on the Council Leadership Team, a group tasked with the management of the business of Council. With nomination by Dr. Wendy Ward, I represent APA on a panel that is updating the competencies for the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) – a collaborative that includes many disciplines in health care with the goal of training health care professionals from two or more professions to learn with, about, and from each other. At the state level, I serve as the Secretary for the Michigan Psychological Association and am a member of the Integrated Care Committee, setting forth advocacy issues for MPA with insurance companies and the Michigan legislature. I have been fortunate to have been involved in many of the “moving pieces” of APAHC and other psychological associations across my career. I have been exceptionally fortunate to have been guided by strong psychology leadership mentors and seen great leadership modeled within organizations. It is my desire to continue serving this amazing organization as its President. I would be honored to serve the APAHC membership and the Board in this role. Thank you for your consideration.

Member At Large

Anastasia J. Bullock, PsyD | Curriculum Vitae

I am writing to be considered for the Member-At-Large position on the APAHC Board. When I joined APAHC and attended my first conference during my postdoctoral fellowship in 2017, it was clear that this community had the possibility of being my professional home. Over the past several years of attending conferences and later joining APAHC’s research committee, this sense of community was strengthened. Connecting with other psychologists about our work with similar patient populations, the particular nature of the environments we work in, and all of the innovative efforts to grow and strengthen our field has been refreshing and reaffirming of my professional goals. Currently, I contribute to the Board’s mission to promote psychology not only within the academic teaching hospital in which I work with psychology trainees, medical students and residents, but also through advocacy for psychology in the state of New Jersey. I am currently serving as the Chair-Elect for the Committee on Legislative Affairs within the New Jersey Psychological Association. Our group reviews proposed bills that affect psychologists and the populations we serve and connects with legislators to educate, support and recommend amendments. In addition to advocacy, I have also created an APA-accredited internship program at my institution to increase training opportunities for health psychology in a medically underserved area, which has in turn contributed to an increase in psychology positions and access to care for our patients. I strongly believe that my strengths and accomplishments translate well to the tasks assigned to the Member-At-Large position as it has been described to me by those on the Board and who have previously served in this position. My desire to serve on the APAHC Board stems from my gratitude to this organization for the ongoing education, connections, mentorship, and career opportunities that have been made available to me. In turn, I would like to utilize my affability, enthusiasm, work ethic, and commitment to program development in support of the President and Board of Directors’ goals for APAHC over the coming years. Thank you for considering this self-nomination for the Member-At-Large position; if elected, I confirm my willingness to serve in this position.

Michelle B. Moore, PsyD | Curriculum Vitae

I am writing to submit my self-nomination and willingness to serve in the open Member-at-Large position on the APAHC Board of Directors if elected by the membership. I have a desire to advance psychology in academic health centers and commitment to leadership and service within both the psychology and academic medicine communities. My qualifications to serve in this role are evident due to my leadership roles that have been both appointed and voluntary over the last 12 years on faculty at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC). I am currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and have received two professorships during the last five years. The second professorship awarded in 2022 is being utilized to offer educational funds to all Assistant and Associate level professors within the Section of Psychology.

In regard to leadership, I served for five years as the Training Director (TD) for our internship program and continue to serve as a mentor for APPIC members and as a member of the APPIC mentorship work group formed earlier this year. In my role as TD, I provided leadership through a self-study and site visit where we were awarded the full ten years of accreditation and supported the training program through the COVID-19 pandemic. I was appointed by our department chair to the role of Section Chief for Psychology in February 2022 and have worked to provide cohesion, a sense of belonging, diversification to the faculty and improve morale across our Section. Within the School of Medicine at LSUHSC, I served for two years as a co-chair for the Women’s Affairs Committee for two years and was asked by our Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs to serve as co-chair of the Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee and Junior Faculty Guidance and Mentoring Committee in 2022 and 2023 respectively. This Spring our interim Dean asked if I would be willing to serve the SoM as the Senior Representative for CFAS with the AAMC which begins this summer. Outside of our institution, I have served on our state psychological association executive committee, served on conference planning committees for LPA, APAHC and ASPPB, and have submitted a nomination to serve on the Discipline Committee with ASPPB. Lastly, I was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana to serve on the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (LSBEP) for a term beginning in 2019 and lasting through July 2024. I currently serve as Vice Chair of LSBEP. I feel confident in my ability to serve the membership of APAHC and hope that I have a expertise and varying perspectives to offer the Board of Directors to further advance the organizational mission of APAHC. Thank you for your consideration.

Stacy Ogbeide, PsyD, ABPP, CSOW | Curriculum Vitae

I am writing to express my interest in serving as Member-at-Large for the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC).

I am a Board-Certified Clinical Health Psychologist and Board-Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management. I have been working in integrated primary care settings for several years and currently serve as the Director of Behavioral Health Education within the Family Medicine Residency, training family medicine residents at UT Health San Antonio. I am an Associate Professor on the tenure-track in the Department of Family & Community Medicine. I have a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and serve as the Primary Care Track Coordinator for the APA accredited Psychology Internship. As of September 1, 2022, I also serve as the Assistant Dean for Faculty for the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

I would like to highlight a few of my accomplishments over the past few years. I was the 2019 recipient of the Association for Psychologists in Academic Health Centers’ Early Career Psychologist Contributions Award, the 2019 recipient of the Integrated Care Champion Award of the Missouri Psychological Association, the 2020 recipient of the Excellence in Clinical Health Psychology by an Early Career Professional Award through the Society for Health Psychology (Div. 38 – APA). I was awarded the 2021 San Antonio Business Journal Health Care Hero Outstanding Educator Award as well as recently awarded the 2023 40 under 40 Award also through the San Antonio Business Journal. I rotated off the Board of Directors of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association in December 2022 and became the 2023 Division 38 (Society for Health Psychology) Program Chair for the American Psychological Association’s Annual Convention taking place in Washington, DC.

