Editor's Corner

Editor’s Corner

Angelo M. DiBello, PhD
SoAP Box Editor

Victoria Votaw, M.S. & Melissa Hatch, B.A.
Student Editors

Hello everyone, welcome to the Fall 2021 SoAP Box (The Addictions Newsletter). As this is my first issue as the editor, I want to take a moment to introduce myself to all of you. I am an Assistant Professor in the Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies and the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University. I received my master’s degree in Clinical Counseling Psychology in August of 2011 at LaSalle University, my doctorate in Social Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Methods in May of 2015 at the University of Houston having worked with Clayton Neighbors, and completed a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University’s School of Public Health in 2017 having worked with Kate B. Carey. Broadly, my research program seeks to understand and leverage social and clinically relevant determinants of alcohol and other substance use that can be incorporated into social psychologically derived prevention and intervention paradigms. Additionally, I study the interplay of alcohol and substance use with romantic relationship factors (e.g., romantic jealousy, satisfaction, commitment) in trying to better understand key factors and processes associated with intimate partner violence (IPV).

My goal, as the editor of the SoAP Box, is to continue to build on the exceptional work done by our previous editors, especially Dana Litt who directly preceded me. The online format, new columns, and diversity of perspectives is a real strength of the SoAP Box I am committed to continuing during my time as editor. Before moving on the showcase the contributions of the current issue, I want to offer my sincere thanks to several folks. First, to Dana Litt for encouraging me to apply to this role and for aiding in my transition as editor. Next, thank you to our outgoing Student Editor Victoria (Tori) Votaw who has made my transition to editor EXPONETIALLY easier – you are invaluable and I am so thankful for your time and help. Third, to our incoming Student Editor Melissa Hatch who has spent time working with Tori to understand the nuances of preparing the issue for dissemination, I appreciate your efforts and am thrilled to work with you in this role. And finally, to the members of Division 50 for the honor to serve you in this new role as editor.

For this issue, be sure to start with Dr. Mark Sobell’s first President’s Column, where he introduces his chosen presidential theme, Implementing a Public Health Approach to Addictions.  In addition, Dr. Sobel discusses important accomplishments relevant to our members. We are also excited to have several spotlights in the issue. First, our new member at large, Dr. Mary Beth Miller, is featured as the Early Career Psychologist (ECP) spotlight in this issue, which further reflects the growth and excitement among ECPs in our division. We are thrilled to have Dr. Devin Banks highlighting her recent publication and important work in our Diversity Science spotlight. Finally, Roselyn Peterson, our newest Student Representative, is featured in the Student spotlight.

In this issue, Dr. Katie Witkiewitz also provides useful insight via our Finding Success Through Failure column, detailing her experience being in an academic job that was not a great fit and what she learned. As always, we received great submissions for SoAP Box Sound Bites and Show and Tell which highlight the opinions and contributions of the members that make SoAP what it is today.  In particular, the Show and Tell column highlights the 2021 Division 50 Student Research Grant recipients and their interesting work.  Please be sure to read the several important division announcements appearing in this issue. First, check out the SoAP Call for Nominations as a way to get more involved in the Society of Addiction Psychology. Finally, we also have preliminary information on APA programming for the next annual convention.

For the next issue, I am hoping to continue soliciting new content. I am grateful to all those submissions we received for the current issue and I am hopeful that more people will feel comfortable submitting content in the coming issues. Please submit any of the content requested below to me (Angelo.DiBello@rutgers.edu) by January 20th, 2022.

• Diversity Science Spotlight. In this column, we are looking to highlight recently published work or accomplishments by members from backgrounds that are underrepresented in psychological science. We are also interested in promoting research focusing on improving health equity and social justice in historically disadvantaged groups. Send us a link and description of your current projects, awards, or media attention you have received, and any other information that you would like to share with our readers. If you are discussing research focused on improving health equity and social justice, you can also provide additional information about the implications of your research. Please limit responses to 500 words.

• SoAP Box Sound Bites. In 50 words or less, please respond to the following prompt—In what ways have you been able to relax or reduce work related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• Show and Tell. This is the place to show off your recent accomplishments, accolades, awards and/or to and highlight the cool ways in which you promote your lab (websites, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, etc.). Send us a link and description of your current projects, awards, or media attention you may have received, and any other information that you would like to share with our readers. Please limit responses to 200 words.

• Community Corner. We would love to hear about ways in which you share your research and/or clinical work to the broader community. Please limit responses to 200 words.

• Clinical Translation. Do you have any recently published work that you wish you would have had more room in the manuscript to discuss clinical implications and applications? For this issue, we would like to focus on any cutting edge work you might have related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We would love for you all to share recently published work in this area and give us more information about how your research findings could be useful for clinicians. Please limit responses to 1,000 words.

• Finding Success in Failure. In line with the recent trend of prominent academics and clinicians sharing their “CVs of Failures”, we want to hear about a time in your career that things didn’t go your way. For this next issue, I am hoping someone will provide insights into the greatest challenges they experienced when starting their lab and what they learned from the process.  We are interested in learning what the challenge was, how you approached resolving the challenge, and what you learned as the result of the experience. To the extent possible, we are interested in hearing about challenges that may be more generalizable to other researchers (e.g., one’s that are not institution specific). Please limit responses to 500 words.

• Ethical Issues. In this column, we are looking for articles focused on describing ethical issues you may come across in your research and/or addiction-related clinical practice. Specifically, we want to hear what the ethical issue was, how you handled it, and lessons learned. Some examples could be issues related to googling patients, how you handled it when a patient contacted you on social media, or what happens when you run into a research participant out in the real world. Please limit responses to 500 words.

If you have any suggestions for how we can make the SoAP Box more relevant and impactful for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Wanting to see articles on a specific topic? Send your topic ideas to me for upcoming issues. I am always open to ideas for new columns, hot topics to cover, or anything else you think would be useful for our readers.