Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Independent Practice: Delishia M. Pittman.

Abstract

This award is intended to recognize outstanding independent practitioners in psychology. Nominations are considered for psychologists working in any area of clinical specialization, health services provision, or consulting, and services provided to any patient population or professional clientele in an independent setting. Services provided to diverse client groups or patient populations, including but not limited to children/adolescents/adults/older adults, urban/rural/frontier populations, minority populations, and persons with serious mental illness are considered. Contributions are judged distinguished by virtue of peer recognition, advancement of the public's recognition of psychology as a profession, relevant professional association honors, or other meritorious accomplishments denoting excellence as a practitioner, including advancement of the profession. The 2022 recipients of the APA Professional Contributions Awards were selected by the 2021 Board of Professional Affairs (BPA). As a scholar-practitioner and health disparities researcher, Delishia M. Pittman has prioritized the mental health needs of African-descended persons across the diaspora in practice, training, and scholarship. She was the first African American, board-certified counseling psychologist in the District of Columbia and founder of The Wellness Collective, a boutique therapy collective that centers the psychological health and well-being of the Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) community, delivering more than 4,000 hours of therapy in the past year to BIPOC individuals and couples. As tenured faculty in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at George Washington University, she took up antiracism work which has resulted in several important achievements, including the adoption of a department-wide antiracism statement; implementation of antiracism working groups to examine and redress antiracist policies, practices, and procedures across the training program of the department; implementation of two mandatory antiracism convocation experiences in the curriculum; and a movement to decolonize every course and diversify the voices used in the training of counselors for the profession. Dr. Pittman's contributions to the field of psychology are exemplary, and she deserves to be honored for her tireless work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).