IPA Awards Ceremony

On April 10, 2021, IPA virtually held its annual awards ceremony following the Saturday morning session of the Spring Conference, which can be viewed in full here. After the introduction and announcements from President Valeria Keffala, Past-President Benge Tallman began the ceremony by thanking various members who had ended their terms of service in 2019 and 2020:

Ending 2019:

  • Dr. Sam Graham: Executive Council, Presidential Triad 2017 - 2019
  • Dr. Laura Fuller: Executive Council, IPA Rep 2017 - 2019
  • Dr. Alissa Doobay: Executive Council, Secretary, 2017 - 2019
  • Ms. Mallory Bolenbaugh: Executive Council, APAGS Rep 2017 – 2019
  • Dr. Suzanne Zilber: Executive Council, Membership Committee Chair: 2017 - 2019

Ending in 2020:

  • Dr. Warren Phillips: Executive Council, Presidential Triad 2018 - 2020
  • Dr. William Stearns: Executive Council: IPA Rep 2018 – 2020
  • Dr. Stewart Ehly: Executive Council: TIP Editor 2011- 2020

Dr. Nicole Keedy kicked off the official awards presentation by sharing the citation for the APA Advocacy Champion Award, which was presented to Dr. JoAnna Romero Cartaya during the APA Advocacy Summit March 14, 2021:

Dr. JoAnna Romero Cartaya, IPA’s Federal Advocacy Coordinator (FAC), was one of three APA psychologists honored as an APA Advocacy Champion during the APA Advocacy Summit on March 14, 2021. Her expertise as an advocate for federal legislation serves IPA members, and psychologists in general, immensely. Among her many accomplishments as our FAC, the following efforts were highlighted during the summit:

  • Dr. Romero Cartaya spearheaded outreach to Senator Charles Grassley’s office to personally discuss APA’s legislative priorities.
  • She helped arrange psychologist representation at a roundtable held in Iowa by Senator Joni Ernst in August 2020.
  • She organized and directed a meeting with an Iowa Congressional office regarding HR884, the physician definition bill or “Medicare Mental Health Access Act”, in September 2020.
  • She generated comments from IPA psychologists to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about HR884, leading to nearly 200 contacts to the Iowa Congressional offices.

For IPA members who recently attended the Practice Leadership Conference, Dr. Romero Cartaya’s knowledge and skill in preparing for meetings with senators, representatives, and their legislative staff were essential to our efforts. We entered the virtual meetings ready to deliver a strong message with a powerful mix of stories to illustrate the importance of our requests. She led the meetings skillfully, beginning each conference with a warm congratulatory statement regarding recent elections and inquiring regarding their well-being following the Capitol attack. She guided us in preparation of a list of contact information and supportive information for our requests to send to each office. She was also knowledgeable regarding appropriate follow-up with the senators and representatives after the visits.

It was evident that Dr. Romero Cartaya has successfully navigated similar meetings many times, as she masterfully led persuasive discussions with seamless transitions among multiple participants. The IPA team made a strong showing in the Hill visits in 2021, with significant credit due to Dr. Romero Cartaya. It is clear, given knowledge of her communication and advocacy efforts across the year, her growing knowledge and use of the Voter Voice advocacy platform, as well as observation of her preparation during the Hill visits, that this Advocacy Champion award from APA to Dr. Romero Cartaya is well-deserved.

Next, Dr. Nicole Keedy and Dr. Sam Graham worked together to present the Ann Ernst Service Award to Dr. Suzanne Zilber: 
From Dr. Keedy: It is our honor and pleasure to nominate Suzanne Zilber, Ph.D., for the Ann Ernst Public Service Award. Dr. Zilber has served The Iowa Psychological Association, The Iowa Psychological Foundation, her community, her faith community, and the Iowa State University Community in a multitude of pro bono roles throughout her career. She is an ideal candidate for this award, demonstrating not only a single major contribution to the field of psychology and its organizational efforts in Iowa, but a history of many contributions to our discipline and to society.

In a major contribution to psychology, Dr. Zilber assumed the leadership of the IPA Membership Committee in 2017 and she served as Chair until November 2019. She was the first IPA member to commit to serve as the Membership Committee Chair after a significant restructuring of IPA administrative tasks had occurred. During the restructuring, many responsibilities had been reassigned from the former Executive Director position to the Membership Committee Chair, Dr. Jennifer Kauder at that time. Additionally, IPA was implementing a new strategic plan with ambitious goals for increasing focus on member recruitment and retention.

