Jessica: Many ambassadors expressed a very strong interest in learning more about advocacy and facilitating the teaching of how their students and how their campuses can become more involved in advocacy. And so, we are very lucky today to have a presentation from our government relations team. So, we have Karen, Amalia Corby, and a few other surprise guests will be participating throughout the presentation. So, the only logistical or administrative note that I will say before we get started is that we’ll have a live Q&A feature throughout the presentation that you text in your responses or questions. And so, you will see the instructions for that when we get to the first slide, but just know that if you want to participate you should have your phone out and ready. And with that I will turn it over to the government relations team. And if you are talking we can’t hear you, you need to unmute yourself.

Karen: [Laughs] Thanks Jessica. So, welcome everybody. Our webinar today is Advocacy in Action: What You Need to Know to Become an Advocate for Psychology. So, this isn’t everything you need to know, but it will give you some general information about how to get involved with advocacy with APA. And if you are already involved how to increase the impact of your advocacy. So, your hosts today are Karen Studwell…

Amalia: Got a little glitch.

Jessica: It’s our slides are a little slow.

Karen: I’m Karen Studwell and I run the education government relations office. And I’ve been working at the APA for 16 years working on research funding, expansion of internships, and a range of education policy issues.

Amalia: I am Amalia Corby, I work in APA’s public issues government regulation office. I’ve been with APA about 4 years working on violence prevention and women’s [indiscernible]

Cynthia: And I am Cynthia Malley, policy associate with APA’s science government and regulations office. I support a number of science advocacy initiatives including coordinating our stand for science in districts campaigns.

Karen: Great. And we want to thank all the Campus Ambassadors that have gotten you all together in the midst of march madness, spring break, and all the hours of classes and training all the sites. And want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules. As you can see, you’re adding campuses from coast to coast and some folks in the middle. And I think we are going to do this again cause we have a lot of campuses who are interested but I know schedules were tight. So here is what we are going to cover today. We are planning a series of webinars on advocacy and this is really just a first one to cover things generally. So, we are going to give you some advocacy basics including the definition and importance of direct lobbying, why your engagement matters more than ever, and an overview on how to communicate effectively so that not only will you be heard but that the right people are actually listening. At the end we will give you an opportunity to weigh in on some future advocacy topics that would be covered more in depth if you wanted to have more of an issue specific training and take some action afterwards. And we will also sprinkle in a lot of kernels of wisdom and tips that we have garnered over 30 years of combined lobbying experience so that you can become a better advocate for psychology, for yourself, and your community. So as Jessica mentioned we are using our poll everywhere texting Q&A so if you have your phones out one way to get that started is first you need to text APACAP, that’s all caps, and you’re going to text that to 22333. And that will allow you to join the

texting software. So, I’ll give you thirty seconds to hopefully do that on your phones, just text APACAP to 22333 and then we are going to give you your first question which is at the top. So one of our first tips of course is to be informed so we really want to make sure you all know where you are registered to vote so text now which state you are registered to vote you can use the two letter symbol for the state and then we can see the aside from the programs that you are at, you’re probably registered to vote at a number of different states as well because maybe you went out of state for school. I see a couple more states were added. I’m hoping that means you have the software setup so that your texting is going through and that you were able to join the text.

Jessica: And I think the bigger the word or the initial, the more responses it has.

Karen: Oh, it gets bigger. So, we have a lot of people from Virginia. We like those folks down at Virginia Commonwealth. So, I’m going to turn it over to Amalia to give you a little bit of background on APA’s lobbying structure first. [5:55]

Amalia: Alright, so I’m going to talk to you about APA’s advocacy structure. APA is considered the mothership for psychology and our member student affiliates wear different hats working in research labs, classrooms, hospitals, community mental health centers, private practice, and working in communities in school governments and private companies. APA is organized across four primary directorates science, public interest, practice and education. Each directorate has its own government relations office and we all advocate on different things. Science advocates to strengthen scientific infrastructure and to enhance psychological research funding. Public Interest advocates for marginalized populations. Our Education GRO advocates for increased support for psychological education and training to promote the application of psychology to teaching and learning. And our practice directorate advocates to protect reimbursement and consumer access to professional psychological services and federal health programs. Together we work collaboratively to advance the broader APA advocacy agenda. So, these are some of the issues we are working on amidst so many policy issues facing the country. But also, for psychology, graduate students, psychological scientists, and psychologists in practice. So, we are working to increase access and protect patients’ access to care during health care reform. We have been advocating for balanced immigration reform. We’ve been working to combat the opioid epidemic. To increase federal funding for psychological research. To preserve public service loan forgiveness and protect graduate students during the higher education reauthorization. And to prevent violence in our communities. So here is the next opportunity for you to weigh in, you can see some of our test votes up there, so you can disregard those, go ahead and answer this question, what’s your current impression of lobbying? A for unethical, B for a civic duty & professional responsibility, C for a rewarding activity, or D if you have no current opinion on lobbying.

Jessica: And just so everyone knows moving forward you don’t have to rejoin the thread, you can just type in your response.

Amalia: So, it’s good to see that most people see it as a civic duty & professional responsibility as lobbyists that’s how we certainly see it. I think that weighing in on the work that your government does is something that many citizens feel is important. I’m also glad to see that most of you don’t think it’s unethical. I’m going to turn it back over to Karen.

Karen: Great. So, when we talk about lobbying, and we are lobbying for APA, it’s a good idea to figure out what it is that we typically do. So, our job really is serving as conduits between the psychological

researchers and clinicians and public policy makers. Really take that psychological research and inform public policy and then take what we know about psychology and services and deliver those to communities in need and underserved communities. A typical day might have us drafting legislation/ideas, taking them up to the hill and having meetings with congressional staff, working with a lot of other organizations that have similar legislative goals that Amalia just mentioned so that we aren’t going in alone. It really helps when you have hundreds of organizations all supporting the same legislative request. We might organize a briefing about what psychological science has to say about treating addictions, community policing, or health disparity so we are educating the staff before they go and make decisions and that we serve as resources for them. At the same time all the funding agencies we work with them to educate them about the importance and needs of psychology in terms of research questions, health profession training, and education programs for social-emotional developments and needs to be incorporated into some of our K-12 education policy even. And we also bring our own members up to meet members of congress so that they are hearing directly from their constituents what’s happening back in the districts. So, I talked about this a little bit, we think of it like a three-legged stool, so lobbying is one part of what we consider advocacy, and it’s very critical to our efforts, but we like to think of it as really starting with education. We spend a lot of time educating members of congress, their staff, and federal officials about the role of psychologists and the contributions of psychological science, and we cross that boundary of education to lobbying. When we have a specific bill or program that we want congress to support, oppose, or increase funding for, such as the graduate psychology of education program that I lobby on. And we lobby congress either directly through staff as I mentioned, with our members, and with other organizations. We also lobby through our grassroots network, and so our members are able to respond directly to members of congress because they are much more interested in what their constituents have to say than we are. And our grassroots network is critical to our advocacy initiatives and we will tell you a little bit more about how you can get involved in that a later. Finally, through our affiliated APA Practice Organization and our Political Action Committee, that’s when we engage in election activities and raise funds from our members and affiliates to support the campaigns of congressional candidates. We like to keep the focus “support psychology” in congress. So that’s a really important goal for us. And advocacy is fundamentally about building relationships, and to have the most influence on policy we need to engage in all three of these activities. So that’s what we’re doing at the APA, but we cannot do it without the engagement, research, and advocacy of our members and students like you. So why should you advocate for Psychology? Well, to begin answering that question, we wanted to share this short video with you. And as you’ll see it does a pretty good job of explaining and underscoring the importance of being a psychology advocate.

