The Future Directions Forum: Living a Balanced Academic Life On Wascana Lake at Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

Learning how to do great science requires a toolbox of skills. Skills for effectively communicating science. To secure funding for scientific work. To identify where and when job opportunities arise. To get the offers to start your first job and build the record to keep that job. No one takes a class to acquire this toolbox, who has the time? Yet, we still need these tools, so where do we find them? We launched the Future Directions Forum to help you build your scientific toolbox. At the Forum, we dedicate a full day to offering professional development workshops, as well as small group and one-on-one expert consultations on all aspects of academic work. In keeping with our focus on the future of science, we also dedicate time to learning about innovative areas of mental health research, based on featured content from a leading mental health journal, the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP). In particular, thought leaders write articles for JCCAP’s Future Directions series, and these scholars devote their careers to topics as diverse as health disparities, implementation science, neuroscience, sleep, stigma, and suicide. As such, at the Forum we cover research relevant to anyone allied with disciplines for which its scholars share interests in mental health, including Counseling, Education, Human Development, Neuroscience, Nursing, Pediatrics, Psychology, Psychiatry, Public Health and Policy, Social Work, and Sociology. Yet, learning new skills and learning about the future of science only gets you so far. Some of you need a space to showcase those skills and what you have to offer. Many of you are looking to apply these skills to your ongoing work. Thus, a key element of the Forum is that it raises the public awareness of its attendees and provides them with mentoring on taking their work to the next level. Our Forum Science Social features poster presentations rendered in an all-digital environment, and we leverage the small, intimate atmosphere of the meeting for networking opportunities between presenters and the world-class speakers we invite to the Forum. We also leverage this atmosphere for our Talks-to-Tales Series, wherein attendees deliver talks in an innovative setting. The talk serves as a vehicle for receiving mentoring on how to translate research findings into scholarly products, by leveraging the power of narrative structure and principles of science communication.

An academic’s toolbox of skills is not limited to those tools that facilitate producing impactful work. These tools must also help you address a perennial challenge with working in academic settings. In particular, to lead a healthy, balanced academic life, we at the Forum are mindful of the need to disengage from your work on a regular basis, in an effort to reduce the effects of job-related stressors as well as the risk of burnout. However, how often do we have a platform for learning strategies to lead a balanced academic life? How do we stay productive in our work and at the same time, stay human and find time to unwind? In an effort to begin building these resources, our theme for this year―Living a Balanced Academic Life―inspired us to build programming that literally strikes a balance between academic skills and skills for balancing work and life. We intentionally recruited members of our Professional Development Team who not only can serve as effective mentors on a host of aspects of academic work, but also have the capacity to consult on making time for life outside of work. Our programming includes activities for both work and life, and we intentionally built a programming schedule that allocates “work programming” for later in the day, to give attendees the morning for time to themselves, as well as copious amounts of space on the schedule for “life programming.” The result: An exciting suite of programming designed to flow at a pace that you find manageable, so that you leave the Forum inspired, invigorated, and inclined to apply what you learned!

Visit Our Website for an Extended Description of Our 2023 Programming:
https://jccapfuturedirectionsforum.weebly.com/2023-programming.html

