The 2023 Future Directions Forum will be meeting in-person on July 27th-29th, 2023! 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! Join us in the beautiful city of Regina!

Information about Regina

The next Forum will be held on the scenic College Avenue Campus of the University of Regina. The venue facilities include a state-of-the-art performance hall, and are centrally located in Downtown Regina, steps from Wascana Lake.

2023 Theme: Living a Balanced Academic Life

An academic’s toolbox of skills is not limited to those tools that facilitate producing impactful work. These tools must also help you address a perennial challenge with working in academic settings. In particular, to lead a healthy, balanced academic life, we at the Forum are mindful of the need to disengage from your work on a regular basis, in an effort to reduce the effects of job-related stressors as well as the risk of burnout.  In an effort to begin building these resources, our theme for this year―Living a Balanced Academic Life―inspired us to build programming that literally strikes a balance between academic skills and skills for balancing work and life. For the 2023 Forum, an exciting suite of programming designed to flow at a pace that you find manageable, so that you leave the Forum inspired, restored, and ready to apply what you learned!     

2023 Forum Activities

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Professional Development Training

Each year, the Future Directions Forum offers an array of professional development training, delivered by an engaging and expert-laden Professional Development Team. This team delivers advice and knowledge to attendees via an innovative array of practical workshops. All attendees benefit from immersive exposure to our professional development programming.  

The Future Directions Forum achieves its goals with seven kinds of programming, with a balanced emphasis on “work programming” and “life programming”:
  1. Professional development workshops about all elements of academic work and life outside of work.  In these 75-minutes workshops, we cover myriad topics of interest to attendees at various career stages and include topics relevant to publishing, grants, mentoring, networking, and jobs.
  2. Invited addresses by authors of Future Directions articles highlight innovate research areas. 
  3. Personalized consultations with seasoned professionals about your own work, from ongoing projects, manuscripts, and grant applications to graduate school applications through various small-group meetings (e.g., Pocket Lab) or one-on-one meetings (e.g., Editor's Corner).
  4. New for 2023! The Talks-to-Tales Series provides attendees with an innovative format for receiving mentorship on how to apply narrative structure to works-in-progress.
  5. The Forum Science Social program showcases the latest research from early career scientists.
  6. The Future Directions Launch Award honors early career scientists who conduct innovative research and have demonstrated they are prepared to lead an independent research career.
  7. The Future Directions Fellows Program offers travel support and other professional development opportunities to promising attendees presenting research at the Forum.

2023 Professional Development Team

Andres De Los Reyes, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, College Park
Kathryn Fox, Ph.D.
University of Denver
Chardée Galán, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
Fallon Goodman, Ph.D.
The George Washington University
Armando Piña, Ph.D.
Arizona State University
 Maggi Price, Ph.D.
Boston College
Sarah Racz, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, College Park
Rebecca Schwartz-Mette, Ph.D.
The University of Maine
Judith Scott, Ph.D.
Boston University
Elizabeth Talbot, Ph.D.
The College of William & Mary
Talks-to-Tales Series: Spurring Innovation in Translating Research Findings to Scholarly Products
Using tried and true methods for learning narrative structure and applying it to academic work, at the Forum we have created several workshops focused on applying this structure to various forms of academic work. Inspired by these workshops, we developed the Talks-to-Tales Series. The goal of this series is to provide attendees with an innovative format for receiving mentorship on how to apply narrative structure to works-in-progress.

Presenters learn how to apply frameworks developed by Olson (2015) and De Los Reyes (2020) to specific work products (i.e., manuscript, grant application, job talk, research statement for tenure dossier), based on research described in a short presentation delivered at the Forum. Each presenter will deliver a talk consisting of: (a) a 5-10 minute presentation of the work, (b) an “elevator pitch” (i.e., 30-second) description of what they want to produce from the work, and (c) a 15-20 minute period where a moderator with expertise on narrative structure works with the audience to “crowdsource” advice on how to optimize the narrative structure or storytelling elements of the work.

We intentionally developed the Talks-to-Tales Series in a way that would ensure that presenters traverse career stages. By doing so, we also sought to create a dynamic atmosphere wherein presenters not only receive mentoring and guidance about their own work, but also receive opportunities to mentor colleagues who are also delivering presentations within the Talks-to-Tales Series.
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Poster Presentations: Celebrating Promising Research in Mental Health
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 internationally recognized scientists who serve as invited speakers 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. 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. During an award ceremony at the Forum, awardees give TED Talk-style presentations about their work. Learn more about the previous winners of the Future Directions Launch Award and see their presentations here.

2023 Future Directions Launch Awards Committee

Andres De Los Reyes, Ph.D.
University of Maryland, College Park
José Causadias, Ph.D.
Arizona State University
Matthew Nock, Ph.D.
Harvard University
Tara Peris, Ph.D.
University of California, Los Angeles
Susan White, Ph.D.
University of Alabama
Showcasing JCCAP's Future Directions Content
Addresses: At each Forum, four leaders in the field who recently published Future Directions articles at JCCAP give formal addresses on the “next steps” of scientific research in their area of expertise. These addresses are based on the content of Future Directions articles written by the speakers.  We are excited to announce the line up for our 2023 Future Directions Addresses!

2023 Future Directions Addresses

Future Directions in Research on ADHD

George DuPaul, Ph.D.
Lehigh University
Future Directions in Research on
Child Maltreatment
Yo Jackson, Ph.D.
The Pennsylvania State University
Future Directions in Research on
Suicide Risk
Evan Kleiman, Ph.D.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Future Directions in Research on
Autism
Meghan Miller, Ph.D.
University of California, Davis
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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 members of the Professional Development Team 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 research aims, and 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.