Video: Can one person change the world? It’s not only logical. It’s psychological. It took a psychologist to show that segregation damaged young teens and black children. Testimonies to the supreme court helped to desegregate America’s public schools. That the right design of a push button key pad made [indiscernible] fast and accurate. And massage therapy on premes can save over $3,000 in hospital stay. That no two people have the same fingerprints. That teaching people to change behavior can prevent teen pregnancy and HIV. That a lime bright fire truck is safer than a red one. And now it takes you to keep changing the norm, one person at a time, and change the conversation, one message at a time. When you share what you know on capitol hill, you keep scientific research alive. You improve public health, physical health, mental health. [Indiscernible] Stop talking, and we all lose. So do it for you, [indiscernible], and all of us because when psychologists effect change, they effect America.

Karen: So that’s a little video from our science directorate folks. So, as you can see psychologists do have a long history of making important contributions that have really informed and transformed public policies. And the message is relevant whether you’re focus is psychological research, practice, or education. We thought of showing advocates this video because we want all of you to know that you can make a difference to public policy as demonstrated by what so many other psychologists have done before you. So hopefully those that those who have no opinion of advocacy and lobbying might have a little more interest by the end of our training. Another reason we like folks to be aware to be advocates is that many people up there in congress lobbying for things and if you’re not at that table then we like to say is something Mike Enzi said you’re on the menu. So, any programs that we participate in really depends on our involvement with congress and drafting those legislative proposals that psychology is not left behind. I’m going to turn it over to Amalia for a little advocacy basics.

Amalia: So, what is advocacy? There are many definitions of Advocacy, but we think this one captures it well for our purposes. Advocacy is a set of targeted actions directed at decision makers in support or in opposition to a specific policy issue. As you can see here, and we will discuss in more depth later, there are lots of different types of activities that make up advocacy. Anything ranging from a protest, having a meeting on capitol hill, or simply writing an email to a member of congress. So, what does this all mean? Advocacy is a process and not an event. A series of actions intended to affect some kind of change. It doesn’t happen overnight and a lot of it can take many many years. Advocacy occurs at all levels whether it’s to get a lease law passed, to change regional accreditation standards, state or federal tax policies, or even at the international level seeking treaties/declarations on issues such as trade, human rights or climate change. In short advocacy involves a range of actions that not only raise awareness of a need or problem, but also include efforts that will result in change such as passing a new law that establishes a new program. Alright, here’s another poll. In a few words, tell us why people don’t get involved in politics. We’ll give you a little bit longer for this one since it is a short answer question. So, these are great answers and I am pretty sure you can all see those popping up on your screen. I think there are commonalities people feel complacent, they don’t feel like they are going to be heard, they don’t feel like they know enough. I’m sorry for the person whose senators don’t respond them. And I think about the lack of time, we all have very busy schedules, even as a lobbyist. Our job is to advocate, and we certainly don’t feel like there in enough time in the day to do all of the things that we need to do. I’m going to click over to the next slide, thanks for your responses on that. Oops. [Laughter] There we go. So this is our slide on why people don’t get involved and you’ll see many of the things you said echoed in these bullet points politicians are corrupt, people are not aware of the issues, they don’t know what to say, however, hopefully by the end of this webinar you’ll feel like you should and that you will get involved. So, there are definitely consequences to not getting involved in advocacy first regarding federal policy making there can be a lack of understanding of psychology that may result in psychology not being considered an essential health profession or as a part of the STEM discipline. Regarding programs, noninvolvement might result in psychology being excluded from federal programs or included but with obstacles. And finally, regarding funding of federal grants or programs that are informed by psychology, noninvolvement can result in flat funding, or no funding at all. So now you know what advocacy is, why it’s important, and the consequences of noninvolvement remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Advocacy, as we said before, is a set of steps or actions intended to affect some kind of change and persistence is key. That’s your tip number two, persistence is key.

Karen: Alright I hate to move our little presidents race from the map but now it’s time to get into a little technical language from those folks who didn’t have any political science classes in undergrad or graduate school. So, before we get started learning about that, it might be helpful to learn a little about the process is actually supposed to work. So, the federal legislative process is that process by which laws are enacted and federal programs are created, funded, and implemented. And it’s also the process congress uses to eliminate or defund programs or put roadblocks in implementation. So, most people think of congress when we think of advocacy but its also important to remember that there are three branches of government and that each play a role in making, implementing, and interpreting the laws. APA lobbies for or against specific legislation, but after passage the administration and its departments will decide how its implemented and they will usually take public comment as they develop the regulations implementing the laws. If there are parties that are negatively impacted by federal laws, they can file suit and the courts will decide how to interpret that law. So, we have seen that a number of times with the APA implementation. Lots of lawsuits around that. It can delay the implementation of many policies. It can also delay the impact of things like the ban on immigration, so the courts were the ones that really stepped in to say, “I don’t think that’s constitutional I suggest you not implement that.” So, each of those branches are very important. But for now, let’s focus on the legislative branch. So how a bill becomes a law. Some people might remember the school house rock video with the little bill, he’s very cute. But the process begins with an idea. Usually from a constituent from the state or district and sometimes an organization like the APA. If members of congress are trying to address a problem they will really be seeking ideas and they’ll take input from multiple people and organizations. And trying to figure out how to solve it through legislation. So, a member of congress would start by drafting a legislative proposal or a bill. So, if you start from the top they introduce it to the house or senate and then its referred to a committee. So, all the members of congress serve on different committees of interest. Usually they will be serving on a committee that oversees something important to their district. If you’re on an agriculture committee you are probably from a farming state. If you are on foreign affairs you are probably interested in foreign policy. A lot of folks who have a military base would want to serve on maybe a department of defense approps committee, so they can get more money coming from the department of defense back to their state or district. So, one of our tips is know your member of congress. So not only where are you going to vote, but who are you going to vote for, who’s there right now, and are they voting the way you want them to. And so, know your member of congress and know their committee assignments. If you know your member of congress you can go to their website. You can look up their positions, their bios, and their committee assignments. And so that can really tell you what kind of impact they are having on issues and what they are interested in. Their ability to influence legislation is really determined by those committee assignments. So, after it is reviewed through committee, if you remember from the video a lot of them are reviewed through committee and die through committee. So, it’s really up to those committees to hold hearings to have a review session, we call that a markup, where they literally write on the bill and mark it up and make changes at that committee level. So, if you member is on the committee then he’s got a lot more power to make any changes that could negatively impact you or your communities. Once the committee would pass that, they would have to decide through leadership whether they would schedule a vote on the floor. So that bill has to go to the floor have debate and passage, right, and they need to pass by a majority vote. And then it would go up to the president. But as you remember there is both a house and a senate, so you have to do this whole process in the house then usually if its passed in the house its referred to the senate if there is not already a bill, the senate has to start all over from this process. They will also have

committee hearings, mark it ups, and those bills might be different once the house passes one and the senate passes one they would have a conference committee where more people get together, look at the bill, and resolve all the differences that may be involved in the bill. So, it takes a long time and it might seem complicated, but that’s really what our founding fathers intended that the establishment of laws effecting all Americans would not be made without a great deal of deliberation and debate. And so, I don’t want this to be overwhelming and it’s not really necessary to understand all the ins and outs of how the sausage making happens and how a bill becomes a law but having that basic understanding of the process is the first step to identifying the opportunities to advance your advocacy goals. So at almost any point in this process there is an opportunity so that your viewpoint or position be heard and as the process continues, this is important to know, it becomes increasingly more challenging to succeed in changing a piece of legislation that has already been introduced, approved by a committee, now its on the floor and your going to have to find a member of congress to offer an amendment to change it and that’s a really big lift. So, we don’t like to wait that long, we like to be in there as early as possible. So, our tip number four is to get involved as early in the process as possible cause the earlier you are involved the better.