Full text

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP)
Future Directions Forum (July 27th-July 29th, 2023, Regina, SK, Canada)
The Future Directions Forum: Living a Balanced Academic Life
On Wascana Lake at Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Overview of Our Programming
Learning how to do great science requires a toolbox of skills. Skills for effectively communicating science. To
secure funding for scientific work. To identify where and when job opportunities arise. To get the offers to start
your first job and build the record to keep that job. No one takes a class to acquire this toolbox, who has the
time? Yet, we still need these tools, so where do we find them? We launched the Future Directions Forum to
help you build your scientific toolbox. At the Forum, we dedicate a full day to offering professional
development workshops, as well as small group and one-on-one expert consultations on all aspects of academic
work. In keeping with our focus on the future of science, we also dedicate time to learning about innovative
areas of mental health research, based on featured content from a leading mental health journal, the Journal of
Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP). In particular, thought leaders write articles for JCCAP’s
Future Directions series, and these scholars devote their careers to topics as diverse as health disparities,
implementation science, neuroscience, sleep, stigma, and suicide. As such, at the Forum we cover research
relevant to anyone allied with disciplines for which its scholars share interests in mental health, including
Counseling, Education, Human Development, Neuroscience, Nursing, Pediatrics, Psychology, Psychiatry,
Public Health and Policy, Social Work, and Sociology. Yet, learning new skills and learning about the future of
science only gets you so far. Some of you need a space to showcase those skills and what you have to offer.
Many of you are looking to apply these skills to your ongoing work. Thus, a key element of the Forum is that it
raises the public awareness of its attendees and provides them with mentoring on taking their work to the next
level. Our Forum Science Social features poster presentations rendered in an all-digital environment, and we
leverage the small, intimate atmosphere of the meeting for networking opportunities between presenters and the
world-class speakers we invite to the Forum. We also leverage this atmosphere for our Talks-to-Tales Series,
wherein attendees deliver talks in an innovative setting. The talk serves as a vehicle for receiving mentoring on
how to translate research findings into scholarly products, by leveraging the power of narrative structure and
principles of science communication.
Overview of Our Theme for 2023: Living a Balanced Academic Life
An academic’s toolbox of skills is not limited to those tools that facilitate producing impactful work. These
tools must also help you address a perennial challenge with working in academic settings. In particular, to lead a
healthy, balanced academic life, we at the Forum are mindful of the need to disengage from your work on a
regular basis, in an effort to reduce the effects of job-related stressors as well as the risk of burnout. However,
how often do we have a platform for learning strategies to lead a balanced academic life? How do we stay
productive in our work and at the same time, stay human and find time to unwind? In an effort to begin building
these resources, our theme for this year―Living a Balanced Academic Life―inspired us to build programming
that literally strikes a balance between academic skills and skills for balancing work and life. We intentionally
recruited members of our Professional Development Team who not only can serve as effective mentors on a
host of aspects of academic work, but also have the capacity to consult on making time for life outside of work.
Our programming includes activities for both work and life, and we intentionally built a programming schedule
that allocates “work programming” for later in the day, to give attendees the morning for time to themselves, as
well as copious amounts of space on the schedule for “life programming.” The result: An exciting suite of
programming designed to flow at a pace that you find manageable, so that you leave the Forum inspired,
invigorated, and inclined to apply what you learned!
Visit Our Website for an Extended Description of Our 2023 Programming:
https://jccapfuturedirectionsforum.weebly.com/2023-programming.html

The Future Directions Forum achieves its goals with seven kinds of programming, with a balanced
emphasis on “work programming” and “life programming”:
(1) Professional development workshops about all elements of academic work and life outside of work;
(2) Invited addresses by authors of Future Directions articles highlighting innovate research areas;
(3) Personalized consultations with seasoned professionals about your own work, from ongoing projects,
manuscripts, and grant applications to graduate school applications;
(4) New for 2023! The Talks-to-Tales Series provides attendees with an innovative format for receiving
mentorship on how to apply narrative structure to works-in-progress.
(5) The Forum Science Social program showcases the latest research from early career scientists;
(6) The Future Directions Launch Award honors early career scientists who conduct innovative research
and have demonstrated they are prepared to lead an independent research career; and
(7) The Future Directions Fellows Program offers travel support and other professional development
opportunities to promising attendees presenting research at the Forum.
Description of 2023 Forum Activities
Professional Development Training
Each year, the Future Directions Forum offers a full day of professional development training, delivered by an
engaging and expert-laden Professional Development Team. This team delivers advice and knowledge to
attendees via an innovative array of practical workshops, personalized small-group and one-on-one
consultations, and thought-provoking discussions focused on sharing ideas for new research.
Attendees benefit from immersive exposure to multiple professional development opportunities:
(1) 75-Minute Workshops cover myriad topics of interest to attendees at various career stages and include
topics relevant to publishing, grants, mentoring, networking, and jobs.
(2) We offer attendees the opportunity to form small-group meetings with members of our team that we call
Pocket Lab. Members of our Professional Development Team serve as “pocket PI’s” who consult with
small groups of 3 “mentees” on current projects. Each Pocket Lab simulates the lab meetings attendees
have back home, and occur on the same time scale as the workshops (i.e., 75 minutes with each attendee
getting 25 minutes to discuss their project and receive feedback).
(3) We offer attendees the chance to schedule one-on-one meetings with members of our team that we call
Editor’s Corner, where they receive feedback on a manuscript they seek to publish.
(4) In line with our 2023 theme, we will create variants of these formats for our “life programming.”
Professional Development Team
Kathryn Fox (University of Denver)
Chardée Galán (University of Southern California)
Armando Piña (Arizona State University)
Maggi Price (Boston College)
Sarah Racz (University of Maryland at College Park)
Judith Scott (Boston University)
Elizabeth Talbott (William & Mary)
Chair: Andres De Los Reyes (University of Maryland at College Park)
Talks-to-Tales Series: Spurring Innovation in Translating Research Findings to Scholarly Products
Using tried and true methods for learning narrative structure and applying it to academic work, at the Forum we have
created several workshops focused on applying this structure to various forms of academic work
(https://bit.ly/JCCAPForumYouTube). Inspired by these workshops, we developed the Talks-to-Tales Series.
The goal of this series is to provide attendees with an innovative format for receiving mentorship on how to
apply narrative structure to works-in-progress. Presenters learn how to apply frameworks developed by Olson
(2015) and De Los Reyes (2020) to specific work products (i.e., manuscript, grant application, job talk, research
statement for tenure dossier), based on research described in a short presentation delivered at the Forum. Each
presenter will deliver a talk within a three-phase sequence consisting of: (a) a short, 5-10 minute presentation of
the work, (b) an “elevator pitch” (i.e., 30-second) description of what they want to produce from the work, and
(c) a 15-20 minute period where a moderator with expertise on narrative structure works with the audience to

