The 2022 Future Directions Forum will be held on June 9th-11th, 2022! The Forum is a gala science event that provides professional development training to early career scientists, and showcases interdisciplinary work in mental health. A key element of the Forum is that it provides attendees with concrete tools to boost their research!

2022 Forum Activities

Professional Development Training
The Forum includes several days of professional development training. For 2022, the current Editor-in-Chief of JCCAP (Andres De Los Reyes) will deliver a series of professional development workshops focused on training in peer-review: (1) How to “break into” the peer review system; (2) Conducting high-quality peer reviews; and (3) Strategies for entering leadership positions on journal editorial boards.

At the Forum, we know that workshops on peer review may not cater to all attendees’ interests or be of relevance to attendees regardless of their level of training. Thus, the Forum offers five additional professional development opportunities. First, our Professional Development Team delivers Breakout Workshops that are tailor-made for attendees at all levels of training (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and faculty). In 2022, our Breakout Workshops will cover such topics as participatory action frameworks, implementation science, anti-racism, starting a lab, and navigating problematic mentoring relationships. Second, members of the Professional Development Team lead small-group meetings called Pocket Labs where attendees receive advice on ongoing research projects. Third, attendees can reserve one-on-one Grant Consult sessions with representatives from the National Institutes of Health and Institute of Education Sciences to receive advice on a grant application. Fourth, attendees can reserve one-on-one time with the Editor-in-Chief of JCCAP and Editors from the Professional Development Team (i.e., Editor’s Corner) to receive advice on a scholarly manuscript. Fifth, members of the Professional Development Teamwork with attendees within Grad App Consults to provide advice on graduate school applications.

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Attendees also have the option of unlocking special features of Forum programming:
Editor’s Corner (Limited spaces available): Reserve a one-on-one session with the Editor-in-Chief of JCCAP and Editors from the Professional Development Team to receive personalized advice on a scholarly manuscript that the attendee is preparing for publication. Not sure where to submit your work? Having trouble addressing a set of reviews on a manuscript you submitted for publication? Have you had a manuscript rejected at several journals and you are uncertain about your next steps? We are here to help!

Pocket Lab (Limited spaces available): Members of our Professional Development Team lead small, three-person meetings where attendees receive advice on ongoing research projects. These are highly interactive, collaborative sessions designed for attendees who have burning questions about a current project, and might benefit from a space to troubleshoot about their project. Having trouble recruiting participants? Deciding between measures to include in an upcoming project? For these and many other questions you might have about ongoing research, we are here to advise!

Grad App Mentor (Limited spaces available): Reserve a one-on-one session with a current Ph.D. student to receive personalized advice on your grad school applications to doctoral training programs. Not sure where to submit your applications or who would be a good Ph.D. mentor for your interests and goals? Having trouble preparing your personal statements? Have you tried to apply to grad school a few times and you are uncertain about your strategy this year? We are here to help! This option includes exclusive access to free workshop materials with information on applying to doctoral training programs.

Grant Consult (Limited spaces available): Reserve a one-on-one session with a representative from the National Institutes of Health or Institute of Education Sciences to receive advice on a grant application. Not sure where to submit your grant application? Having trouble addressing a set of reviews on an application you submitted for funding? Have you had a grant rejected at several funding agencies and you are uncertain about your next steps? We are here to help!

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2022 Professional Development Team

Cassandra Boness
University of
​New Mexico

Christine Cha
Teacher's College
Columbia University

Clay Cook
University of Minnesota

Deborah Drabick
Temple University

Chardee Galán
University of Southern California

Omar Gudiño
University of Kansas

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Kate Humphreys
Vanderbilt University

Armando Piña
Arizona State University

Sarah Racz
University of Maryland, College Park

Judith Scott
Boston University

Amy West
University of Southern California

Yoyo Yau
Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

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Early Career Scientists: Celebrating Promising Research in Mental Health
Forum Science Social: Before the Forum, early career scientists submit abstracts of their research, and at the Forum, they make poster presentations of this research during a catered social event. In advance of the Forum, we prompt presenters via email to upload a single-slide PowerPoint file of their presentation. We integrate these files into our own digital system to have them ready to present during the Forum Science Social. We render these poster presentations in a 100% digital environment, saving presenters both time and money. Further, this event provides early career scientists with opportunities for “one-on-one” time with the scientists who will deliver addresses and serve as breakout discussants during the Forum.

Future Directions Launch Award: Before the Forum, a committee of internationally recognized scientists selects early career scientists who are presenting their research at the Forum to receive the Future Directions Launch Award. During our award ceremony, awardees give TED Talk-style presentations about their work. The Future Directions Launch Award serves as a capstone to the academic training of its recipients—a signal to the field and larger public that they are ready to enter academia and begin independent research careers

2022 Future Directions Launch Award Committee

Andres De Los Reyes
University of Maryland
(Chair)

Marc Atkins
University of Illinois Chicago

Noni Gaylord-Harden
Texas A&M University

Mark Hatzenbuehler
Harvard University

Martha Wadsworth
The Pennsylvania State University

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Showcasing JCCAP Future Directions Content
Addresses: In keeping with our focus on the future of science, we also dedicate time to learning about innovative areas of mental health research, based on featured content from the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP) Future Directions article series. In 2022, we are proud to announce that all of our invited addresses will be delivered by pioneering early career researchers, based on their recent, groundbreaking Future Directions articles.

2022 Future Directions Addresses

Future Directions in
Research on Racism

Riana Anderson Ph.D.
University of Michigan
Article Download

Future Directions in
Research on Lay Health Workers

Miya Barnett, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Article Download

Future Directions in
Research on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health

Jessica Fish, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, College Park
Article Download

Future Directions in
Research on Brief, Scalable Interventions

Jessica Schleider, Ph.D.
Stony Brook University
Article Download

Post-Address Breakout Discussions: Following each Future Directions Address, breakout discussions serve as “brainstorming sessions” for new science that builds on research covered in the address. Attendees choose from one of several breakout discussions led by faculty with expertise in the Future Directions content. In advance of the Forum, breakout discussion leaders identify publically available resources for new research (e.g., public datasets, funding announcements). In turn, these breakout discussions yield “deliverables” in that attendees receive guidance on developing both specific research aims, and concrete strategies for securing data or funding to test these aims. This format sparks “omnidirectional” discussions among breakout leaders and attendees about new science linked to the addresses. In an effort to keep the conversations going after the Forum, we also developed Wikiversity pages for attendees to discuss ideas and resources shared during the breakout discussions. The Forum’s pages can be found here: https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/JCCAP_FDF.

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