Cynthia: Karen, I have a question for you.

Karen: Cynthia has a question for me.

Cynthia: I think you might have answered this already, but it seems really important to know what committee my congressmen serves on. Where can I find that information?

Karen: Yes, so as I mentioned you can go on your member’s website and they usually have that listed on there. Good question Cynthia. Now we have a question for you all. Alright, quiz time. So, we walked you through that whole process, and you know congress tries to be busy, they look like they’re busy, but what percentage of those all those bills that are introduced actually become law. So here are all your options. Check A for 3%, B for 11%, C for 28%, and D for 52%. No one voted 52 huh? [laughter] Okay it looks like you all have been paying attention to reports of the do nothing congress the last 2 years. I’m going to congratulate you all for being extra smart because the actual percentage is about 3%. So typically, there are about 10,000 bills introduced in a session of congress which lasts two years. So, in a two-year cycle 10,000 bills are going to be introduced only about 300 are going to make it through that whole process and be moved on to be signed by the president. So right now, you have both house and the senate controlled by republicans, the Whitehouse is controlled by republicans so theoretically there is not a lot of veto threat. It used to be the only way of standing in the way of passing a lot of legislation was vetoes the president can always veto pieces of legislation and it has to have 2/3rds of a majority to pass when it goes back so it’s really hard to get bills passed. Easy to get them introduced sometimes, but hard to get them passed. So, one of the other things you should be aware of is the calendar. It’s kinda hard to see this calendar but this is what the congressional calendar looks like. I mentioned any bills that have not been passed in those two years they are also going to die and have to be reintroduced in the next congress and the whole process starts over again. So, on this calendar the yellow represents when both chambers are in session the blue indicates that only the senate is in session. So, what you should really be paying attention to if you’re not coming up to Washington D.C. all the time, is how much white is on this calendar because that means they are out of session. And they should be back in your district, back in your state, running around and visiting local community centers and businesses, holding town hall meetings, or they’re sitting in their offices and they can meet with you while they’re there. Don’t be

intimidated by having to come to Washington walk around capitol hill trying to find your way, they probably have a local office right down the street. They have a district director whose there all the time. Case workers are there all the time. So, you can call up that local office. And you can find that information probably on their website as well. And you can make an appointment and meet with your member by yourself, with your other students, with your faculty or others to have a meeting and discuss with them issues that you have and are important and you want them to hear. But just be aware, one of the reasons why nothing ever passes is that they are actually not in session all the time. They have a lot of breaks. A lot of that time is spent raising money, so they can stay in congress and not work as hard as all of us. So, there are actually two ways for bills to become laws and this first option one is called a stand-alone bill basically. So, a bill is introduced, it goes through the whole process all by itself, and it passes on the floor of the house and the senate. It is actually very rare for bills to be passed into law of this form so in most cases it would be option two. And this is where a bill is drafted making small provisions but then redrafted and added as an amendment to a larger piece of legislation and then that bill ultimately becomes law. So, something we often hear about when members say the bill is so large they haven’t been able to read it all they typically have read their provisions that they have put in there and therefore they are going to support it. Because that was the part that they were paying attention to. So then you have a libel law coming together remember the patriot act, or the American affordable care act all of those are very large bills and it would be impossible almost to read them from front to back but you pull out the sections that impact you and read those and sections that you introduced and that’s one of the reasons members would vote on something without reading the whole thing. So, there are two different kinds of bills also, there are authorizing bills and appropriations bills. So, when we talk about authorizing bills, and the affordable care act is an example of an authorizing bill that establishes, reauthorizes or repeals federal programs and/or whole agencies even. They can also define rights or responsibilities and they provide the feeling and parameters around how much funding you can allocate to those programs. They don’t actually provide any funds, they just give you an idea of congress is going to authorize 500 million dollars to support services for autism. So, it sounds like a very great idea. But it really also depends on what we call appropriating bills. So those provide the exact amount from the current budget, that’s an annual amount of money that’s going to be allocated for specific programs or agencies. So, if funds are not appropriated the programs cannot be implemented even if it has authorization.

Cynthia: So, Karen, am I getting this right? Even if we get a new program authorized it could still not go into effect.

Karen: Yes, sadly yes. So even if congress authorizes 500 million dollars for autism services and research, the appropriators may say “I have only 50 million dollars, here ya go.” It makes for good press release when you authorize programs, but what really matters is appropriation. I work on appropriation, so I’m usually there to make sure they are actually funding the programs that they authorize.

Cynthia: Sounds like the devil is in the details. Thanks Karen.

Karen: You’re welcome Cynthia. So that was a lot of technical information, but it is really just as important to know the players as to be familiar with the process. So, I’m going to turn it back over to Amalia to provide you some insight from the other side.

Amalia: Alright so, our perspective from the other side starts with tip number 5, know your audience. We spend a great deal of time talking about how to sit across the table from staff or a member of

congress. We thought it might be interesting to give you a perspective from the other side of the table. Both a first-person account and a broader research-based view point. What can we learn from looking at the typical day of the U.S. senator? We talked with a senator’s scheduler and we will share with you some insights we gleaned from those conversations. So, this slide is hard to read probably on your end. But that is how it is intended to be. It’s really just an illustration of how busy a member of congress’ day can be. If the real schedule from a senate office and does not contain the schedules for each of the staff members he/she has in their office. As you can see their days are very full and their schedules are broken up into 15-30-minute blocks. Any senator on any given day will tackle a variety of issues. Here we see student affairs, housing, pharma, defense, and diabetes. Here is one quote from the senate scheduler. “I have staff people that have easily eight meetings a day that the senator is not involved in. We only have two conference rooms that have revolving doors. Some meetings take place standing up by the office or in the cafeteria.” And as lobbyists I can tell you that happens quite often and happens with constituents very frequently. Another quote from the scheduler, “the senator gets up at 3:30 AM to catch the only flight at 5:50 on a Monday to get back to D.C. in time to have an afternoon schedule and be here for votes, pretty much every week. So, let’s break the day down. One third of the day is spent in constituent meetings. Constituents are a priority of any member of congress. They are a top priority because there are a lot of requests to meet with the senator on that wide range of issues. And those constituents are the voters.” The scheduler’s observation again. “Maybe seeing the schedule will help people understand why meetings are so brief when they do get them. When I say we are out of spots I mean it. I’ve actually asked people before who they would like me to bump from the schedule, so they can get their 15 minutes. Sometimes we double up on the senator’s time. The senator does not mind doubling up and spending 5-7 minutes in a meeting, so he can get two 15-minute time slots. This makes us realize one key takeaway senators are stretched and they really rely on insights and information from their staff. Staff matter a lot, they are the eyes and ears of the office meeting with constituents, attending hearings, negotiating legislation. Their work is critical in keeping the senator informed with what’s going on in Washington and in their state or district. So that’s tip number 6 for you, congressional staff are the eyes and ears of the member. Senate hearings are an important in any member of congress’ work day. They also take a lot of time and a lot of brain capacity. Sometimes they are news worthy but often times you won’t know when they are happening unless you watch the [indiscernible] (34:05) The senators will be briefed on the hearing topics and issues, but a hearing demands a lot of the senator’s time. It’s hard to predict how long a hearing will take. Are they going to stay to ask questions or just to make an opening statement? Sometimes if you do watch a hearing you’ll notice that they come in and out of the room and often times they are leaving for votes or going to other meetings with constituents. The senator will spend some time during the day consulting with colleagues. They have set party lunches each week where they talk about policy issues and take each other’s calls. And yes when they do get to work on legislation the schedule needs to factor in this critical time where they do try to resolve policy differences within in their own party or across the aisle if all goes well. When they vote, its really getting legislation over the finish line voting in support or against. This time needs to be factored in as well. [35:00] Do you ever get these in the mail or emails that ask you to attend this fundraiser? I do all the time. Senators will make time in their schedules to first make calls to people to attend these events or just to give them money for the reelectioner’s party. And they have to make time in their schedules to attend these events. So, what does the senator’s perspective help us understand? It helps us understand there are a lot of demands on their time. There are dizzying details and multiple issues that they need to juggle daily. They have responsibilities to constituents, to policies, and to being