Despite knowing the arduous responsibility that had been transferred to Dr. Kauder during the transition, Dr. Zilber later committed to step into the role selflessly, devoting endless hours to tasks associated with leading the committee for recruitment and retention of IPA members. Among many accomplishments during her time, she led the committee in developing materials to highlight member benefits for new members and new Iowa licensees, created a role description and multiple documents to facilitate subsequent leadership changes for the Membership Committee Chair, met with staff and students in a variety of locations to introduce them to the benefits of IPA, initiated the creation of our popular Raygun t-shirts, organized conference activities to promote member and non-member connection, and consistently facilitated warm outreaches for new IPA members. She brought a surprising level of creativity and organization to her role on this committee, given she was also working full-time and volunteering in multiple capacities in the community during her tenure as Membership Committee Chair.

No doubt secondary to her efforts, during Dr. Zilber’s two years of leadership, 103 new members joined IPA and many of them remain active members. Dr. Zilber’s contribution of time and energy to the volunteer task of IPA Membership Committee Chair was a significant force in the revitalization of IPA and, as a result, a major contribution to psychology in Iowa.

In addition to her significant contribution as Membership Committee Chair, Dr. Zilber also served IPA as the editor of The Iowa Psychologist from December 2004 to May 2008, The President of the Iowa Psychological Foundation from April 2011 to November 2013, and a board member of the Foundation until February 2015.

As a staff psychologist at the Iowa State University Counseling Center, Dr. Zilber served as an intern and practicum training coordinator. She volunteered as a Red Cross Disaster Counselor during the 1993 flood. Furthermore, Dr. Zilber has offered numerous guest lectures for Iowa State University.

While serving in her dedicated career as a trainee, a supervisor, and a private practice clinician, Dr. Zilber has presented a combined total of 56 professional conference programs and published articles.

Outside her service to the field of Psychology, Dr. Zilber has served as a leader in her faith community, on multiple community organization boards, and as an essential advocate in the Women’s Studies program at Iowa State University. She has consistently demonstrated volunteerism in providing presentations and facilitated discussions regarding social justice issues, further devoting her time and energy to promoting interpersonal growth and increased diversity awareness in society.

Dr. Zilber has served as an exemplary public servant, demonstrating a life of generous devotion to her profession, her community, and our discipline. She clearly warrants the recognition signified by receiving an award titled after a similarly devoted public servant, the Ann Ernst Public Service Award.

From Dr. Graham: A few words for the presentation of the Ann Ernst Public Service Award to Suzanne Zilber. Carmella and I were at a state leadership conference when we first envisioned an award to recognize the work of psychologist in Iowa who have given generously to IPA and their community. Suzan Enzel later further defined the public service criteria to further define the award.

My wife wrote a book “Victorian America: A Family Record of the Heartland” based on the collection of letters of her family from 1812 to 1938. In her introduction, she used the phrase “these good and useful lives” taken from one of the letters to describe the lives of her family.

Working with Nicole to prepare your nomination was an unexpected pleasure for me because it provided me an opportunity to learn of many “good and useful” aspects of Suzanne’s life beyond IPA that I was unaware of. Suzanne has embodied the traits we honor in this award.

My work over the years in IPA has given me the opportunity to experience the work of many “good and useful lives.”

I hope those of you with us on Zoom will take the opportunity to honor the “good and useful lives” of our colleagues and enjoy the experience of learning about the breath of their contributions.

Join me now in congratulating Suzanne with this award.

Dr. Zilber responded with the following remarks: Thank you Sam and Nicole. This award is very meaningful to me. Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of seeing my first client in solo private practice. I joined IPA a few months before that date and it has provided essential support to my work ever since, especially this past year. 

I am not a runner, but I am going to use a running analogy to encourage psychologists to serve in IPA and IPF. You may have noticed a pattern in the description of my service – I am a relay runner – I take up a baton for 3 years and then I take a 4 year “rest” while I am taking up a political or learning baton, and then I run another 3-year sprint in Iowa Psychology. Some in IPA are cross country runners and they just keep going – you know who you are. 

In order for any of us to feel that we can keep up the long-term relay for organizational sustainability, we need to know that there are people preparing to grab the baton. This means that people need to serve on committees to build the skills to take on needed leadership roles later. When a leader knows that they can hand off the baton in three years, they will be more willing to step up and enter the relay.  A three-year structure has been in place for the Presidential Triad and executive council terms and I recommend that structure for other committees as well. 

