About the Mentorship Committee

Mentoring is the process by which those more experienced provide advice, support, and knowledge to those less experienced. Researchers and teachers have found that having a mentor can lead to a variety of benefits such as higher levels of satisfaction with graduate school and career experiences and more productive careers (see e.g., Johnson & Huwe, 2003 for a review of the benefits of being mentored).  

In 2004, AP-LS formed an ad hoc Mentorship Committee in an effort to reach out to psychologists in the early stages of their careers and to graduate students who plan to enter a career in psychology and law.   The Mentorship Committee members are: Ryann Haw (Chair) (ryannh@bigbend.edu),  Garrett Berman, Tara Mitchell and Peter Shore.

The AP-LS Mentorship Committee provides for a variety of different mentoring experiences. More specifically, mentors are available to answer questions through this website (click on the links “ Meet Our Mentors ” and “ Interesting FAQ’s ”), and mentoring is also provided during AP-LS’s annual conferences.

Website Mentoring

The AP-LS ad hoc Mentorship Committee has arranged for forensic and non-forensic mentors to be available to answer questions from graduate students or new faculty. In general, forensic mentors can discuss areas where clinical psychology has been applied to the legal system. Examples of topics in this area are risk assessment, competency, profiling, and psychological assessment. Non-forensic mentors specialize in topics in which areas such as social and cognitive psychology have been applied to the legal system. Examples of topics in this area are eyewitness evidence, jury decision-making, expert testimony, confessions and detecting deception. You can see who our mentors are and their specific interests by clicking on the link Meet Our Mentors . Here you will find biographical information about each mentor including his/her area of specialty. You can use this information to determine which mentor may be best suited to respond to your question(s).   

Please check our Interesting FAQ’s page first (coming soon!) before contacting a mentor. If you find that the FAQ page has not provided answers to your questions, then feel free to contact one of our mentors.

Conference Mentoring  

Ψ       AP-LS, 2005 (La Jolla, CA)--A symposium entitled, “Advice for Graduate Students and Beginning Professionals,” jointly sponsored by the APLS Mentorship Committee and the APLS Careers and Training Committee took place on March 4, 2005. During the mentorship portion of this symposium, Wendy Heath (Chair of the Mentorship Committee) summarized the activities and the services the Committee offers (e.g., AP-LS website mentor page with links to mentors available to answer questions, the mentorship breakfast). Much of the last hour of the session was a question and answer session with mentors Dick Rogers, Rich Weiner, Gail Goodman, Beth Wiggins, and Matt Zaitchik who offered their perspectives on their chosen careers and offered advice. We are extremely grateful to the mentors who volunteered their time. The session was extremely well attended (standing room only with approximately 120 attendees).  

Ψ       AP-LS, 2005 (La Jolla, CA)—Mentorship Breakfast: The Mentorship breakfast occurred on March 5, 2005. Graduate students and beginning professionals interacted with mentors in small discussion groups over a light breakfast. The following mentors joined us for breakfast: Margaret Kovera, Mario Scalora, Norman Poythress, Larry Wrightsman, Matt Zaitchik, Gary Moran, Jack Brigham, Don Whitworth, and Bill Werkun. Again we are grateful to the mentors who shared their time. Twenty-eight protégés joined us for breakfast. We’re glad you could join us!  

Ψ       We are currently in the planning stages to develop events for next year’s AP-LS conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.

If you attended either of the above events or have ideas for future events, please contact us with your comments, suggestions or feedback. Your comments will help us when planning future events and allow us the opportunity to best cater to the needs of our participants. You can e-mail comments to Ryann Haw (ryannh@bigbend.edu).  We thank you in advance for your feedback.

Reference

Johnson, W. B., & Huwe, J. M. (2003). Getting mentored in graduate school. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Comments concerning this webpage can be sent to Ryann Haw (ryannhaw@aol.com )

Webpage last updated April 2, 2007.