reelected. What does this mean for psychology and for you? It means that you have to get in there and make your voice be heard. As we saw the quote earlier “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” So now let’s see how you can influence legislative process.

Karen: We have another video for you.

Video: The greatest thing you can bring to Capitol Hill is your message. More than a piece of paper, it’s your research, your experience, your perspective, your voice. And when legislators hear your message, amazing things begin to happen. After all, your message to Congress proved that tobacco companies were hiding the truth. That juries were more fair when they grew from six to 12. That military and veteran suicide can be prevented. But every day, hundreds of other people show up to champion their cause. How do you make sure your life-changing, life-saving message gets through? First, you create it. Come to the American Psychological Association, and we’ll help you speak directly to your audience and the needs of their district or state. Could your issue help them get reelected? Win media attention? Change policy? Drive the economy? What happens if you lose? Leave out the scientific and research jargon. Leave in the personal, the human, the heart of the message. Then hand-deliver it. In comfortable shoes, with a map and business cards. Arrive early, cell phones turned off, politeness turned on. If things get quiet. [crickets chirping] ask questions. Refer them to the APA. But don’t let your message get messy. Don’t give them too much detail. Or spend too much time on small talk. Never underestimate the staff and their power. Stay away from discussing votes you disagree with or what else to cut to make room in the budget. And when you leave, make sure your message doesn’t. Drop information packets. And leave some with offices who couldn’t schedule in-person meetings beforehand. You never know where that could lead. Send a brief thank you email, cc’ing us. Share any insights from your visit with us at APA. Most of all, don’t stop. Keep bringing your message to the hill. Because our message is this: Every day funds are allocated. Laws are written. Whether you’re there or not. So, if people on the Hill aren’t hearing your voice. “Good morning, I’m Dr. Warren” You can be sure they are hearing someone else’s.

Karen: So that was another video from our psyc directorate. If I can just get it to move forward that would be great. [laughs] Thank you. So, when we think about advocacy communications, really regardless of the activity that you planned, it’s important to keep in mind that your overall message is to inform your target audience, persuade your target audience, and ultimately to move them to action. Preferably when it is time for them to move. So really timing that around when a vote might actually happen. So broadly speaking, your communication should be informed by these main questions. So, who is involved? What level of government is this occurring at. We work a lot on federal issues, but you may be interested in a city council issue or a state legislative issue. So, you need to know who you are really targeting. Second, what is happening? What exactly is this issue and is it about something being proposed or something they’re taking away that you need to defend? How is it happening? So, who will be enforcing it? That gets back to who your target is as well. And why is this story so compelling? What personal impact would this have on you or people in their district? And where does it take place? This means geographically where a specific problem is actually taking place. Or how widespread a problem is, regardless of geography. Issues impacting students for example are spread throughout the country. So, we know it impacts you all probably the rate that you’re paying on your student loans. Whether public service loan forgiveness is there for you in the future. Those are all things you should consider really before developing any advocacy campaigns or messages. So how you communicate we like to think of this in three ways. The first is indirect communications. So, there has been a lot of this lately. Usually

because it’s media based and includes letters to the editor, Op Ed letters, social media, and administrations. And that includes a lot of the marches that you have seen that really have kicked off in the last year, year and a half let’s say. So, another form of one-way communications is when you email or write an letter to, let’s say, your member of congress. You don’t always get a response back, particularly from those two senators. It may be that that one-way communication needs to be increased into two-way communication which is really the gold standard. Two-way communication is hearings where congress decides they are really interested in a topic and they invite experts to come testify. So, they’re there listening to the experts give information, and they will ask questions and certainly put those testimonies into the congressional record. Briefings are when APA and other organizations take the information to capitol hill to say, “you’re not holding a hearing on this, but you need to know this information before you start voting on these topics.” We also have capitol hill or in district visits. So, these are some of our psychology members who are talking to a member of congress. They came to D.C. to do so. But you can also do that in the district. So, a lot of our scientists are meeting in the district and inviting people to their research labs to help educate them about what psychology is doing. So, in fact face to face time with a member of congress is the gold standard to get your message across for pretty clear reasons. And so, we have a little bit of data to back that up. For the past 20 years the congressional management foundation has been serving congressional staff on what makes advocacy effective. And as much as things have changed, technology and social media and what-have-you, the results have stayed pretty consistent with about 94% of staff reporting that constituent visits hold the most influence. More than any other kinds of interactions with staff. Our tip number seven is to make it personal. Here is some of the other results from the survey. So, you can see some of those. Hopefully they are not too small. The survey did find that those direct constituent interactions have more influence on law maker’s decisions than any others. But you can also see that the personalized email message and letters are viewed as nearly as twice as effective as the form email messages. So, when I say make it personal, it means if you get an action alert and how we send out things that has the form email, we usually give the opportunity to take three minutes and say why that is important to you. And that would be individualizing the message which will almost double the impact of the message. Which is worth the 3 minutes of your time to make it personal. And it really helps to make your effort count. Cynthia do you have another question?

Cynthia: I do. What if traveling to D.C. to meet with my member of congress, you know to get involved in that gold standard, is not possible for me right now.

