President's MessagePresident’s Message 
Happy Fall Washington School Psychs! My name is Anna Casey, and I’m serving as WSASP President for the 2024-25 school year. I’m writing today to introduce myself as a school psychologist, share about my goals for WSASP, and encourage you to get involved! A bit about me: I’m currently the Lead School Psychologist for the Washington Region of Seneca Family of Agencies. Seneca is a mission-driven nonprofit that provides a broad range of mental health, education, permanency, and juvenile justice services in the Puget Sound region as well as California. I first encountered Seneca while in graduate school at UC Berkeley when I had the chance to complete a clinical internship in Seneca’s therapeutic preschool in East Oakland. These tiny students had already been failed by previous preschool and/or foster placements, but Seneca’s model of Unconditional Care doesn’t exit clients for displaying the behaviors that referred them to care in the first place. This mission hit me right in the heart, and even though it was one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, it was such a supportive and collaborative work setting that I got hooked on Seneca. Once I graduated, I was excited to learn that Seneca had expanded into Washington state. I started my school psychology career with Seneca supporting Unconditional Education in schools that focus on providing special education services in inclusive settings throughout Puget Sound. That was back in 2015, and even though it was a HUGE learning curve to start as a psych in a new state, I’m so glad that I live in Washington now (I’m here for life)! My WSASP journey: I spent my first three years in Washington just getting my feet under me, and it didn’t even occur to me to seek involvement in WSASP. Then I attended my first WSASP Fall Conference in 2018 and was energized by having such a big community of local psychs to learn and collaborate with. Over the next few years, I slowly got more and more involved by joining the GPR committee in 2019, joining the board as an Area Rep in 2020, and stepping up to co-chair the GPR committee in 2021. During this time I’ve had a chance to see firsthand the great work of the WSASP Committees and Board. I’m particularly proud of our collaborative efforts to provide guidance to psychs during the COVID school closures, to pivot to virtual and hybrid conferences, to give back to members via PD mini-grants and additional diversity scholarships, to defend referral and evaluation timelines in the legislature, and to address the shortage of school psychologists in Washington by advocating for supports and improvements in the internship process. My Goal for this Year: Even with all the great work WSASP has been able to do over the years, we still have a ways to go when it comes to expanding the quantity of members engaging with WSASP and diversity of the WSASP board. In order to reach our goals and continue taking on projects that benefit psychs in the state, we need more psychs involved in WSASP at both the Committee and Board level! We also need to increase the diversity of these groups across all dimensions (race, language, (dis)ability, gender, geographic location, etc.). To do this effectively, I believe the first step is to build systems and a culture that promote accessibility, inclusivity, institutional memory, and sustainability of all roles within WSASP. WSASP has already taken strides in many of these areas over the past few years, but currently I’m focusing on adding to these efforts by finding opportunities for more transparency, incorporating EDI discussions within Board meetings (led by our fabulous Social Justice Advocacy Committee), and collaborating on revisions to the Board’s bylaws (in order to increase the Board’s efficacy, equity, and representation of psychs across the state). |