Dear OSPA members and friends of OSPA,
Dear OSPA members and friends of OSPA,
Another academic year has come to an end. With any luck you are reading this during a well-deserved break. Please make sure you take some time to recharge and relax this summer before we all head back for another academic year. A special congratulations is in order for all of Ohio’s school psychology interns who will become first-year practitioners when we return. Remember that your first year of membership into OSPA is free because of our partnership with the Office of Exceptional Children, and we hope you stay involved with OSPA for many years to come.
As the academic year has passed, I wanted to reflect on some of the highlights from OSPA. This year, we hosted two successful conferences. Our virtual spring conference featured a session on ethics provided by Dr. Erich Merkle. We then hosted comprehensive presentations focusing on equity, multi-tiered change in schools, and creating trauma sensitive schools and practices. Sam Coleman, M.Ed., provided attendees with thoughtful insights on how to effectively implement practices that promote equity in education and benefit all students. Mark Gallagher, Ed.S., then shared his district’s journey through creating comprehensive multi-tiered change to support the academic and social emotional well being of students. Finally, we ended with a presentation by Dr. Melissa Sadin, who provided attendees with an in-depth discussion on trauma-sensitive schools and practices.
This year, each of OSPA’s committees set goals to work towards during our 2022 summer planning meeting. We are happy to report that every committee has either achieved their goal or has made significant progress towards it. All our committees have also developed job descriptions to further help new board members with onboarding into committees and executive board positions. OSPA has also been working on developing a new award to recognize all of those who take the time to serve as internship supervisors. This will allow for more involvement from Ohio’s school psychology interns, while also allowing OSPA to formally recognize all the important work that internship supervisors do to grow our profession. Another initiative that we have been hard at work on is centralizing the Future School Psychologists of Ohio (FSPO) club for undergraduate and high school students. Instead of housing multiple FSPO organizations throughout the state, OSPA has worked to create one state-wide organization to ensure high quality information is decimated throughout the state while also keeping partnerships with all our graduate school training programs. Additionally, the early career committee has been working on updating our mentorship program this year. If you are interested in either becoming a mentor or mentee, please reach out to us and we can add you to either list. In addition to all these accomplishments, I would be remiss if I also did not mention what a phenomenal job our Legislative and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees have done with keeping membership up to date with relevant legislative alerts and calls for advocacy throughout the year. If you are not a member of either of these committees, I would strongly advise signing up as there is no better way to keep up to date with all the fast-paced legislation and goings on in our state.
Finally, as OSPA presses onward into the next academic year, we would like to welcome all new and returning members, including members of OSPA’s leadership from our spring elections. Jennifer Glenn was elected as President-Elect, Melissa Flanigan was re-elected as OSPA’s Secretary, and Chris Sweeney was re-elected as OSPA’s Treasurer. Additionally, Amanda Brian (CASP), Mary Ann Tietelbaum (ELASPA), and Jo Ann Sicafuse (NEOSPA) were elected as regional representatives. Furthermore, with the conclusion of our spring conference, I officially passed the gavel of the presidency to the new OSPA President Jenna Hete. OSPA could not be left in better hands, and we cannot wait to see all that OSPA will accomplish under her leadership.
As I have transitioned into my new role as the immediate past president of OSPA, I wanted to send out a special thank you to our Executive Director Rachel Chilton, Business Manager Megan Luna, and the rest of the executive board for all their hard work over the past year. It has been an honor to serve as president of OSPA this past year and has a been a major highlight of my career. With all that being said, I again would like to encourage everyone to either renew their membership or become a member of OSPA for the first time. We are only able to accomplish everything that we do because of our dedicated members who work to advocate for Ohio’s families and school psychology. Thank you all for everything that you do and remember to take time to recharge and relax before the next school year begins.
