About

The Mission

The mission of Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) is to provide a forum for communication among doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral training associations in psychology. CCTC promotes discussion of professional education of psychologists, develops recommendations to be reviewed and possibly implemented by member organizations, encourages communication between CCTC members and associated organizations and provides comment to the Board of Education Affairs (BEA), the Committee on Accreditation (CoA), and other APA Boards and Committees on relevant issues.

About

CCTC meets bi-annually, typically the day prior to the American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) meetings in March and October of each year. This allows for CCTC members and liaisons to also serve as liaisons to the BEA meetings. CCTC has no specific bylaws or attendance procedures. However, CCTC members have traditionally elected a chair to serve for a two-year term, beginning at the close of the BEA Consolidated Meetings in March of each year. The secretary has been elected to serve a one year term, beginning at that same time. Meetings occur under the auspices of, and with funding from APA’s Education Directorate. Attendees have consisted of the chair, president or designated representative (chair-elect, past-chair) of each member council, and terms of membership range from one to three years, typically in accordance with each training council’s leadership terms. Some training councils elect to bring more than one representative to CCTC meetings, allowing for smoother transitions regarding on-going CCTC dialogues and action items. However, only one member attendee may contribute to discussions and participate in votes. Additionally, the Education Directorate typically provides funds of $500 to only one representative from each training council for each meeting. CCTC has tended to function by consensus, and members determine whether and to what degree they wish to participate in various CCTC initiatives.

Although an informal collaborative body, CCTC has an important and proactive presences within the education and training community. CCTC has taken the lead on many initiatives that are part of many training councils and education and training practices more broadly. Such initiatives & key contributions have included:

  • Student Competence Task Force – clarified that in addition to performance in coursework, seminars, scholarship, comprehensive examinations, and related program requirements, other aspects of professional development and functioning (e.g., cognitive, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, technical, and ethical) will also be evaluated.
  • Practicum Guidelines – developed and drafted guidelines that specified levels of expected competence across a comprehensive set of domains.
  • Diversity, Inclusion, & Multicultural Initiatives – contribute to ongoing profession, training council, and program efforts to develop and implement policies, practices, and resources that promote inclusion, social justice, and cultural competence in education, training, and practice within health service psychology.
  • Student/Trainee Financial Issues – collect information on student financial burdens and supports while in doctoral, internship, and post-doctoral training. Advocated for issues such as transparency in information-sharing, cost-containment during doctoral training, and financial support during doctoral and post-doctoral training.
  • International Student Training – address issues related to funding and training opportunities for students whose training occurs in whole or part outside of their country of citizenship (e.g., internship that crosses US-Canada borders; visa status for non-US citizen trainees)
  • Internship Match – address internship match imbalance and rebalance issues as they affect students and programs.
  • Accreditation and Regulation – address issues of program accreditation with multiple doctoral training accreditors (e.g., APA Commission on Accreditation, Psychological Science Accreditation System) and changes in licensure eligibility (e.g., EPPP-2 exam) as they impact students and programs.
  • Education and Training Division – exploring need and opportunities for APA Division on Graduate Education and Training.

Process

CCTC is a place where chairs of diverse training associations come together for the shared and greater purposes of training and education in psychology. One key goal of CCTC meetings and listserv dialogue is to move forward with common issues. Issues discussed frequently converge around themes relevant to a majority of members, and members gain much for their respective councils and the training community as a whole by speaking with a “common voice.” CCTC has considerable influence regarding relevant actions, guidelines and recommendations on global training and education issues. CCTC members have benefitted from a general absence of mandated policies, largely due to the wide-ranging needs and values of each council’s membership.

A Brief History

A series of “action-oriented” chairs, beginning in 1999, including Drs. Emil Rodolfa, Beverly Thorn, and Nadine Kaslow, took three substantive steps with considerable support from the APA’s Education Directorate, Dr. Paul Nelson (Deputy Executive Director of the Education Directorate and a primary initiator of CCTC in the mid-1980s), Dr. Nathan Perry and others on the Board of Educational Affairs, which are:

  • Expanding the membership of CCTC to include voting members of all relevant education and training groups as well as approved liaisons who have a vested interest in the deliberations and activities of CCTC.
  • Encouraging attendance by all member councils at bi-annual meetings.
  • Considering a range of relevant issues in professional education and training in psychology to be addressed by CCTC members and liaisons.

List of CCTC Chairs/Secretaries

1994-96
Nate Perry, CUDCP (Chair)
Sandy Pedersen, APPIC (Secretary)

1996-98
Emil Rodolfa, ACCTA (Chair)

1998-2000
Bev Thorn, CUDCP (Chair)

2000-03
Nadine Kaslow, APPIC (Chair)

2003
Cynthia Baum, NCSPP (Chair)
Jenny Cornish (Secretary)

2003-05
Emil Rodolfa, APPIC (Chair)
Craig Shealy (Secretary)

2005-07
Ray Crossman, NCSPP (Chair)

2007-09
Steve McCutcheon (Chair)

2009-11
Cindy Juntunen (Chair)

2010-13
Steve McCutcheon (Chair)
Wendy Paszkiewicz (Secretary, Spring 2012)
David Cimbora (Secretary, Spring 2013)

2013-15
David Cimbora (Chair)
Jason Williams (Secretary, Fall 2013 and Spring 2014)
Christine Malecki (Secretary, Fall 2014 and Spring 2015)

2015-17
Jason Williams (Chair)

2017-19
Ayşe Çiftçi (Chair)

2019-21
Debora Bell (Chair)
Francine Conway, NCSPP (Secretary, Fall 2019 and Spring 2020)
Allison Aosved, APPIC (Secretary, Fall 2020-Spring 2021)

2021-23
Andrea Zartman, VAPTC (Chair)
Sharon Berry, CCHPTP (Vice Chair)
Beth Slomine, APPCN (Secretary, Fall 2021)
Sharon Berry, CCHPTP (Secretary, Spring 2022)
Shona N. Vas, APPIC (Secretary, Fall 2022)

2023-25
Shona N. Vas, APPIC (Chair)
M. Colleen Byrne, APTC (Secretary, Spring 2023)