Another pathway to leadership in the running scenario, is that an athlete from another sport decides to take up running. I thought I was an OK writer and loved sharing information, so I said yes, when asked to edit the newsletter - VERY shortly after joining IPA. I had no prior experience editing a newsletter, but I did get great coaching from the newsletter designer and the IPA executive director.

For all my roles, someone asked me to do them. It works best when an individual person asks another individual person. 

I am going to confess here the real reason I took on the Membership Committee chair role: I wanted the power - to get new members to share more details about themselves on the listserv so we could welcome them properly. And then there was all this other stuff to do, which challenged my technophobia!  And some stuff was fun and thank you if you participated in our “get to know each other” games! 

And not everyone has to take on a leadership role. We need our worker-bees, behind the scenes, show up for one task, invite friends to join, or simply show up for a conference folks too. 

So I encourage you to take up the baton to add variety to your work, take up the baton to learn a new skill, take up the baton to make new friends, and take up the baton to broaden your impact. Join this relay to make Iowa healthier and happier. Thank you.  

Dr. Zilber moved directly from award recipient to presenter. She honored Dr. Brittany Neef with the Michele Greiner Early Career Award:

I am nominating Brittany Neef, Psy.D., for the Michele Greiner Early Career Psychologist Service Award for her consistent work to improve the education and connectedness of Iowa Psychologists so that we may better serve mental health consumers in Iowa. Overall, Brittany brought clarity, enthusiasm, a collaborative spirit and a practical task-focused commitment to foster the goals of both the Iowa Psychological Association and Iowa Psychological Foundation.  

When I asked others to contribute their experiences with Brittany, they were eager to do so. 

From Jen Kauder, Ph.D. the first Membership Committee Chair: Brittany joined the committee in August 2016 and I recall that Brittany was actively interested in serving on the committee (specifically) and being involved in IPA (in general). I was impressed that Brittany drove all the way to Iowa City on a summer Saturday in 2017 when she could have Zoomed in to participate in that vital meeting about structural changes in IPA and ways to improve communication within the organization. She was always willing to help out with committee tasks and I really appreciated her thoughtful and insightful comments/ideas.

From Suzanne Zilber, Ph.D.: In my term as Membership Committee Chair, which started the summer of 2017, Brittany would volunteer to do something at every meeting. She did an interview and wrote an article in TIP on Natalie Sandbulte, Ph.D., and her successful strategies to recruit post-docs to Iowa. She later wrote an article on why it is good to be in practice in Iowa. Brittany was an excellent editor for letters that would go out to potential and current members to encourage joining or renewing membership. Brittany did a super job of getting an excel file created of new licensees in Iowa from Sept 1, 2016 to Sept 1, 2017 to facilitate our first mailing to new licensees. She engaged in warm outreaches with new members. She modernized the way the committee shared files. She made her fair share of calls and emails to encourage people to renew. She helped welcome people in the lobby at conferences and encouraged them to participate in our activities. She was an active contributor to the Private Practice Toolkit. She put in great collaborative effort to create a psychology career panel for undergraduates at Drake University.  

Brittany agreed to take on the Salon Coordinator role in January of 2018. She participated in creating the job description, policy and procedures, and she sent out a survey to gauge interest in salon topics and called for presenters. She coordinated with presenters for salons that covered a variety of topics to include ethics, legislation, diversity, and the EPPP2. She did a lot of work that went unseen when some salons did not end up occurring. She started to enhance her own education with yoga certification and took a graceful leave from the committee.

Brittany served simultaneously on the IPA Membership Committee and the Iowa Psychological Foundation Board. The following quotes are about her work for IPF. 

From Jim Thorpe, Ph.D.: “As a board member of the Iowa Psychological Foundation for 12 years and president for the past five years, I have had the honor and pleasure to serve with many board members, psychologists and non-psychologists alike. When vacancies on the board emerged two years ago, Dr. Phil Laughlin unreservedly nominated Dr. Neef for consideration. He correctly perceived that she would bring to the foundation both the energy and insight of an early career psychologist, a perspective greatly needed on the board. Dr. Neef immediately became active in board initiatives and quickly assumed a leadership role as IPF treasurer. Her keen observations, financial savvy and passion to advance the mission of the foundation has been impactful. Dr. Neef has demonstrated through action and attitude a level of professionalism clearly worthy of consideration of the IPA Early Career Psychologist Award. Should the award committee select Dr. Brittany Neef as the 2020 recipient, I believe it will have made a wise decision.

