Interactive #3: Reflection, Resilience, and Empowerment: Investing in our BIPOC Scientist-Practitioners

With demographics quickly changing in the United States, it is imperative that the field of psychology prioritize issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the psychology workforce. While efforts within the past few years have focused on these priorities, we still fall far behind in our recruitment and retention of BIPOC researchers and clinicians. Our panel will hold a strengths-based discussion on the historical and current state of psychology and steps forward in our training of BIPOC scientist-practitioners. Specifically, we will guide attendees in mindfulness-based exercises to understand our positionality and intersectionality within a systems-wide and individual basis. In our discussion, we will answer questions such as: What is the history and importance of diversity in psychology? How can we embed empowerment and resilience in our training of BIPOC scientist-practitioners? We will explore our various career paths and future professional goals as psychologists of color and share our lessons learned from our training and ECP experiences. Lastly, we will collectively celebrate and honor each other's efforts and accomplishments in our fight towards a more socially just psychology. Attendees will discuss their training experience, strategies for empowering themselves and others, and next steps for increasing DEI