Andrea Chronis-Tuscano Named President of APA’s Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Division

Department of Psychology (PSYC) Professor Andrea Chronis-Tuscano was recently named President of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division 53, the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP)—a membership-based division of the APA that’s focused on improving the mental health of children, teens and families by supporting research; diversity, equity and inclusion; and the dissemination of evidence-based practices, trainings and information to the general public. 

It’s a full-circle achievement for Chronis-Tuscano, whose expertise in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) started when, as a graduate student at the State University of New York at Buffalo, she was tasked with identifying evidence-based treatments for ADHD for a special issue of SCCAP’s journal, then called the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. 

“SCCAP has been my academic home for as long as I can remember,” said Chronis-Tuscano, who today works as the Director of the University of Maryland ADHD Program and SUCCEEDS Clinic for college students with ADHD. “I love how Division 53 is involved with advocacy; how it supports a number of mentoring programs for graduate students and junior scholars; how it has a huge emphasis on increasing diversity in the field and the samples we study; and that there is a major focus on informing the lay public about evidence-based assessment and treatment. I am so excited and proud [to be named president of SCCAP], and energized to tackle some of these important initiatives.”

Prior to being elected SCCAP President, Chronis-Tuscano served as president of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, and as an editor at multiple academic journals including the Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology and SCCAP’s Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. Chronis-Tuscano herself has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, and received multiple grants from organizations that include the National Institutes of Health and the Stroud Foundation, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of D.C.-area children with learning differences, especially ADD/ADHD, and their families.

With support from the Stroud Foundation and PSYC colleague Joyce Lui, Chronis-Tuscano’s team has developed animated videos that share evidence-based information with young people with ADHD and their families. Some of these videos—and others like it—can be found on a website developed by SCCAP to help increase accessibility to child and adolescent mental health research, effectivechildtherapy.org. 

“What Division 53 has done is create a one-stop shop to educate the public about what works for kids with different mental health disorders,” said Chronis-Tuscano. “I'm really excited to be a part of it and work with such an incredible group of scholars; they’re not just scientists doing science in their ivory tower and publishing for academic audiences, they are on Capitol Hill trying to get the word out to parents and teachers, putting out responses after tragedies like what just happened in Texas, and they are the forefront not just of science, but they are also the voice of clinical and adolescent psychology more broadly. They are really trying to make a difference.” 

To learn more about the APA’s Division 53, visit sccap53.org.

Published on Tue, Jun 7, 2022 - 10:44AM