From Carlos Canales, Ph.D.: Over the past five years, Dr. Britany Neef has proven herself to be a quiet, supportive, reliable, and optimistic voice in our psychological organizations. Her presence, team spirit, and belief in many aspects of IPA and IPF have made her quiet personality hard to ignore, creating a strong sound in her contributions. In IPF, she participated as a board member for a year and then added treasury and bookkeeping responsibilities, working closely with Dr. Jim Thorpe and presenting bimonthly reports. Her willingness to serve is consistent, kind-hearted, and inspirational.

Dr. Neef had the following remarksThank you so much for the Michele Greiner ECP Award. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Dr. Greiner, but I'm aware she was special to many of you. I've heard she was vibrant, an excellent mentor, passionate about bringing ECPs to Iowa, and skilled at cultivating community amongst professionals in our field, so it is truly an honor to receive an award in her name. When Benge emailed me about this award, I was having a week to which many ECPs can likely relate. I had a newborn baby and was embarking on starting a practice with my business partner Dr. Mark Poeppe. I was being pulled in a million different directions and felt I wasn't doing much of anything well. The notification of this award came at the most opportune time, and I was grateful for the validation from my peers that I wasn't a complete failure! I have appreciated the support and community IPA and IPF have offered me since I moved back to the Des Moines area from Chicago in 2016. Thank you to Suzanne Zilber and my IPA colleagues for granting me this award, and congratulations to the other awardees!

Dr. Nicole Holmberg presented the 2021 IPA Service Award to Mr. Maxwell Mowitz:

It is my honor to talk to you today about Max Mowitz. Max is a native Iowan who has dedicated his professional and personal life to the pursuit of social justice and advocacy for LGBTQ Iowans and others in need of supportive services. Though he is early in his career, he has an impressive record of trauma-informed, intersectional service that aligns with IPA's value of multicultural awareness and commitment to upholding our ethical principles of beneficence, justice, and respect for people's rights and dignity.

Max's various professional roles illustrate his core value of service, his passion for social justice and diversity work, as well as promoting the wellbeing of his community. He currently serves as the Program Director for One Iowa, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving LGBTQ Iowans by advocating for equality and inclusion through education, increasing healthcare access, and improving workplace culture. As Program Director, he is responsible for the development and oversight of One Iowa programming, including the Central and Eastern Iowa LGBTQ Health and Wellness Conferences, Workplace Culture Summits, the LGBTQ Leadership Institute, and state-wide Inclusivity Trainings. He ensures that an intersectional approach to diversity is woven into all aspects of program curricula. Under Max's direction, these programs have educated hundreds of Iowa’s providers, employers, and community members on key issues impacting the LGBTQ community, as well as how to promote equality and inclusivity in their respective professional and personal spaces. 

Prior to joining One Iowa in 2019, Max worked for several years as the Volunteer and Office Coordinator at the Young Women's Resource Center, a transgender-inclusive non-profit organization in Des Moines working to promote the health and wellbeing of girls and women. There he was responsible for interviewing, onboarding, training, and monitoring 250+ volunteers. He also facilitated the Trauma Response Team, which was charged with implementing trauma-informed and sanctuary model support practices.  

In addition to his professional advocacy efforts, Max is also generous with his personal time and has a long history of volunteer work and community engagement. During his time with Polk County Crisis and Advocacy Services (2016-2019), he was the only volunteer trained to perform all the organization's services. He worked to achieve optimal outcomes for sexual assault survivors by responding to hospital calls, working with sexual assault nurse examiners and hospital staff, and educating survivors on their rights and options. He also contributed to Take Back the Night events and police force trainings. Furthermore, he has offered his experience in and knowledge of volunteer organizing through his service on the program committee for Volunteer Coordinators of Central Iowa. 

Max is a natural leader but that has not stopped him from seeking opportunities to further develop his leadership skills to better serve his community. He was a member of the inaugural cohort (2018) of the One Iowa LGBTQ Leadership Institute, one of the programs currently under his direction. He was also selected to be a 2021 New Leaders Council Institute Fellow. The New Leaders Council Institute is a competitive national six-month program that will help him further hone his leadership skills to help him achieve his service goals. He has a clear vision of what he intends to achieve, including launching a comprehensive, sliding-scale doula practice and establishing a mutual aid fund to provide micro grants to with help with gender transition expenses.  

