Board Candidates Comment on Issues Facing the AGPA

Editor’s Note: In the upcoming AGPA election, members will elect four of the eight candidates to serve on the Board of Directors for the 2003–2006 term. Candidates were asked to respond to the question: If elected, what do you hope to contribute to AGPA as a Board member? Their responses follow.

Gary Burlingame, PhD, CGP
For 20 years I have focused my career on understanding the group research and treatment literature. I, along with my colleagues at Brigham Young University (Addie Fuhriman, PhD, Sally Barlow, PhD, ABPP, ABGP, CGP, and Michael Lambert) have developed integrative research summaries and models that attempt to address important conceptual, empirical, and clinical issues facing practitioners and mental health treatment delivery. Two themes have organized my work: group psychotherapy and developing process and outcome measures that track the effectiveness and underlying change mechanisms of such. 

On first blush, some may see a potential mismatch between my career interests and AGPA’s historic clinical focus. However, this year’s Annual Conference will mark my twelfth year as Conference faculty. During this time I have received important oral and written feedback from AGPA members—mostly clinical wisdom—that has calibrated my thinking, writing, and “clinical read” on the empirical literature. While there is an understandable tension between research and clinical perspectives, I have been personally, clinically, and professionally enriched by AGPA and its membership. One marker of this enrichment is reflected in the number of Brigham Young University clinical psychology graduate students with research interests that have recently joined AGPA.

I believe my contribution to the Board will come from the career perspective that I’ve just described. Ample opportunity for the integration of research and clinical practice within AGPA has already emerged. For instance, my work on an AGPA-sponsored white paper demonstrated how clinicians and researchers can consensually develop clinical practice policy recommendations for a federal agency—CMHS. Similar integrative opportunities emerged in my work with the 9/11 Task Force. In short, I view Board membership as a logical extension of these activities and look forward to similar opportunities at the policy and strategy level of AGPA.

Joshua Gross, PhD, ABPP, CGP 
If elected, I hope to contribute a perspective that values the voice of diversity and the movement toward unification. Expanding our membership to better incorporate the under-represented as well as developing processes that enable us to work together more effectively will strengthen our ability to meet our goals and objectives.

Diversity is an increasingly important issue in our culture and involves the acceptance and incorporation of various individuals, cultures, orientations, and experiences. Changes in the economics of practice have had a tremendous impact on the way mental health services are delivered. Promoting group psychotherapy across a broad range of orientations increases public access for affordable, effective mental health services. Expanding opportunities for group therapists will improve our health care system and increase demand for services.

AGPA will benefit from our actively working to expand and involve a more far-reaching representation of group workers while maintaining the highest standards for membership, training and professional certification. 

Our constituency is comprised of a wide range of theoretical orientations, practices, and professions that have a history of working well together. Still, unification processes are difficult at best. Rarely do democratic decisions result in consensus without dissenting opinion. Working to take the full range of opinions into consideration while developing tolerance for difference is an essential component in group decision-making. If elected I will do my best to shepherd this process.

Working with others in the process of governance has brought me to believe in diversity and unification. I have been working toward this end in a variety of governance boards. It would be a privilege and a responsibility to serve on the Board of AGPA. If elected I will do my best to keep an eye on the process and my trust in the group.

Jeannine Jacques, MEd, MSW, CGP
My stance as a Board member will be consistent with my approach to life. In life, as in organizations such as AGPA, we are not spectators but participants in a continuous process of creating and recreating ourselves and the world in which we live. As such, I see myself as a partner and participant in this ever-emergent association, one who listens to the many voices, not only the voices of those in leadership but also of those in every level of membership, potential members, and the people we seek to reach through our work; and then one who gives utterance to the many points of view while moving toward consensus.

Two convictions inform my participatory stance. First, a belief that the only constant is change. Second, a recognition that relationships, groups, therapeutic and task groups, involve a mutual give and take process.

AGPA remains vital because it has been able to change with the times and to adapt to changes surrounding us, internally and externally. Impermanence makes everything possible whereas maintaining the status quo results in stagnancy and loss of creative energy. Willingness to change opens the door to reality, insight, and creativity, as seen most recently in our response to 9/11, and grounds us in the present, respectful of the past, open to an unknown future.

In that spirit, growth, change, participation, and effective management require the reciprocity of kindness and generosity with receptivity and openness to others however similar or diverse they and their ideas may be. My 15-year association with AGPA has been based on receiving from the well of rich resources available to me and returning to replenish that well so that others could also dip into it. Having been awarded the Durkin-Glatzer Scholarship in 1988, my introduction to AGPA through my first Annual Institute and Conference opened doors to opportunities that continue to this day in the form of mentoring, training, and generativity. As a result, I have been eager and willing to give from my fullness and to make it possible for others to receive from the bounty of resources available in the form of training, scholarships and awards, mentoring, and leadership, and professional collegiality. As well, I remain committed to replenishing the financial, educational, and supportive resources so that the well never runs dry. In these ways, I shall continue to be a participant in and co-creator of the exciting, emerging entity that is AGPA.

Jeffrey Kleinberg, PhD, CGP 
AGPA is an organization that changes with the times. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Association leadership mobilized for a massive relief effort that included program planning, training, research and supervision. I am proud to say that I have been part of this successful effort. Representing Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS), I have come to know AGPA, many of its officers and committee chairs. This experience, coupled with attendance in many Annual Conferences, has made me want to become engaged in governance.

