The American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP) Committees, Editorial Boards, and Task Forces are the lifeblood of the organization linking the association with the attitudes and real world of its members. AAPP Committees ensure group participation in problem solving and provide a forum for the many interests within AAPP.

Go to the Opportunities Center to learn how to get involved.

You can review information on current Committee Charges and activities through the links provided below or by downloading the PDF version.

Ad Hoc Volunteer Opportunities: Throughout the year, the AAPP committees, leadership and membership identify issues of immediate need beyond the scope of our existing committee structure. Calls for ad hoc volunteers are issued related to specific initiatives such as white paper development and task force work with a specific goal and timeline.

Abstracts and Awards Council: The Abstracts and Awards Council oversees the scientific poster sessions and the Research and Practice Awards at the AAPP Annual Meeting each year. The poster sessions provide a unique opportunity for networking, the promotion of scholarly activity, and the dissemination of the latest psychiatric pharmacotherapeutic research findings. The council leads the abstract peer review process and works to continually improve the poster session experience. (Meets: Virtually 2 hours per year and in-person at the Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: ~25 h/y, mostly in Jan/Feb)

Commission on Innovation and Advancement: The Commission on Innovation and Advancement (CIA) works to identify how the practice of psychiatric pharmacy is evolving. By casting a vision of where the specialty is headed, the Commission focuses resources on the most urgent practice innovations and advancements. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 4 hours per month and 50 hours over course of the year)

Community Leaders Council: The Community Leaders Council consists of the members who have been identified as leaders within each existing AAPP Community. The council exists to formalize the role of the community leader, to provide consistency between the communities, to share ideas between leaders, and to promote commitment to the goals of the community initiative.

CPD Committee: The Continuing Professional Development Committee (CPD) serves as the committee considering trends in professional development, forecasting future training needs, and recommending future direction for AAPP’s CE enterprise. This committee ultimately supports the career development and continuing professional education needs of members by advising and informing AAPP’s educational mission, goals, and policies. This ten to twelve-member invitation-only committee considers needs analyses, Board requests, DEI principles, and other factors to ensure continuing professional education programming is innovative, effective, of superior quality, and prepares psychiatric pharmacists for current and future practice (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly, Time Commitment: Average of 2-3 hours per month and 35 hours over course of the year). 

DEI Committee: Within AAPP, DEI is seen as a key driver for the organization and the profession. DEI initiatives are intended to ensure that the psychiatric pharmacy specialty, from students to BCPPs, is representative of the patients they serve. In the process, we anticipate that the organization will be more accessible and welcoming to diverse members, and their inclusion will make the organization more effective. The DEI Committee is charged with providing guidance and direction to the association in the area of DEI. Additionally, they assist with identifying board and leadership training needs and making recommendations accordingly. Lastly, they evaluate the demographic make-up of the membership and recommend educational products and services to benefit the members and ultimately the patients members serve. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 3 hours per month and 35 hours over course of the year)

Government Affairs Committee: This committee is responsible for providing advice and supporting justifications on policy activities as broad representatives of the membership. The committee will work to recommend organizational policy positions that benefit  members and to ensure advocacy efforts do not disadvantage or harm any particular subgroups in the membership. The committee will evaluate priorities for the upcoming year and create a policy agenda that will be put forward for board approval and will work with government affairs consultants to evaluate opportunities to influence the policymaking process ensuring activities are reflective of and benefitting the membership. (Meets: Virtually monthly and occasionally in-person at Annual Meeting, Participates In: Annual virtual Hill visits as available, Time Commitment: Average of 2 hours per month and 30-35 hours over course of the year)

Interprofessional Advisory Council: The Interprofessional Advisory Council helps to identify opportunities for and obstacles to the integration of psychiatric pharmacists to provide comprehensive medication management as part of the treatment team.

Medication Fact Sheet Editorial Board: The Medication Fact Sheet Editorial Board authors and revises the medication fact sheets that appear on the NAMI website. (Meets: Virtually As Needed but Infrequently, Monthly Commitment: Varies)

Mental Health Clinician Editorial Board: The Mental Health Clinician Editorial Board creates and promotes the Mental Health Clinician. The MHC is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed, PubMed-indexed electronic journal focused on presenting timely and relevant information for mental health care professionals.(Meets: Virtually once per year and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 3 hours per month and 35 hours over course of the year)

Nominations Council: The Board appoints a Nominating Council to nominate candidates for vacating officer positions on the AAPP Board of Directors and for the Judith J. Saklad Memorial Award. The Nominating Committee consists of the three most immediate past presidents and two senior members of AAPP as approved by the Board of Directors. (Meets: Virtually monthly between July-September, Time Commitment: 20-25 hours)

Past Presidents Advisory Board: Consisting of Past Presidents of CPNP, this council is intended to provide strategic leadership and ideas to CPNP.