Karen: Well I always encourage folks to just go down to your local grocery store or library whenever your member is having a town hall. They are always out there, and you can definitely always find their district office. It’s usually right down on main street and they always have staff there full time. And all of those folks will be reporting right back to the member. And also, the policy staff in D.C. may have more expertise on that portfolio. If you’re talking about a funding issue they’re not maybe making those decision in the district office, but they are all part of the same team and they will talk to their health legislative citizens staff in D.C. to take your message that way. So, without question personal stories are like gold and critical to making your case. So, when you do have those interpersonal interactions you don’t really just want to have data. The gold standard is really to tell a personal story. So, if you ever hear politicians talking, they pretty much name laws after individuals. They like to cite individuals in their talking points because A it helps them better remember and it makes a better speech as well. So, of the staff surveyed, only 18% said they actually frequently heard a personal story related to the legislative

request. And 79% percent of them would have found a personal story from the constituents helpful to the visit. Congressional staff are crying out for personal stories to help them probably remember it, tell it back to the members so that they’re not just walking around with numbers and percentages that are maybe important, but not really telling the full story. So, the stories really bring those statistics to life. Stories help illuminate those serious problems and issues and they’re really long remembered when the data is not. And I can tell you having talked to some of the other lobbyists particularly those who work for hospice initiative care they basically tell their members to make the staff cry when they go in because that way they will definitely remember them. So, our competition is very stiff as well. So, we really need to break through A the to the 20 meetings everyone is having and B all the numbers they constantly have to hear. So, each of you actually have a keen understanding of how important that personal story is, and the data confirms that it matters. And really not everyone is doing it. You are really ahead of the game by knowing this before you do any advocacy on any issue. And many staffers meet with many groups several times a day, all who bring fact sheets. And we are going to talk about one pagers and its good to have a one pager about yourself and what you’re doing and your research. But the fact of the matter is, no matter how compelling a statistic is it’s really the story that brings that to life. So, you may remember the example of Jimmy Kimmel and his son. Kimmel was in the news last year during the health care debate because his newborn son had a congenital heart disease. And so, before this the idea of pre-existing conditions and whether they were still going to be covered were just kind of words floating around. And it really caught the attention of the public and congress, in particular senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana who coined the phrase “The Kimmel Test”. Which asks, with regards to the healthcare bill, will a child born with a congenital heart disease be able to get everything he/she would need in their first year of life? So, you may remember that a lot of the bills didn’t pass the Kimmel test. But he gave such a powerful monologue saying that it would fail, and he kept retweeting Cassidy to remind him of his Kimmel test since he was really falling down on the job. So, in thinking about constituents and the groups that represent them, like us APA, we represent our members and student affiliates. What should they do more of or less of to build better relationships with the office and the member? So, finding commonalities with your policy maker or the staff member is a great way to build a relationship. When we have folks coming in from the district oftentimes we have psychology faculty. And many times, the staff in that office have been to that university, they may have taken a class with them. They’re probably from the district so if you come to capitol hill, a lot of the folks are going to know where you are from, they are going to know the cross streets of where you live. So that really helps bring it home that you are the constituent. And they are people too with families, friends, and strong connections to the state. What is really important that advocates should do more of is materials showing the impact on the district or state. That can be challenging for national organizations like APA cause we are not state based and we are not in all localities certainly. So, whether we don’t have the data or not its good to have the personal anecdotal stories if nothing else. And it’s really important to get to know those legislative assistants, that’s a specific title, it doesn’t sound as big as it is, but its someone who really has a large portfolio, very focused, they have an expertise whether its health, education, women’s issues, transportation, immigration. So, they are the real policy experts and they are going to advise the member of congress about how they should vote on many issues. So, what do you do if you can’t get in to see your member of congress? Well we’ve already mentioned some of the other ways, writing letters to the editor, developing relationships with policy makers or their staff, using social media and traditional media to draw attention to your issue and increase the chances for your voice to be heard. Most of you probably know Emma Gonzalez from the Margery Stoneman Douglas

High School she’s sort of sadly the perfect example of someone who has become the face of school shootings. And a big advocate who has effectively used social media to further her efforts. So, when it comes to social media, she’s actually surpassed the National Rifle Association and its top spokesperson in twitter followers in less than two weeks which is just amazing. Because she just gave a speech and suddenly she’s famous for sadly all the wrong reasons. But she’s really done a great job. So according to the congressional research service, which is one of the offices up in congress which is a bipartisan research office, the electronic technology has reduced the marginal cost of member constituent communications making it much easier for elected officials to directly engage with wider political and policy constituencies. So, most of your members of congress actually have a twitter feed, so you might even follow them on twitter. I know I follow my members of congress on twitter. And other members of congress I don’t like on twitter. Just so I can know what folks are saying for both sides of the isle. It helps inform the messages that we take up there if we know what Paul Ryan is going to plan to do next week. What he is talking about even though everyone else is talking about this. We try to stay on his agenda while everyone else is trying to figure out how to get anything else on the agenda. So, over the last 20 years there has been a lot of transformation of the member constituent communications. And social media is really fast and allows for a wider audience and it’s pretty inexpensive. So, APA is a big organization and the various divisions and offices have their own social media, but some staff also have individual accounts to build relationships and a following in their area of expertise. Many of our own APA members use social media to connect with colleagues to spread the word of their work and to publicize events. So, we encourage you to follow @APA on twitter if you want to follow APA. We try to encompass all of our messages and a lot of the data the journal articles are coming out, press statements from our CEO. There’s a lot of information that goes on. So, we do want to hear a little bit more from you guys, so we have another poll. In a few words, we would love to know how you have engaged in advocacy already. And that could be federal advocacy, it could be advocacy in your university, could be in undergrad, you could have done something in high school, it all counts. So, let us know how you’ve already engaged in advocacy. We know many of you are very passionate about certain issues and we are just really interested. Yay the Advocacy Coordinating Team. That must be Travis, Laura or Elise. Oh, great I like that, we sent out an actuary about graduate student tax policy. That was one of our issues for December to welcome in the holiday season. So, we are glad to see that the tax waivers were not taken away. Oh, that’s great, even canvassing for political campaigns that’s some good ways to get support of your members too. We love to see APA action alerts as well. Cause those are a very easy way to do so. Lovely. Awesome. So those are all great things I see the one direction communication, and the two-direction communication, indirect is what I meant to say. But I love that you said the state psych association PAC, so that’s the political action committee. And the psychology PAC is our Political Action Committee. So those all work in similar ways to help keep those members in the legislature that are supportive of your issues. It also with a lot of the lobbying regulations that they changed its really hard to just hang out with your friends that are congressional staff anymore. And so, it helps you have access to members to attend those fundraisers. There’s been a lot more money involved in politics, which is upside-downside, but it makes the PACs more important to make sure that your issues are constantly being heard. Its good for volunteering too. Let’s see, so what influences policy makers? As academics and clinicians, we often think that data is everything and if we can just educate everyone that’s all it will take to influence. I think we’ve seen that a lot of times your education doesn’t seem to be working as well as it use to. So, data is just one of many influences. You have to just remember that members are impacted a lot by their party affiliation and if they are being compelled by leadership to vote a certain