Max’s professional and personal community involvement clearly reflects his core value of serving others. He is enhancing the multicultural awareness of Iowans, ceaselessly advocating for social justice and inclusion, and persistently working to protect the rights and dignity of LGBTQ Iowans. For these reasons, he is more than worthy to receive the IPA Service Award. 

It was my pleasure to recommend Max for this award, and it is my privilege to present him with it today. Max, thank you.

Max accepted his award and shared his remarks: Thank you so much for honoring me with this award. I want to recognize that I am receiving this award on stolen Lakota, Dakota, Mesqwaki, and Ioway peoples. We must acknowledge the stolen land that we stand on through land declarations like this, in addition to connecting with organizations that focus on Native/Indigenous liberation, such as the Great Plans Action Society, because Native and Indigenous liberation is connected to all liberation.

This award means so much to me because one of my foundational values is to live my life in service to others in everything that I do. As I move forward in my career, I bring the values of service and intersectionality into the work I do at One Iowa and beyond. At One Iowa, my work focuses on the liberation of all LGBTQ individuals across the state, focusing on the areas of healthcare access, workplace culture, and leadership development. In my work beyond One Iowa, I am a gender-affirmation doula, supporting Trans and Nonbinary people as they come out and transition socially and medically. I am on the path to full-spectrum birth and abortion doula certification, allowing me to provide a wide array of doula services to LGBTQ Iowans. It is in this work that I turn to my value of service to reflect on the best ways to serve my community. As I move forward with this work, I will be launching a doula service so that more people are aware of and can benefit from the work that I do. I am so excited to keep working in service to others with the values of abolition, intersectionality, and community care as my guides.

Thank you again for the incredible honor. I hope that you take time today to reflect on the ways that you can actively give up your power and privilege to dismantle systems of oppression, and challenge yourself in ways that make you uncomfortable. What are you doing to uplift those of marginalized identities? How are you engaging with current work around racial justice?  These are questions we can ask to continually be in service to others every day.

Dr. Benge Tallman concluded the awards ceremony with presentation of the 2021 IPA Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award to Dr. Warren Phillips:
I am delighted to honor my friend and esteemed colleague Dr. Warren Phillips as the 2021 Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award recipient.

I am now going to read the nomination letter written by Dr. Keffala, Dr. Keedy, and Myself.

Dear Executive Council of the Iowa Psychological Association,

The Presidential Triad of the Iowa Psychological Association (IPA) is pleased to nominate Dr. Warren Phillips for the 2021 Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award. Dr. Phillips has provided outstanding service to IPA for many years and he was, in fact, awarded the Meritorious Achievement Award in 2014 for his significant professional contributions. Since that time, he has continued dedicated service to the association, including serving as President Elect, President, and Past President, as well as volunteering to serve as co-chair of our Public Education Committee as our state experienced unprecedented hardship related to COVID-19. His exceptional advocacy work over the past 1.5 years, however, sets him apart as an ideal candidate for the 2021 Meritorious Achievement Award and notably, as the first IPA member who would receive this award a second time.

For the past 1.5 years Dr. Phillips has spearheaded efforts to advocate for Iowa psychologists regarding professional issues essential to the practice of psychology. In response to concerns expressed by Iowa psychologists, he assembled a collaborative and broad-ranging group of professionals to address unfair actions by the largest health insurance company in the state of Iowa. Specifically, Dr. Phillips worked with a coalition of Iowa psychologists, APA attorneys, APA leadership, Iowa state lawmakers, and other Iowa mental health organizations to address a series of highly inappropriate and harmful actions in which Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield targeted many mental health providers in the state of Iowa. The included bullet-point list highlights his deliberate and ultimately successful efforts.

Dr. Phillips’ diligent work with colleagues from IPA and the American Psychological Association (APA) resulted in a series of direct communications with Wellmark, who ultimately rescinded their efforts to claim their unreasonable clawbacks, which were based on inaccurate audit findings. Dr. Phillips’ advocacy efforts continue, as ever-changing tactics persist to undermine Iowa psychologists’ efforts to provide optimal mental health care to the citizens of Iowa. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Phillips has demonstrated unwavering passion and commitment to advocate for psychologists and Iowans. His tireless perseverance over the past 1.5 years on behalf of Iowans is unparalleled. His leadership, hard work, and vision directly contributed to the clawbacks being rescinded.

