Nomination Procedures for CPA Awards and Fellows

CPA Award Nomination Procedures CPA Fellow Nomination Procedures
Submission Deadline: January 31st, 2025

Nomination packages must include:

  1. a letter of nomination from a current CPA Member
  2. a current curriculum vitae for the nominee, and
  3. at least three additional letters of support written in the last calendar year by current CPA Members. The letters of support should be drawn from three different institutions, with no more than one coming from the nominee’s home institution.

All 2025 nominations will be submitted by electronic form during the month of January to ensure that all nominees, nominators and letter of support writers are current CPA Members or Fellows for 2025.

The form for electronic submissions will open January 1st, 2025.

 Submission Deadline: January 31st, 2025

Nomination packages must include:

  1. a nominating letter from a current CPA Member
  2. a current curriculum vitae for the nominee, and
  3. at least three additional letters of  support written in the last calendar year by current CPA Members. The letters of support should be drawn from three different institutions, with no more than one coming from the nominee’s home institution.

The letters of support should be specific about the ways in which the nominee’s research or practice has contributed to the advancement of the science or profession of psychology or as to ways the person’s service to national or provincial associations of psychologists have been exceptional. In the case of nominations based upon accomplishments other than published theory or research, the specific innovative contributions and their impact on psychology should be described.

The letters of support should point out evidence of the quality of journals in which the nominee has published, awards received, etc. In the case of nominations based upon exceptional service to national or provincial associations of psychologists, the letters of nomination should describe the association (e.g., nature of the association, number of members, services they provide).

Normally, the nominee should have completed his or her post-secondary training ten years prior to being nominated for Fellow status. Someone with less than ten years’ experience following graduation, but more than five years of experience, could be elected Fellow if his or her contributions or services have been found by the Committee to be truly exceptional.

All 2025 nominations will be submitted by electronic form during the month of January to ensure that all nominees, nominators and letter of support writers are current CPA Members or Fellows for 2025.

The form for electronic submissions will open January 1st, 2025.

CPA FELLOWS AND AWARDS PROCEDURES

The Committee on Fellows and Awards shall review nominations for fellows and awards and make recommendations to the Board of Directors, which ultimately shall appoint fellows and make awards.

Committee Membership

  1. The Committee on Fellows and Awards shall consist of the Chair and nine members.
  2. The Chair of the Committee on Fellows and Awards shall be the most immediate Past-President of the Association, whether or not a Fellow himself or herself;
  3. Only CPA Fellows shall be eligible to serve as members on this committee.
  4. Appointments to the Committee on Fellows and Awards shall be made by the Board of Directors from the nominations submitted by the Chair of the Committee.
  5. The Committee on Fellows and Awards shall, as far as practicable, be formed with due regard to gender balance, linguistic balance, geographical balance, academic and practitioner balance, and degree level balance (Masters and doctoral), so as to have representatives from three constituencies:
    • Practice
    • Science, and
    • Education and Training.
  6. Members shall serve for terms of three years, rotating so that one-third of the membership is reconstituted each year. Terms of members shall be renewable, but only after a hiatus of at least three years following the end of one’s term.

The Nomination Process

  1. Each year a call for nominations for Fellows and Awards is made. The call for nominations is placed in Psynopsis and is widely distributed through various email lists (e.g., to Sections, Departments of Psychology at Universities, Hospitals and Agencies, Provincial Associations, Committee Chairs).
  2. Any Member, except current members of the CPA Board of Directors and members of the Committee on Fellows and Awards, can be nominated for Fellow status or for an Award. Self-nominations are not accepted. Nominators must be members of the CPA but cannot be current members of the Committee on Fellows and Awards nor can they be current members of the CPA Board of Directors.
  3. Nominations for all awards shall be submitted to the Chair of the Fellows and Awards Committee, electronically, no later than January 31st.
  4. Nominations for all fellows shall be submitted to the Chair of the Fellows and Awards Committee, electronically, no later than January 31st.
  5. At the close of nominations, the Committee shall undertake to review the nominees.
  6. A committee member who is in conflict of interest vis-à-vis any of the nominees shall declare this conflict to the Chair and shall not participate in the evaluation of the affected nomination(s). (A conflict of interest is as a situation in which a committee member has a private, personal or professional interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties.)
  7. In the event that there are no nominees for either the John C. Service Member of the Year or the Humanitarian Awards by the nomination deadline, the CPA Board of Directors may propose nominees for these awards.
  8. In any year, the Chair and members of the Committee will choose the procedures to be followed by the Committee in selecting Fellows and Award recipients. These choices may pertain both to internal communications within the committee (e.g., individual voting without discussion, consultation by e-mail, telephone, or other means either before voting or after a preliminary vote) and to the rules for selecting the recipients (e.g., on the basis of a set proportion of positive votes out of those cast versus a plurality, each Committee member ranking all nominees versus identifying a single preferred nominee).
  9. Two teleconferences shall be set: One at the beginning of the review process to discuss applicants and selection procedures and the other to discuss the votes.
  10. As noted in the By-Laws, there are three ways to achieve Fellow status:
    • distinguished contributions to the advancement of the science of psychology;
    • distinguished contributions to the advancement of the profession of psychology; and
    • exceptional service to national or provincial associations, of psychologists.
  11. Committee members are encouraged to give a brief rationale for negative decisions on Fellow nominations.
  12. Nominees for Fellows and Awards need to receive 70% of the eligible votes from the Committee on Fellows and Awards.
  13. Should the nominee for Awards not be selected the year submitted, he or she will automatically be reconsidered in each of the next two years.
  14. It is possible that not all awards will be given each year.
  15. The Chair of the Fellows and Awards Committee shall recommend to the Board of Directors of the Association, with supporting documentation, that the selected nominee be named the award recipient.
  16. The Board of Directors shall consider that recommendation at its next meeting or by e-mail, and either to ratify the recommendation or else refer the recommendation to the Fellows and Awards Committee for further consideration. The decision of the Board of Directors is final in this matter.
  17. The award recipient for each category as well as the elected fellows shall be notified by the Chair of the Fellows and Awards Committee after the decision of the Board of Directors.
  18. The Chair shall further develop, in conjunction with the original nominator, an appropriate citation that can be read at the time of the presentation of the award.
  19. The Chair shall prepare a submission appropriate for the Association’s newsletter.

Approved by the Board of Directors, March 2012