way. And they do watch their social media and what they read in the news, what news report they choose to read. Whether or not members are up for reelection in any given year. The house members are up for reelection every two years, so they basically are always running for reelection, senators serve a 6-year term so once they are in office, they can kinda relax for two seconds before they worry about who’s going to run against them 6 years from now. Its pretty much a 24-hour election cycle which also makes our PACs pretty important. So when constituent views will likely be especially important when they are running for reelection because if they are going to try to please everyone, which many members of congress normally do want to please their constituents, they will try to do what you are asking them to do if it doesn’t cost them too much in terms of bucking the party leadership. And a lot of them are really influenced by their own life experiences. Many of these folks have family members with issues. There’s been a tremendous uptick in substance abuse disorders, and opioid addiction/overdoses. Many folks who don’t agree with a lot of public health policies are really searching for answers to address currently right now the opioid epidemic. Other issues that are really damaging families and whole communities across the country. So, in determining what you can best do to influence the legislative process, your most important source of power is that you are a constituent so that’s what you should leverage. That member of congress is elected to represent your district and state and it’s their job to listen to you and your concerns. So that’s what leads us to our next tip which is all politics is local. So, members care deeply about how impacts or effects their own district I think we said it, three, four, or five times cause it really is that important. They don’t really care if you don’t live in their district about how something is impacting New Mexico, if they are a member from Massachusetts. So that’s why we ask where you are registered to vote because that’s the member you really want to target. When asked what visitors to an office should do more of, as we mentioned the highest response was that they bring materials showing the impact of the issue on the district or state. And I said personal stories are important but its always good to have those fact sheets and APA makes a lot of fact sheets. And really having any local data you can put into a talking point or a fact sheet gives the staff something they can incorporate into their summary of the meeting, the recommendation to the member, and it gives them the foundation for any kind of policy recommendation. So, if you can get more information about the impact of the proposed policy on your state or district. You need the data, you need the details, and you definitely need the story. And keep in mind, that how the policy impacts your community will really matter to your members of congress and congressional staff. I am going to turn it over to Cynthia to do a little review, a little quick do’s and don’ts and absolutely do not’s.

Cynthia: Alright. So, you guys, I hope, are excited to get started we want to give you a couple of tips to make sure everything goes smoothly when you do meet with your representative and that the experience is rewarding for you. So, we would like to start with the things you should do. Do mention what you do in the district. It helps to underline your unique perspective. Do compliment the member’s work. Do have a positive attitude. Do be brief. Remember staff and members of congress are very busy. Do give local examples to give the issue resonance. Do have a specific request. Prepare it in advance and practice delivering it. Do express appreciation. And do take photos. If you take photos, you should share them with APA or on social media, it’s a great way to thank your member. And now let’s move on to the things you should not do, the don’ts. Don’t underestimate the staff. Don’t be surprised if another issue is raised. Don’t overestimate the influence of data. And don’t forget you’re the expert, you are the voter. And now to move on the absolutely do nots. This should go without saying, but do not make up answers to questions. It’s better to say that you are unsure and that you will follow up later. Do not comment on the staffer’s age, something like “Did you just graduate from college?” or “You are probably too young

to remember.” The staff are the eyes and ears of the member and insulting them will not do you any favors. Do not be argumentative. And of course, do not make threating or condescending remarks. Please, please, do not take a phone call or text during a meeting. Even if you are in a large group and you are not the center of the conversation right now, they can see you. Keep your phone in your bag and respond later. Do not express disappointment with not meeting with a member of congress. Something like “Well it’s too bad the congressman is busy” or “Next time I prefer to meet directly with the senator” can be really insulting to congressional staff who’ve taken time out to meet with you. Remember to value their time properly. And do not comment on your meeting in public. So that doesn’t just mean in the office, but if you are up on capitol hill and you are in the ladies’ room, or in the hallway those people in the office could be staffers or friends of staffers and the things that you say can get back to them. If the meeting didn’t go great or even if it went well, remember to have those conversations off site, close that cab door before you say anything. What about after your congressional visit? First of all, always send a thank you note after your visit. This isn’t just an opportunity to say thank you, it’s a great time to reiterate the points you made in your meeting, and that request. As we mentioned a couple of times advocacy is about building and maintaining relationships. So, it’s important to continue contact. Stay in touch as the legislation moves through the process. Be invaluable as a resource. Another good follow up activity is to arrange for the member of congress or their staff to come to visit your institution, your program, or your research lab. You can invite colleagues or students to help advance legislative initiatives. And its important to keep informed on the issues so that you are ready to be a resource again. Lastly, engage with APA. Remember those fact sheets that Karen was talking about? We have them on a number of issues. So, if you are about to have a visit, it can’t hurt to reach out to us. So, let’s summarize those tips. First, be informed. Know where you are registered to vote and look up your polling place in advance. Get to know your representatives and their committee assignments. Get involved in the process as early as possible. The earlier you get involved in the legislative process the better the outcome. Know your audience. Prep for your meeting by knowing who you are meeting in advance and tailoring your message for that. For example, be able to make your points without using jargon. Respect congressional staff. They are the eyes and ears of the office, and they have a great deal of influence. Make it personal. A personal story, especially by a constituent, puts a human face to your request. All politics is local. The office cares about how issues impacts their constituents. And lastly, persistence is key. Changes do not usually happen overnight. Influencing public policy is a marathon, not a sprint and we are hoping you are ready to run with us.

Karen: Alright I know we’ve been done a lot of talking, but we also wanted to have you hear from a couple of students, just like yourselves, who have some experience with advocacy. So, joining us today are two of our APAGS advocacy coordinating team folks. They are both amazing advocates for psychology and bring their own unique perspective to todays advocacy discussion. Laura Minero is a university of Wisconsin-Madison graduate psychology student who advocates for undocumented immigrants like herself and is pushing forward on her research on undocumented LGBT individuals. Elyse Mowle is at Texas A&M. Her primary research interest focuses on the conceptualization and assessment on psychopathic personality disorders and other externalizing disorders. Elyse also attended a legislative engagement day on capitol hill and has advocated for research funding for the social sciences and is a former intern actually at our Public Interest Government Relations office. They were both just here for the practice leadership conference, so we are so glad you are continuing to help us out with some advocacy. We are going to let you hear from these two students who have their own advice to share about their experiences. And Elyse lets start with you first.

Jessica: Alright and I am going to go ahead and turn Elyse off mute. And just so you know I don’t see Laura on here so if someone wants to shoot her an email just to make sure she is on while Elyse is speaking. So… Elyse it looks like you are also self-muted. Oop, ok Elyse can you hear us?

Elyse: Yeah, can you guys hear me?

Jessica: Perfect.

Elyse: And I apologize, I actually caught the flu on my last day at the practice leadership conference, so I am here by the phone but if I start coughing that is why. So yeah, I have been listening since you guys started about an hour ago. And I am happy to be here.

Karen: So, Elyse can you give us a little more information about your advice that you mentioned when you spoke about the state psych association connection.

Elyse: Yes, sorry. My advice that I would give to students who are looking to get more involved in advocacy is to really try to engage with your state psychological associations. So, for me, that was the Texas Psychological association. I got in touch with them, they have a student section. But even if your state association doesn’t have a student section, which most do but even if they don’t, they’re generally involved in advocacy issues at the state level. And many of them have legislative days. I have gone up to talk with them about issues related to the state level that maybe are not federal issues because every state practices psychology in their own way. But that allowed me to really get an idea of how the legislative process works. Not everybody has the chance to go to D.C. to do advocacy there, but meeting with your state representatives is also really important.

Karen: Great, thanks. So, if you don’t see Laura on, she may have had a scheduling problem. I know she was running from one appointment to another. We can move on, if she does join us we can go back to that. So, go right ahead Cynthia.

