Division 40 Ethnic Minority Affairs (EMA) Committee
(A subcommittee of the Public Interest Advisory Committee)

Consistent with the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists (APA, 2003), the mission of the Division 40 Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee is to promote the integration of diverse populations into the fabric of neuropsychological practice, research, teaching, and training in order to provide neuropsychologists with the knowledge and resources to better understand and serve an increasingly diverse U.S. population, and to reduce historic inequities present in the field of neuropsychology. The specific diverse populations, which are targeted by this committee, include those who have been historically marginalized or disenfranchised within and by neuropsychology based on their ethnic/racial heritage and social group identity or membership (APA, 2003), including African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, and other biracial/multi-ethnic, multiracial groups. As such, this committee has three overarching objectives. The first objective is to promote the provision of culturally competent neuropsychological services to persons of color through increasing awareness and provision of training opportunities on cross-cultural/multicultural assessment issues among all neuropsychologists. The second objective is to stimulate the highest quality of neuropsychological research among minority populations via increased awareness for the need for such research among the neuropsychological community, as well as by the provision of research resources and facilitation of consultation and mentoring on cross-cultural/multicultural research related issues. The final overarching objective of this committee is to strongly encourage the career development of neuropsychologists with diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds since increasing the numbers of competent, culturally diverse neuropsychologists will likely broaden the field’s conceptualization and implementation of practice, research, and training.

Three important and ongoing initiatives have been established by this committee to facilitate the above mission:

1. A mentoring program/database to encourage the career development of neuropsychologists of diverse backgrounds. For information on how to be included in this database and become a mentor or mentee, please contact Maria Schultheis, Ph.D., at schultheis@drexel.edu

2. A listserve for all who are interested in crosscultural/multicultural issues in neuropsychology. To join the listserve, contact Anita Sim, Ph.D., at anitasim1@gmail.com

3. The EMA committee annually hosts scheduled mentoring and other events at the APA and INS conventions. Please check programs scheduled for additional information.

Plans for this committee in the coming year include: the development of an article or position statement to encourage the proper use of norms, including ethnic/racial normative corrections; and the development of a web page to provide resources and information on the EMA committee.

Those interested in joining the committee should contact the EMA chair, Dr. Desiree Byrd at desiree.byrd@mssm.edu and submit a current CV.