Dr. Phillips has compassionately engaged in difficult discussions during this process, receiving anxious phone calls and emails by IPA members as their livelihood and practices were being threatened. He has flawlessly navigated frustrating conversations with Wellmark. Throughout, Dr. Phillips has maintained a sense of equanimity and quiet strength. He has expertly balanced his passion about this issue with calm, articulate, and curious attention, remaining open and flexible. He has provided a tremendous example of how a psychologist most effectively traverses difficulty while maintaining a reassuring presence. 

Dr. Phillips has worked tirelessly to address a series of highly inappropriate and harmful actions by Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield toward many mental health providers in the state of Iowa. He has organized unique responses and broad communication to affected entities regarding each of the following unfair practices:

  • Wellmark withholding payments for several months while switching to a new claims payment system
  • Wellmark arbitrarily deciding, without notice, that group therapy would not be paid at the 100% rate for telehealth services like other forms of therapy during a period of time in which they had previously agreed to pay at 100% 
  • Wellmark conducting a series of very severe, inaccurate, and unfair audits of psychologists around the state in an attempt to clawback large sums of money, including a payment of more than $100,000.00 from one practice in Iowa City, for using certain acceptable and previously allowed CPT codes
  • After the results of the initial audit was rescinded, Wellmark conducted a second series of audits claiming that nearly the exact same sum of money was owed by the same psychologists engaged in the first series of audits, based on supposed documentation errors. This audit and attempted clawback was also shown to be severe, inaccurate, and unfair, resulting in Wellmark again rescinding. 
  • Wellmark then pushed out a required contract amendment with all providers in their network forcing arbitration in lieu of a class action lawsuit by providers in dispute with Wellmark. The only recourse providers have under this amendment is to refuse to agree, thus ending their in-network status by the end of the year and ultimately decreasing the network of providers available to see Iowans insured by Wellmark.

Dr. Phillips continues to move forward, leading the effort with IPA leadership, Iowa psychologists, APA counsel, other mental health professionals, and lawmakers to address these concerns for psychologists practicing in Iowa and the Iowans whom they serve. Exemplary actions taken by Dr. Phillips include:

  • Fielding phone calls, emails, and letters from psychologists regarding attempted clawbacks by the largest health insurance company in the state of Iowa, Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield
  • Gathering IPA leadership to consult on this issue and to plan steps forward
  • Initiating difficult communication with Wellmark outlining concerns by Iowa psychologists
  • Seeking counsel from APA and working closely with APA attorneys to write letters and communicate concerns with Wellmark
  • Initiating conversation with other Iowa mental health organizations to determine if and how this effort was affecting their members, and to invite unified response
  • Consulting with Iowa state lawmakers to express concerns and to explore potential impact on the state of Iowa as a result of the aggressive actions by Wellmark on the citizens of Iowa
  • Seeking professional input to understand the potential legal implications of Wellmark’s actions
  • Communicating frequently and clearly with IPA leadership and members about progress
  • Engaging in direct inducement of Wellmark to rescind their unfounded clawback claims
  • Leading the effort with IPA psychologists and APA counsel as, in response to the previous advocacy efforts, Wellmark created a forced arbitration amendment to their provider contracts
  • Collaborating with Dr. Jared Skillings and Mr. Alan Nessler to write a letter to Wellmark BCBS leaders that was highlighted in a post on the APA Services website [American Psychological Association. (2020, August 13). APA stops abusive insurance recoupment demands over $100,000. http://www.apaservices.org/practice/legal/managed/insurance-recoupment-demands]

Dr. Phillips has exquisitely represented IPA and the profession of psychology as he worked with IPA leadership and members, APA counsel, APA leadership, and legislative leaders across Iowa to advocate for the livelihood of Iowa psychologists. In addition to protecting access to the mental health care for the citizens of Iowa, Dr. Phillips set a precedent in demanding mental health parity from a powerful insurance company, ultimately promoting the livelihood of psychologists at a national level. It is for these reasons, and many more, that we offer our nomination of Dr. Warren Phillips for the well-deserved 2021 Phil Laughlin Meritorious Achievement Award.

 

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Valerie Keffala - Monday, April 19, 2021
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Congratulations to you all! Thank you for your service to IPA! Valerie

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