“crowdsource” advice on how to optimize the narrative structure or storytelling elements of the work. We
intentionally developed the Talks-to-Tales Series in a way that would ensure that presenters traverse career
stages. By doing so, we also sought to create a dynamic atmosphere wherein presenters not only receive
mentoring and guidance about their own work, but also receive opportunities to mentor colleagues who are also
delivering presentations within the Talks-to-Tales Series.
Poster Presentations: Celebrating Promising Research in Mental Health
Before the Forum, early career scientists submit abstracts of their research, and at the Forum, they make poster
presentations of this research during a catered social event. In advance of the Forum, we prompt presenters via email
to upload a single-slide Powerpoint file of their presentation. We integrate these files into our own digital system to
have them ready to present during the Forum Science Social. We render these poster presentations in a 100% digital
environment, saving presenters both time and money. Further, this event provides early career scientists with
opportunities for “one-on-one” time with the internationally recognized scientists who serve as invited speakers
during the Forum. We included below testimonials from poster presenters at our last in-person Forum (2019):
Testimonials from Forum Science Social Presenters at Our Last In-Person Future Directions Forum (2019).
“Electronic poster format was super easy, didn’t
have to worry about the tube”
“I really like the live tweet/Facebook so I can share my
research with other friends on social media.”
“I liked that the sessions were short and that not
many people presented at once so you could
actually see all the posters and talk to the authors”
“[T]he electronic format of the posters…provided an
opportunity to get more out of the poster sessions, both as the
presenter and as a member of the audience.”
Future Directions Launch Award
Before the Forum, a committee of internationally recognized scientists selects early career scientists who are
presenting their research at the Forum to receive the Future Directions Launch Award. The Future Directions Launch
Award serves as a capstone to the academic training of its recipients—a signal to the field and larger public that they
are ready to enter academia and begin independent research careers. During an award ceremony at the Forum,
awardees give TED Talk-style presentations about their work. Learn more about the previous winners of the Future
Directions Launch Award here: https://jccapfuturedirectionsforum.weebly.com/award-recipients.html.
Showcasing JCCAP’s Future Directions Content
Addresses: At each Forum, authors of recently published Future Directions articles in JCCAP give addresses
on the “next steps” of scientific research in their area of expertise. You can find a listing of our 2023 addresses below:
Future Directions Addresses
George DuPaul (Lehigh University): ADHD
Evan Kleiman (Rutgers University): Suicide
Yo Jackson (Penn State University): Child Maltreatment
Meghan Miller (University of California at Davis): Autism
Post-Address Breakout Discussions: Following each Future Directions Address, breakout discussions serve
as “brainstorming sessions” for new science that builds on research covered in the address. Attendees choose from
one of several breakout discussions led by members of the Professional Development Team with expertise in the
Future Directions content. In advance of the Forum, breakout discussion leaders identify publically available
resources for new research (e.g., public datasets, funding announcements). In turn, these breakout discussions yield
“deliverables” in that attendees receive guidance on developing research aims, and strategies for securing data or
funding to test these aims. This format sparks “omnidirectional” discussions among breakout leaders and attendees
about new science linked to the addresses.
Attendee Evaluations
Survey responses from attendees at our last in-person Forum (2019) indicated that it was a success! 100% of
our survey respondents said “yes” to whether they would recommend to their colleagues that they attend
the Forum! Testimonials appear on the next page.