My background as EGPS Treasurer (two, two-year terms), Editor of ??Group?? (four years), President-Elect (1 year) and now President (for the last year and a half), encourages me to run for the Board. If elected, I plan to strengthen the links between the Association and the Affiliate Societies. For example, AGPA could match national experts on such areas as marketing, finance, strategic planning, and leadership training with the needs of Affiliates.

Another interest of mine is long-term planning. As a former Dean of Students and Executive Associate to the President at a CUNY community college, I helped to design and oversee many group-based support programs. I learned about needs assessment and program development. The financial challenges facing all professional organizations, including AGPA, motivates me to join with others on the Board to identify new funding sources. If successful we can keep dues and conference fees as affordable as possible and have a greater impact on the community.

Finally, I think AGPA could do more to assist group training programs, many of which are struggling, to attract new students. My previous work as Assistant Dean of Training, and my current role as a faculty member, supervisor and training analyst at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health should come in handy. 

Pavlos Kymissis, MD
If I am elected to the Board of AGPA I hope to contribute in addressing the following issues: The concern about the decrease of membership especially psychiatrists. I believe the number of our psychiatrist members has dropped to about half during the past 10 years. Some of the reasons could be related to the general climate where many professional organizations are losing membership. But there are specific issues where AGPA may become more relevant to the needs of the members. Some of these include protection from unreasonable managed care regulations and expectations. Also academic psychiatrists should be able to find in AGPA a forum for growth and dialogue. AGPA should take a leadership role in the discussion of how much research we need and what is its role for shaping the future of group psychotherapy. We need to provide new incentives for students of all disciplines to join and become actively involved in the life of the Association. Finally, the Affiliate Societies may need extra support to play a more active role in the life of AGPA.

Anne Oakley, PhD
It is an honor to have been nominated to run for the Board of Directors of AGPA. I believe that I have the commitment, enthusiasm, and experience to help move the organization forward in these challenging times. Issues such as membership retention and expansion, financial constraints, and expanding community service roles, as well as promoting group psychotherapy in the broader political context are a few of the challenges facing AGPA. I bring a broad range of expertise in the areas of administrative, clinical, training, supervision, policy development, research, and advocacy in academically affiliated, community settings, professional organizations, and government committees that would serve me well in the role of Board member.

Group psychotherapy has always been my key focus professionally. Over the past 10 years, I have participated in several key committees of AGPA, including Co-Chair of the Workshop Sub-Committee of the Conference Committee (1998–2002) and Co-Chair of the Women’s SIG (1994–1998). Since 1985, I have been actively involved in the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association in numerous leadership roles, including the President (1992–1994). For almost 25 years, I have been actively involved in group therapy training including as the Director of the CGPA Section Training Program between 1985–1991.

Networking and mentoring are at the heart of AGPA. I have felt these kinds of affiliations since I attended by first Conference in 1982, when I was welcomed as a new attendee from Canada. Personal connections and professional leadership need to be nurtured and built upon to ensure a bright future. I would like to contribute to those goals.

Kathy Rider, MSSW, CGP
AGPA must have a Board that is representative of both the general membership and the organization as a whole. I have spent my professional life and my volunteer time listening, gathering information, analyzing options/strategies, and making decisions which advocated for the consumer of services as well as for the practitioners who provided the care. I had the privilege of being on the front line in Texas in the early 1970s in acquiring legal regulation for the practice of social work and mental health parity legislation. My practice involves fee-for-service, managed health care, employee assistance programs, critical incident debriefing and sliding fee clientele. I will bring a perspective of the solo practitioner practicing in a climate of 85 percent managed health care. 

I value diversity and Texas is becoming more diverse daily. As a mediator, my skills and training facilitated my hearing varied perspectives as one arrived at the decision, which would embody the values and principles of all the parties. 

I have also been blessed with a tremendous amount of energy and a good sense of humor. My experience as an elected public official on a local school board will serve to bring a perspective about how to balance the needs of the organization, its membership, and the fiscal realities. 

Each investment by the representative parties must be balanced for the individual as well as for the greater good for the organization. I look forward to the opportunity to work with and for you.

Maria Ross, MSW, ABD 
My major contribution to the AGPA as a Board member would be to build alliances through differences. The importance of recognizing our global connection and the importance of inclusion has crystallized since the events of September 11. As a Latina, a mother of a six-year-old daughter, and a group and family therapist, I am firmly committed to creating a safe space for the kind of healing that can transform individuals and organizations.

I have contributed similarly in my private practice. With an emphasis on women, trauma and culture, I have focused on helping women identify and work through female identity issues related to employment, sexuality and creativity. This specifically has included an exploration of the mother-daughter dyad and its effects on women’s ability to perform and live more creatively. Additionally, I have guided women to a more thorough understanding of how symbols attached to their female identity can be used creatively or destructively and through which meaning can be found and misunderstandings identified. The outcome of my work is to empower women as leaders and to channel negative emotions of anger and depression into more creative, sustaining ways of living with themselves and within society.

This article was published in the October/November 2002 issue of The Group Circle