Cynthia: Ok. So where to from here? Now that we’ve heard from Elyse, I’m sure you are all eager to begin and have your own advocacy stories to tell. So, you’ve learned the advocacy basics. How can you get started right away? While in person visits are one of the most effective forms of advocacy, there are other things you can do to get involved now and stay involved in between visits. You can write, you can call, you can march. You can write or email your senators or representatives on issues that matter most to you. And as we have hopefully just demonstrated, you can use your knowledge and experiences as psychology graduate students to make compelling arguments and to tell powerful stories in support of your position. APA provides legislative and federal policy updates to keep you in the know, resources to hone your skills, and opportunities to take action. So, let us help you to get started on the next step. Ok, first if you have not already, and we saw in the comments earlier that some of you have, please join our federal action network. The action network provides monthly updates and news you need to be an effective advocate for psychology. It delivers timely opportunities to take actions on key issues right in your inbox. An action alert will summarize the legislative issue, provide suggested language crafted by APA’s Government Relation staff and then you can make that message your own with a personal story and send it directly to your senators or representatives. Basically, with APA’s federal action network, you can be an advocate wherever you are we are trying to make it simple for ya. Next visit APA’s “become and Advocate” page which is full of resources for new advocates. There’s even a step by step guide for calling your congressional office or writing a letter or email that will standout from the pile or from a

crowded inbox. Then keep and eye out for local events hosted by members of congress or their staff. These are unique opportunities to hear from your senators and representatives. Ask questions and be a resource. It also doesn’t hurt to know what problems are of concern to your neighbor. Consider attending events held by state and local officials as well. Remember, all politics is local. So how do you know about these events then? That’s the next step. Visit your member’s website and if they have a newsletter sign up for it. Then you’ll know when events are coming up, but you can also learn a lot about their positions and their policy priorities this way. At least how they want you to know them. Lastly start readying your one-pager. And it’s kinda a jargony thing. What’s a one pager? It’s a single page document about you and your work. So, the congressional staff are unlikely in their busy schedules to have time to read your CV or your dissertation, or your resume, or recent article. But if you give them a one-page document that says who you are, what work you are doing, demonstrate you are a constituent, and why you’re a resource to them and they will take a look at that. So, the next thing you can do to get involved right away is to join a public demonstration. The recent tragedy in Parkland Florida has shifted public attention to the issue of gun violence in America. The survivors of this tragedy have become a powerful voice for change and have organized a number of events, including The March For Our Lives. As APA regularly advocates for public health approach to violence prevention and supports evidence-based solutions to the gun violence epidemic, we also have offered our support to the March For Our Lives. APA encourages psychologists and psychology students to come together on Saturday March 24 th in D.C. and around the globe to march for our lives and call for evidence based live saving policy solutions. APA will be organizing a meeting place for the D.C. based psychologists to march together, but if you can’t make it to D.C. consider joining a satellite march in your area. Visit marchforourlives.com for more details. Last year, APA organized a group of psychologists and psychology supporters to march together at the 2017 march for science. And here we are. It was a rainy, cold, miserable day. But we had a pretty good turnout with pretty high spirits there. We marched together to celebrate scientific discovery and to advocate for federal funding for scientific research and the importance of evidence-based policy. This year, we will proudly march again the march takes place on April 14 th, a lot of these details are still in the works right now, but APA will send out information about our activities and how to join them. It’s a good idea to sign up for the march for science on the website as well. That way they will give you details right in your inbox and some more initiatives you can be involved in.

Karen: On the march for science website.

Cynthia: Yes, on the march for science. Did I say something else?

Karen: It was just unclear which website.

Cynthia: On the march for science website. There are actually will be a sign up on apa.org, for marching with us. But you are going to get an email right in your inbox for that I think. And, can’t come to D.C.? Join a satellite march. Here are some pictures of people marching in the satellite marches last year. They’re adding more locations all the time so check out the website. And then we have on our website, at apa.org, you’ll be able to have downloadable signs and t-shirt designs so that you can march with APA wherever you are. And if you do that we would love for you to tweet us pictures at @APAScience. We have one more poll everywhere question for you. Before we move on to just general questions from you, we would like you to take out your phones again and let us know what policy issues you are most interested in advocating for. We can use this feedback for picking out a topic for our next webinar.

Karen: We’ll try to remain silent not to influence the outcome of this election. [Laughter] Oh, it’s a three-way tie we need more votes. Oh no it’s a four-way tie.

Cynthia: Get excited guys, it’s a Friday afternoon. Go training. Go training. Alright it looks like there is interest in a lot of our issues. Ok, so we will keep this information in mind as we plan the next one. And I want to wrap things up here by saying in the words of former congresswoman Barbra Jordan, “The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport.” So, get involved, any action is better than no action. And we are ready for you to join us. Before we start with taking your questions, I just wanted to let you know there is a resources section in the slides so when they are provided take a look at those. Some of the things we mentioned like the common advocate website, and how to find your member of congress, a one-pager for example those are in there. So, this is the questions time, so you can use the…

Karen: Oh no we have a late vote for D. [Laughter]

Cynthia: I don’t remember what D was. Public service loan forgiveness I think. So, anyway you can type your questions then to up here.

Karen: These are all your burning questions or if you have ideas for future advocacy training. I don’t know what that means. [Laughter] Oh these are still the other thing. All of the above.

Jessica: I don’t know. Can we go back? Let me try. Yeah, we can.

Karen: Woah Public service loan forgiveness on the march. That’s great I think there is an action alert on our website right now we can try to send it to you guys if you want to take some action immediately on that.

Cynthia: I’m pretty sure that link is in the resources too. The action network page.

Jessica: Now we may go forward I think we are ready for the questions page.

Cynthia: Great, so do you have any questions for us?

Karen: So, its on the science student council. Cynthia is from the science directorate so I’m not sure if there’s a state psych association equivalent for scientists so. I would recommend you call APA and speak to those in the science government relations office like Cynthia here.

Cynthia: Also, non-clinical psych graduate students you want to reach your local office. Okay so I can say this, there might be a science office in your state office. But the science directorate doesn’t have like local offices. But if are a non-clinical student and you wanted to know how to be involved in science policy related stuff, then go ahead and reach out to us.

Karen: Our contact information is on the back of the last slide too.

Amalia: There’s an answer too that says reach out to APAGS science.

[unanimous agreement]

Cynthia: And there is also a science student council and they have a mailing list.

Karen: I stopped reading the questions when we were answering it.

Amalia: How do we advocate for science while there is a rising tide of anti-intellectualism sweeping the country, where working with scientists is seen as colluding with the elites?

Cynthia: First, join the action network. We went an action alert out today talking about funding at NSF because they were cut more than any other directorate while the funding stayed flat. So, the next largest cut was seven times smaller than the cut to behavioral research.

Amalia: In the proposed budget?

Cynthia: For 2018 and we think it will be similar for 2019. So that is something that you could act on now. You also, my contact information is in there so reach out to me directly and we might have some more specific things you can do. The march for science is one of them. But it’s definitely a challenge that we are facing right now.

Amalia: I think the next one on the list is “are there any conservative causes which are being advocated for the APA. And APA takes a nonpartisan approach to advocacy, so it depends on what you mean by conservative causes I think.

Karen: A lot of our issues are bipartisan, and it takes bipartisan support to get most things passed. We work with republicans and democrats on issues like public service loan forgiveness, on issues in the higher education act, definitely on research issues. They are about to pass a three billion dollar increase for the national institutes of health. 10% of that funds are going to behavioral research so that’s a win for psychology. And that wouldn’t happen without bipartisan support.

Cynthia: What about our Veterans health initiatives?

Karen: Ah, Laura, Laura is on the call now. Jessica if you can find Laura and unmute her.

Jessica: Yeah, do you wanna finish up some questions or just go to Laura now? Whatever you think is best?

