Annual Meeting Update

By Nicholas J. Westers, Psy.D., ABPP

Director of Programs
Children’s Medical Center Dallas & UT Southwestern Medical Center
nicholas.westers@childrens.com

Chinwe Efuribe, MD, MPH
Associate Director of Programs
coefuribe@gmail.com

On behalf of the Program Committee, we are excited to see you in person for the SAHM Annual Meeting in sunny San Diego, California from March 9-12, 2022. We know that the pandemic continues to pose challenges across the globe and that COVID may be here to stay, but with increases in vaccinations and improved public health messaging, we are hopeful that we will soon no longer be living in a pandemic. What better way to celebrate than with each other near (or at) the beach!

We have an open Call for Proposals for Educational Sessions (deadline August 31) and Scientific Research Presentations (deadline September 7) and strongly encourage you to submit your proposals for workshops, institutes, and research.

We welcome submissions of all types and topics but especially welcome clinically focused educational sessions that are innovative and can change or challenge how attendees conduct clinical practice, education, research, or programming. In an effort to be as transparent as possible, we have again made public the rubric (click here) by which reviewers will be guided in scoring proposals.

Additionally, information for submissions that include youth presenters can be found in the Call for Proposals. The Youth Engagement subcommittee will be available to provide additional guidance and support as needed.

We are introducing several new initiatives at SAHM 2022, two of which we would like to announce in this newsletter. First, in direct response to comments made in our most recent meeting survey, we will be revealing an Invited Workshop Series specific to topics that have been heavily requested by attendees.

Each session of this series will include an opportunity to network with the invited speakers in a one-hour Q&A session following the workshop. Similarly, we are planning to hold Q&A networking sessions with our plenary speakers following their presentations. We hope this will facilitate networking among attendees across all career stages.

The Program Committee is working hard on planning a broad range of quality activities and sessions to meet the diverse needs of our membership. Despite the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, international and domestic travel, and institutional budgets, we hope you mark your calendars, register for the meeting, and take time to learn, reconnect, and recharge with fellow attendees. Finally, please stay healthy and safe!