Testimonials from In-Person Attendees of the 2019 Future Directions Forum.
“The Future Directions Forum is always full of
incredibly helpful and insightful talks. I’ve never
been to a better conference!”
“The Forum is an excellent opportunity for early career
scholars to interact with senior faculty and receive
critical career advice in a comfortable environment.”
“Progress in our field is facilitated by building on
existing work and ‘standing on the shoulders of
giants.’ It’s helpful that the prominent scholars
involved with the FDF are really friendly giants who
are willing to hoist up the next generation of
researchers. This type of event is so needed and so
very appreciated!”
“I would highly recommend this conference to graduate
students at all stages of their program! It is designed to
really provide you with tangible and relevant skills that
you can use and the smaller environment allowed
attendees to meet and network with other students and
faculty in meaningful ways.”
“The format provides many opportunities to chat and
build relationships with presenters. I highly
recommend this conference!”
“The intimate environment helped me build way more
connections with colleagues than I have been able to at
larger conferences.”
“The Future Directions Forum is an amazing
opportunity for both young and experienced
researchers. Participants are provided the opportunity
to work with experienced researchers in both small
group and individual settings.”
“I loved the pocket labs this year. Having new eyes on
my dissertation project from researchers unfamiliar with
my domain of study generated new ideas and
approaches to my research questions.”
“Great, intimate conference where you can truly
network with established and current researchers in
the field!”
“This was an impressive event which helped give me
valuable insights into my future career, and I will
definitely be coming back again next year!”
“I attended the Future Directions Forum the summer
before beginning my doctoral program in clinical
psychology, and I am so glad I did. The practical tips
I received — on topics ranging from grant
preparation to developing a research program — will
be absolutely invaluable and enable me to hit the
ground running.”
“The JCCAP FDF is, by far, my favorite conference.
The professional development day is catered to students
in training at all levels and provides you with so many
didactics, discussions, and advice that you never receive
in graduate school….I will continue to come to JCCAP
FDF until I graduate. Everyone has something to gain
from this outstanding conference.”
“Excellent opportunity for junior scholars to present
their work, engage with the ideas of more established
scientists and practitioners, and gain new insight and
skills for their development.”
“Individualized sessions ensured that attendees gained
focused support on their own research projects. The
format provides many opportunities to chat and build
relationships with presenters.”
“[W]onderful professional development training on
topics that are often not addressed (but should be)
during graduate school….I met a number of
colleagues with shared interests and discussed
potential collaborations for the future.”
“I thought the Future Directions Forum was an
incredible first conference for me. As someone who is
still contemplating pursuing a PhD in clinical
psychology this program provided very useful
information and tools to help make that decision easier.”
“The Future Directions Forum is an incredible venue
for emerging scholars who want to learn more about
skills required to succeed in graduate school and
beyond that you often don't receive instruction. The
talks are given by leaders in the field, and the
atmosphere is very congenial!”
“JCCAP's Future Directions Forum provided incredible
opportunities for networking, meeting with well-known
experts in the field, and interacting with fellow
students/research assistants who are also new to
academia and research.”
“The break out discussion sessions following talks
provided a nice opportunity to think about and
debrief lectures with other audience members.”
“This experience filled some of the gaps in my graduate
training and provided me with invaluable
recommendations for my career development.”

Location of the 2023 Forum
The next Forum will be held on the scenic College Avenue Campus of the University of Regina
(https://www.uregina.ca/contact/maps-directions/college-ave.html), on July 27th through July 29th, 2023. The
venue facilities include a state-of-the-art performance hall (https://darkehall.ca/), and are centrally located in
Downtown Regina, steps from the inspiration for this year’s Living a Balanced Academic Life theme, Wascana
Lake: https://wascana.ca/things-to-see-and-do/wascana-lake.
Further Information
Please see our online resources or contact us at jccapfdf@gmail.com with any other questions you may have:
1. Registration Portal: Scheduled for Release in Early 2023
2. Abstract Submission Portal: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumAbstractPortal2023
3. Call for Abstracts
a. Poster Presentations: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumCallforPosters2023
b. Talks-to-Tales Series: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumCallforTalks2023
4. Abstract Templates
a. Poster Presentations: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumPosterAbstract2023
b. Talks-to-Tales Series: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumTalkAbstract2023
5. Call for Future Directions Launch Award: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumAward2023
6. Call for Future Directions Fellows Program: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumFellows2023
7. Frequently Asked Questions: http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumFAQs2023
8. Example of Forum Activities from Our Last In-Person Meeting (2019):
http://bit.ly/JCCAPForumProgram2019
9. Main Website: http://www.jccapfuturedirectionsforum.com/
10. Twitter: https://twitter.com/JCCAP_Editor