Professional Affairs Committee: The Professional Affairs Committee will showcase psychiatric pharmacists' clinical practices in a practice-advancement effort to demonstrate the value of psychiatric pharmacists in team-based healthcare. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 3 hours per month and 35 hours over course of the year)

Program Committee: The Program Committee designs your AAPP Annual Meeting. Their responsibilities include speaker selection and communication, objectives design, review of programming materials, adherence to accreditation standards, and innovative programming implementation and evaluation. (Meets: Virtually 1 time per month and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 2-4 hours per month and 35 hours over course of the year, heaviest workload is in the months of May through June and February through April).

Psychopharmacology Pearls Editorial Board: The Editorial Board is responsible for developing this annual recertification product which consists of up to five clinical review articles focused on single disorders, or on one or more distinct aspects of a single psychiatric, neurologic, or substance use disorder. Monographs are authored by leading experts in the field and hosted in AAPP’s peer-reviewed journal, The Mental Health Clinician (MHC). Editor responsibilities include author and topic selection, author communication, product design, monograph editing, test question review to ensure validity and reliability, and program implementation and evaluation (Meets: Virtually 3-4 times per year, Time Commitment: Average of 1-2 hours per month and 20 hours over course of the year, BCPP required).

Public Education Committee: The Public Education Committee is charged with supporting AAPP's consumer advocacy partnerships. Current ongoing activities include providing education at the NAMI Annual Meeting and providing information and resources for AAPP members to enable involvement in consumer advocacy organizations at the local level. (Meets: Virtually Every Other Month, 1 hour, Monthly Commitment: 2 Hours)

Recertification Editorial Board: The Recertification Editorial Board is responsible for developing and implementing standards for AAPP’s approved BCPP recertification programming via the BCPP Recertification Live and Literature Analysis programming. Their responsibilities include speaker selection and communication, objectives design, curriculum review, test question review to ensure validity and reliability, and programming implementation and evaluation. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 3-4 hours per month and 40 hours over course of the year, BCPP required).

Resident and New Practitioner Committee: The Resident and New Practitioner Committee is responsible for representing and providing service to residents, fellows, new practitioners and residency directors. Some of the primary goals of this committee are to increase the visibility of the profession, recruit students into residencies in cooperation with the student committee, increase the number of residencies and provide membership value to residents, fellows, residency directors and new practitioners. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 2-3 hours per month or 25-30 hours approximately over course of the year)

Review Course Editorial Board: The Review Course Editorial Board is responsible for developing and implementing standards for AAPP's Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy Review Course. Their responsibilities include speaker selection and communication, objectives design, curriculum review, test question review to ensure validity and reliability, and programming implementation and evaluation. (Meets: Virtually 3-4 times per year, Time Commitment: Average of 4 hours per month and 50 hours over the course even-numbered years and 8 hours per month and 100 hours over the course of odd-numbered years, BCPP required).

Student Committee: The Student Committee focuses on recruiting and serving student members of AAPP with the goal of encouraging students to select psychiatric pharmacy as a career. The committee is responsible for student activities at the AAPP Annual Meeting, directing students to online psychiatric pharmacy resources, and overseeing AAPP collegiate chapters. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, assists with student track at Annual Meeting as Needed, Time Commitment: Average of 2-3 hours per month or 25-30 hours approximately over course of the year) 

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Committee: The Substance Use Disorder Committee is responsible for developing tools and educational resources for pharmacists. Additionally, the Committee assists the government affairs committee when information is needed to support comment letters or issue briefs related to regulatory or legislative actions or possible actions. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly and in-person at Annual Meeting, Time Commitment: Average of 2-3 hours per month or 25-30 hours approximately over course of the year) 

Systematic Literature Review Committee: The Systematic Literature Review Committee will catalogue published psychiatric pharmacy research with patient-level practice outcomes and use that information to support continued research and advocacy. (Meets: Virtually 1-hour monthly, Time Commitment: Average of 4 hours per month and 50 hours over course of the year)

Theory to Practice Case Editorial Board: The Theory to Practice Case Series Editorial Board is responsible for developing this case based BCPP recertification product. Their responsibilities include author/speaker selection and communication, product design, curriculum review, test question review to ensure validity and reliability, and programming implementation and evaluation. (Meets: Virtually 3-4 times per year, Time Commitment: Average of 2 hours per month and 25 hours over course of the year, BCPP required).

USP 800 Compliance Editorial Board: This Editorial Board is charged with monitoring USP Chapter 800 guidance, developing tools and resources to assist members in implementing an assessment of risk program, recommending other tools and resources of value in implementing USP 800, and disseminating information and resources to the membership through AAPP.