Two University psychology professors returned Monday from the American Psychological Association’s fifth annual Science Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., as part of a group of only 100 professionals selected to attend. Mary Lou Kelley, clinical psychology professor, and Claire Advokat, biological psychology professor, were the first University professors to be invited to an APA conference. The goal of this year’s conference, entitled “Enhancing the Nation’s Health Through Psychological Science,” was to advocate for increased federal funding in psychological research and training to ultimately improve the nation’s health, according to the invitation.The participants were trained to speak with legislative correspondents from their state to discuss maintaining funding from the National Institute of Health, protecting the peer review process for grant applications and advocating for the inclusion of psychology in comparative effectiveness research, Kelley said.Participants were selected based partly on where they live and partly on the type of research they conduct, Virginia Holt, assistant executive director of APA, said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille.While some states had more than two people attend, some states had no representation, Holt said, and this was decided based on the interests of the congressional correspondents.”We hope it will make a difference,” Kelley said. “It was a great opportunity to let them know what we are doing in Louisiana.”Kelley specializes in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents. Her work originally dealt with ADHD and its relationship to education performance. But after Hurricane Katrina, she focused her research on children’s psychological adjustments following coastal disasters.”We wanted to give them a better understanding of how research is useful to their state,” Kelley said. “And to make them more aware of psychology as a science and contributor to health.”Advokat and Kelley met with congressional staff members from five different offices from Louisiana. Advokat said three of the five were University graduates, including former Student Government President Cassie Alsfeld. Advokat said she and Kelley, along with two other psychology professors from Louisiana, explained their research and how it benefits the country and the state.”We wanted to show them the positive effects of the funding,” Advokat said.Advokat’s expertise is in psychopharmacology — drugs that affect the brain. Specifically, she researches how and why psychiatric medications work to relieve symptoms in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and ADHD. Kelley said she enjoyed learning about large-scale psychological research projects, like one the U.S. Army and NIH are conducting that involves predicting suicidal patterns and behavior in the military. Kelley said the conference gave her an opportunity to see what the federal government is currently funding, which includes studies related to health care and mental health. “Diabetes and obesity are huge epidemics, and there’s a strong behavioral component,” Kelley said. “It certainly reminded me of priorities for grant money.” Advokat said it was very rewarding to be seen as someone who can make a contribution. “We made it clear that we’d be available to [the congressional correspondents],” Advokat said. “We made an effort to show them it was a two-way street.”—–Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]