I have a passion for faculty and professional development, especially for faculty from ethnically minoritized backgrounds in academic health centers. I serve on the Professional Development Committee within the Department of Family & Community Medicine as well as an active member of the Resources, Advice, Insight, Support, and Empowerment (RAISE) ECHO for Early Career Women Faculty at UT Health San Antonio. I serve as a faculty mentor for the URiM initiative through STFM, a faculty writing coach in the URiM Leadership through Scholarship Program, as well as recently served as a faculty mentor for the 1-year long Behavioral Science Faculty Fellowship program with STFM.

My professional experiences and accomplishments qualify me for this member-at-large position and will serve as an asset for this position as well. I consistently identify as a clinical health psychologist in the different roles in which I serve so I hope to be able to amplify the voices of psychologists in academic health centers in all the roles in which they serve.

Thank you for your consideration.

Lynne H. Unikel, PhD | Curriculum Vitae

It is an honor to run for Member-at-Large for APAHC. I am a behavioral health faculty member in a family medicine residency at St. Luke’s University Health Network where I educate family medicine residents. In addition to didactics and direct instruction, my responsibilities include scholarly activity and clinical work and I supervise psychology interns. The program is young, so I spend a lot of time educating about integrated primary care, helping residents see mental health as part of whole-body health, and developing new programs and initiatives.

I have service and leadership experience both within my community, academic health center, and at a national level. I led the Well-Being initiatives for my academic health center during COVID and along with an amazing team, developed several programs and services to support staff in the hospital and at home. Locally, I served on the Educational Advisory Committee of my school district for numerous years and was the Chair for two years (2020-2022). During this time, I revamped the way the committee interfaced with the school board and superintendent and changed practices that had not evolved in the fifty plus years of the committee’s existence. I am a member of the Health Research Council for APA Division 38 – Health Psychology, and review student research grant proposals for the annual awards, participate in writing the committee’s monthly research summaries, and I collaborated on past APA annual conference symposia. Most recently, I served as one of the Division 38 HRC representatives, reviewing nominations for the council’s annual awards. As an APAHC member, I co-facilitated the Mid-Career Bootcamp at the annual convention this past March and welcome the opportunity to become more involved in APAHC.

As MAL, I would use my leadership experience and creativity to support the President and Board’s initiatives. Thank you for your consideration.

Treasurer

Melissa A. Faith, Ph.D., ABPP | Curriculum Vitae

I am writing to express my strong interest in the open Treasurer position for the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers. I am a licensed, board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist specializing in pediatric hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplant. In addition to my patient care responsibilities, my current position includes foci in research and grantsmanship, clinical supervision, and teaching. I currently hold three NIH-funded research grants as PI or Co-I as well as two foundation grants as Pl. In total, my current grant funding exceeds $3.8M, demonstrating my strong commitment to precise and ethnical budgeting and record-keeping. I am committed to the financial accountability and security of our APAHC organization and would be honored to serve our community in the role of Treasurer. I previously served on the APAHC conference planning committee for the 2023 conference year and seek to enhance my contributions to this important group. I greatly appreciate your time and consideration.

Shannon Virtue, Psy.D. | Curriculum Vitae

I am excited to run for the position of Treasurer to serve the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC) Board. As a member of APAHC for over a decade, I have truly found my “professional home” and would love the opportunity to serve the organization as Treasurer. I have been involved in APAHC through the Research Committee and have enjoyed being involved in various aspects of the committee. I have also partnered with colleagues across organizations to submit conference presentations on various topics of interest for the APAHC conferences. I am very interested in growing my involvement in APAHC by serving as Treasurer where I can participate on the Board and work within a budgetary capacity for the organization.

I believe that I have the qualifications to serve in a leadership role within the organization. Currently, I am the Clinical Lead of Embedded Psychology at Christiana Care Health System in Delaware, as well as the Associate Program Director of Psychology Training. Through those leadership roles, I have developed skills which would serve me well as a Treasurer. As part of my Clinical Lead role, I partner with Operational Leadership regarding budgetary planning and oversight for our team. Being involved on the budgetary side of psychology practice in medical settings has been a great learning experience and I have truly enjoyed it. Additionally, I have been involved in grant-funded research for over a decade, including serving as Principal Investigator and Site Principal Investigator on multiple grants. Grant writing and grant execution involves budget planning, record keeping, and re-budgeting as necessary. I have been involved in all aspects of this at the grant level. I am organized and with good attention to detail. And, I am eager to put these experiences and skills to work as Treasurer for APAHC.

In addition to those qualifications, I would be incredibly honored and excited to serve in this role! I am believe strongly in the mission of APAHC. I am enthusiastic to serve the organization and its members.