Karen: Well I think Laura is on the call now, so we can let her…

Cynthia: I’d love to hear from Laura.

Amalia: And then we can come back to the questions.

Karen: And then we can come back to the questions, but she had an interesting story.

Jessica: Great, perfect. And I will unmute her.

Laura: Hi, can people hear me?

Karen: Yes.

Laura: I’ve been on the call I just didn’t realize I couldn’t get on if I wasn’t on the webinar directly cause I was coming from supervising students. Thank you so much for having me. I know you all are in the middle of questions, so I will keep this brief. I think one thing I wanted to say in terms of how people can get involved is get involved locally. I actually started going to city council meetings and that was something I had no idea about, I had no idea how to get involved. But I connected with my elder, who’s actually the elder for graduate housing at University of Wisconsin- Maddison. And she would be like

“hey come testify on this issue” and that’s how I started getting involved. So that’s why I [audio cut out] … I even ran into the mayor on the hill one day and he was advocating for DACA. And he like ran out of the elevator with a lot of mayors from all over the nation and he came over and said hi and introduced me to mayors all over the country. So, people will take notice of your work if you’re out there doing your thing and advocating for whatever issue it is you are passionate about. So, you can get involved locally by just going to city council meetings and making an appointment in your local office. You don’t have to go to D.C. if you aren’t able to. You can always make phone calls. I know we’ve always organized phone banks here locally. And just think about the ways that you can make impact in your own communities. You don’t have to go to D.C. to do a march or organize an action you can do that in your local city or an area nearby. Cause it is tough to take time off to go to D.C. all the time like we were just there this weekend. And I think many of us could say that that was exhausting. But there are ways to be involved locally so just look out for those opportunities and see who are your elected officials in your area and stay in connection with them and ask them how you can support the causes that people are already doing locally.

Karen: Great, thanks Laura. So, I saw another couple of those… [Laughter]

Cynthia: We second that.

Was quite vociferously arguing for the other side. He had his talking points from leadership. He didn’t really see how this was a downside for graduate students until the graduate students were there to explain it to him in a way that I personally probably could not. She really did put a personal face on it. And was fiery enough to put him in his place, literally. That I don’t think he forgot it when he was presented with the opportunity to support that. So, psych research funding which I just mentioned to you, as much as the administration has been trying to cut areas of research and science, congress is the one who decides how much funding gets spent. And they just provided a 3 billion dollar increase to the national institute of health. There’s money going to research, there’s money going to psychological research, so I would not feel pessimistic at all.

Cynthia: And I wouldn’t feel like its solved either. Keep speaking for research for psychology. Because while that’s happening at NIH were at the situation with NSF that’s going to be flat funded. But there is some time shifting the funding around and cutting funding for behavioral research more than other places. But we were really scared when the budget came out on the president’s budget last year and it slashed billions from NIH and then congress did not follow that recommendation. So that is an

important thing to remember that it’s congress that makes those decisions and your voice is important in that area.

Amalia: So, I will tackle the what is APA doing to support/advocate for those with marginalized identities. We’re doing a lot so our entire directorate at public interest is dedicated to using psychology to advance the welfare of people with marginalized identities. I think if you go to our APA/advocacy page you can click on the different tabs and they can take you to updated information on our advocacy. I will tell you right now, some of my colleagues are working on a response to HHS’s religious freedom regulation that just came out, or proposed regulation on religious freedom. Which some people feel may have some really detrimental effects to health seeking and health care for LGBTQ. I will tell you that we are continuing to do advocacy to support community policing inter-violence protection work. I think a lot of the conversations around mass shooting and preventing violence. There is a little bit of a backlash around whether or not people advocate when these shootings happen in communities of color. And so, in our approach, which is a public health approach to violence prevention, we’re being very mindful of the fact that shootings happen every day in many communities across the country. And we want to make sure that any approach that we take isn’t preserving the safety of one community over another. Those are two things that I can speak to specifically because they are happening right now, but I would say that is something that we think about every day and work on. And we appreciate your input so please go to the webpage on advocacy.

Karen: I’m trying to make sure we didn’t skip the state psych association question. I think it is a good way to get involved. And I think Elyse that was one of her experiences, and pieces of advice really, that most state psych associations I believe have an education either subcommittee or faculty who are members. If your faculty is not involved in the state psych association, I would encourage for you to reach out to them directly. Some groups sponsor a state hill day and they are perfectly happy to include students when they are going up on those issues. That’s to the state capitol to meet with the state legislatures. Those issues may be more focused on reimbursement for practicing psychologists so the scope of license issues, and things that if you are planning to be a clinician in a clinical counseling or school psychologist, your going to be impacted by whatever the state is deciding about your licensure. So, those are very important issues and its really important to be involved and aware while you are graduate students to really help lay the groundwork for future advocacy efforts. So, I think it’s a good idea.

Amalia: Are we mostly going to be on the defensive in terms of funding for the next few years?

Karen: I can say we’ve always been on the defensive, right? This might be new to some folks but ever since I got to D.C. you are always fighting every year and making the justification for every single dollar that we ask from the federal government. This is tax payer money ok, so if you want to spend it, you better justify why we are asking for it. So when I go in to ask funding for the graduate psychology education program, I say “my graduate students need stipends so they can work in integrated care cause they are providing services to underserved communities and they are doing a service at the same time getting their degrees and providing services in the future to address our millions of people who live in mental health professional shortages areas.” There’s huge shortages in the mental health and behavior health field. We have a suicide epidemic. We have an overdose and opioid epidemic. There are real problems to be solved. And I think all the work that you guys are doing and are going to continue to

do in the future, help us make those cases. It’s not quite being on the defensive but its always been a battle to get any funding let me tell you that.

Cynthia: Yeah it goes back to that, if you’re not at the table.

Karen: Every year.

Cynthia: Every year always yeah.

Karen: Oh my gosh did we exhaust the questions?

Cynthia: They have our email addresses if they have more right?

Karen: Yeah Cynthia can show you the slide in case anyone has anymore questions. I think the next slide may be resources, that’s going to go by a little fast. But if you want one that has our emails on it, cause those are things we would have to email you probably. This is my email I’m Karen Studwell feel free to email me any questions about education, training, public service loan forgiveness. If you forget just email any of us and we’re literally right down the hall from one another. So, we can forward any…

Cynthia: I think Amalia can hear me from her office. [Laughter]

Amalia: And I can hear Karen.

Karen: So, if you have any questions about issues that we talked about today or anything that’s sort of outstanding you can email me, and I might forward it to one of my colleagues in public interest, but you will hear back from one of us.

Cynthia: Same with one of us in science, we’ll get back to you.

Karen: We do want to thank you guys for being interested enough in advocacy to have this first webinar. We are probably going to do it again cause we had so many campus ambassadors that weren’t able to join us today so we look forward for your feedback, any other issues you think we covered too fast or you might want to hear more about please let Jessica know or let one of us know, we’d be happy to incorporate that into other trainings. Thank you all, Jessica I can turn it back over to you if you need to do any housekeeping.

Jessica: Yeah this was wonderful thank you. So much. Everyone please send me feedback or send it to your ambassadors and they can send it to me. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your Friday. I hope you have an amazing weekend. And this will be available, the recording will be available so if you would like it you can just ask your ambassador for it and I can send it your way. So with that, have a good weekend.