Originally published: . Volume 8, No. 7. Source pages: 13.
LaTech’s new Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology, Dr. Melanie Lantz, is working to increase awareness and advocacy for issues of multicultural competence and social justice, through her own research and also by lending her help to Dr. Rosie Bingham, candidate in this year’s presidential election in the American Psychological Association (APA).
Dr. Lantz is relatively new to the state, moving to Louisiana as an Early Career Psychologist, and taking on the Directorship of LaTech’s Psychological Services Clinic, part of Louisiana Tech University Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences.
She’s stumping for Rosie Bingham’s campaign, the sole candidate receiving an endorsement from The Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of APA.
“I am working on Dr. Rosie Bingham's campaign for APA President,” said Lantz. “She is truly an excellent candidate, by disposition and by experience. She knows how APA works, she's a counseling psychologist in the truest sense, and she's an advocate for social justice.” Lantz said.
Bingham co-founded of the National Multicultural Conference and Summit, which was her joint presidential project, along with the other Division leaders, explained Lantz.
This resonates with Dr. Lantz’ primary areas of research, which are multicultural competence, counseling, training, social justice, and professional issues in psychology. Her clinical areas of expertise include addiction, assessment, and multicultural counseling. Lantz earned her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York in 2015.
In October Dr. Lantz will present Multicultural competence and social justice advocacy: Ethical imperatives, a Continuing Education Workshop for the North Louisiana Counselor Education Conference to be held in Monroe.
At LaTech she teaches a variety of doctoral courses including Multicultural Counseling, Intellectual Assessment, Biological Psychology, and Psychopathology.
Lantz’ research spans topics from social dominance theory, activism, early career, racial attitudes, and multicultural issues. In April Lantz was named Outstanding Researcher, College of Education at LaTech.
Dr. Lantz has three articles and a book chapter in press, which include “For whom the bills pile: an equity frame for an equity problem,” in Training and Education in Professional Psychology; and “The implications of doctoral students’ professional socialization experiences in graduate training;” as well as “A collaborative autoethnography of counseling psychology student leaders,” both in The Counseling Psychologist.
Along with coauthors she will be presenting, “Financial implications of psychology doctoral degree pursuit: A cross-sectional examination,” at the 2017 APA Convention, and also “Social Dominance Theory and the multicultural counseling competencies: The need for a new lens and alternative measurement,” in the APA Symposium, Multicultural counseling competencies: Measurement, techniques, and future trends.
Other submissions include the Symposium, “Continuing on paths forged: Early career professionals navigating social justice;” “Working for social change on a campus in the deep south,” and “Racial attitudes in the 2016 presidential election: A social dominance perspective.”
Lantz is serving in several leadership positions within APA Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology and currently running for election for the APA's Board of Educational Affairs (BEA).
She feels that her focus in multicultural studies and competencies, and professional issues in training, such as debt and financial constraints in doctoral psychology education, fostering professional identity development, breadth of teaching experience, and supporting culturally diverse students, are areas that can help her contribute to the work of the BEA.
She has large-scale data collection underway examining the distribution of debt and financial stressors and notes her recent publication on how to engage Social Justice in higher education (Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.) Another is her recent publication on how to support professional identity development in counseling psychology (in press with The Counseling Psychologist). She has two upcoming submissions on multicultural competencies and other works planned.
Currently Lantz is putting her efforts behind Dr. Rosie Bingham’s bid for APA President. Lantz is exciting about Bingham as a candidate and Bingham has been endorsed by the Society of Counseling Psychology as well as Division 35, The Society for the Psychology of Women.
Lantz is enthusiastic about Bingham’s goals, and loves the campaign slogan, “What an example. ‘Dream Big, Do More!’” says Dr. Lantz. Bingham has pointed to the need for a multicultural focus in her views, something that Lantz feels strongly about in her work.
In one of Bingham’s public statements, Bingham notes: “APA has been able to address numerous social issues because of its firm foundation in psychological science. As social issues become increasingly complex, spanning cultures and nations, our reliance on the integration of science, multicultural understanding and commitment to human rights grows. As president, I will seek to advance collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and those with international and multicultural expertise—including those who have so far been invisible or underrepresented in this process—to maximize APA’s efforts to address these complex issues in ways that value cultural differences while striving for viable and sustainable solutions. Dream big. Do more.”
And Bingham’s platform is very close to Lantz’s own views and goals for multicultural issues and concerns with social justice.
Dr. Melanie Lantz (Courtesy photo)
Louisiana Tech Assistant Professor Dr. Melanie Lantz at the American Psychological Association conference last year, presenting research in multicultural competencies. (Courtesy photo.)
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