ACP Board of Directors Election

1. Only one vote per membership.

2. Voting is open to Candidate, Candidate Advanced, Candidate No Active Practice, Regular, Regular International, and Regular No Active Practice members.

3. Only current members can vote in the election. If your membership has lapsed or is awaiting payment, you are not eligible to vote. You can renew the membership and then vote. 

4. We are asking for your name and city so we can double-check eligible votes in accordance with state statute and nonprofit best practice guidelines.

Ballots must be completed no later than midnight on March 5, 2026

President & Secretary Nominees

President Nominee

 Felicia Powell-Williams, Ed.D., LPC-S, FABP
 It is with great pleasure to accept the nomination for President-  elect with Jim Bennett as Secretary-elect for the   Association for Child Psychoanalysis. I joined ACP immediately after completing my    candidacy. I was bright eyed   and excited about the various membership possibilities available. I was excited to meet other candidates and   psychoanalysts with diverse backgrounds, but also members who were just as enthusiastic about psychoanalytic   thinking as me. Since, I have served as Councilor two separate terms, 2022-2024 most recent. I have contributed to   many roles at ACP Annual meetings as presenter, discussant, panel participant, and break-out group leader. In 2024 I   was honored to be the Guest Child Analyst with the candidates committee, under the leadership of co-chairs James   Grabowski and Belinda Torres, in which I continue to contribute to the committee. Currently in private practice in   Houston, Texas, and graduate of the Center of Psychoanalytic Studies - Texas (CFPS), I serve as Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst, Co-chair of Child & Adolescent Training Program with Jim Bennett, and Past President of CFPS. As a member of APsA I have served multiple roles, Board of Directors; Governance Committee; Policy & Procedures; Chair of DPE Diversities Section. Along with being a Fellow of American Board of Psychoanalysis, I have made contribution to Psychoanalytic Study of the Child and other publications. I have been honored to hold board and committee positions with Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAn) and Alliance of Psychoanalytic Schools (APS).

Being a psychoanalytic thinker, I have agreed to this nomination recognizing the need to reach within and outside of our psychoanalytic communities with an expanding focus on the legacy of child psychoanalysis. ACP has taken a more inclusive stance of outreach with creating ongoing rich and welcoming educational contributions and psychoanalytic dialogue and training. We must remember ACP has a history of contributing psychoanalytic perspectives on national and international levels, including providing consultation and educational research & advocacy on recognizing the need of mental health needs of children & adolescents, parents and families. Such organizational practices can enhance the future of child psychoanalysis. It will be essential we courageously facilitate a climate that supports ongoing discussion of expanding focus on the legacy of child psychoanalysis through mentorship, especially with our candidates who are the future of psychoanalytic education and treatment within our community.

Secretary Nominee

 Jim Bennett, MD 

 I am honored to be nominated for Secretary-elect with Felecia Powell-Williams as President-elect for the Association for   Child Psychoanalysis. I have served as Councilor for the ACP - 2009-2012, current Chair of the AFAA Grants Committee   of the ACP   and am currently Chair of the Child Section of the APsaA Department of Psychoanalytic Education. I have   participated with Don   Rosenblitt and Nat Donson at ACP Annual Meeting panels discussing the diagnosis and   treatment  of Attention Deficit   Hyperactivity Disorder. I serve as Personal and Consulting Psychoanalyst at the Centers   where I trained in Child and   Adolescent Psychoanalysis at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies – Houston (Co-Chair,   Child Analysis Committee with   Felecia Powell-Williams) and Adult Psychoanalysis at the Dallas Psychoanalytic Center   (Past Chair, Education Committee),   and   am also Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry where I   went to medical school at University of Texas  Southwestern Medical Center. My wife, Sarah Rabb Bennett, Child,   Adolescent, and Adult Psychoanalyst - ACP member, and I provided pro-bono consultation to the Lumin Lindsley Park   and East Dallas Community Schools for many years. Lumin Lindsley Park Community School was the recipient of the APsaA Schools Committee Anna Freud Educational Achievement Award in 2010. There is much to be done to help integrate Child Psychoanalytic thinking with our colleagues in all allied fields. Our ACP community’s contributions to Children, Adolescents and their Families are great and I will endeavor to continue make available to the broader analytic community and general public.

President Nominee

 Dan Prezant, Ph.D. 
 Dan Prezant is the President of The American Psychoanalytic Association and a former Secretary of the Association for   Child Psychoanalysis. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst and a Child and Adolescent Supervising Analyst at the   New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NYPSI). He is in private practice with children, adolescents, adults,   parents, and couples in Manhattan.

 I am asking for your vote to be the ACP President-Elect because I want to give back to my ACP colleagues who have     given me so much. The pleasure of working with and learning from you as well as the rich clinical thinking and   presentations that are at the heart of the ACP continue to help me grow and thrive. I hope that we can continue to do the   work that inspires many of us to call the ACP our professional home.

Secretary Nominee

Christie Huddleston, MD

 Christie Huddleston M.D. is an adult, child and adolescent psychoanalyst in Philadelphia. She has recently retired   from private practice. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where   she  supervises residents and is Co--Coordinator for the Applied Psychoanalytic Curriculum for Child Fellows at   CHOP.  Dr. Huddleston is a Training and Supervising Analyst with the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia   (PCOP).   Currently she is Director of the Integrated Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic   Program at PCOP. Major interests include the intersection of development, conflict and trauma and technical   interventions that facilitate the opening of the play space. She has written a chapter on the “Developmental   Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse” and co-authored, with Edward Kohn and Adele Kaufman,  Analyzing Children:  Psychological Structure, Trauma, Development and Therapeutic Action

The Association for Child Psychoanalysis, although a relatively small psychoanalytic organization, has a clear mission and focus on child psychoanalysis which gives it an impact beyond its size. I value the mission of ACP and the members who are devoted to child work. As a member for a number of years, I have served multiple different capacities and would like to continue whatever I can to further child psychoanalysis through ACP.

Treasurer Nominee

 Thomas Barrett, Ph.D- Thomas Barrett, Ph.D is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Chicago.   Dr. Barrett is an adjunct Professor and past Department Chair of the PsyD Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at The   Chicago School of Professional Psychology and is an adjunct Professor at Chicago's Erikson Institute. Dr. Barrett   undertook post-graduate training in Infant Mental Health with Prof. Selma Fraiberg and completed child analytic training   through the Hanna Perkins Center in Cleveland in 1987. From 1990 until July of 2010, Dr. Barrett served as Hanna   Perkins Executive and Clinical Director and was a member of the Center's child psychoanalytic training Faculty. A   member   of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis since 1980, Dr. Barrett has served the organization as Counselor,   Secretary and Treasurer: presented the Marianne Kris in 2007; and has presented at workshops, to candidates, and at   the plenary session at annual meetings. Dr. Barrett is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association (certified in   Child/Adolescent Psychoanalysis); the International Psychoanalytic Association; the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis   (faculty and child/adolescent supervisor); and the Institute of the Carolinas (geographic rule child/adolescent supervisor);   the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute (adjunct faculty and geographic rule supervisor). He is a founding member and past   Vice President of the Alliance for Psychoanalytic Schools and is a board member and past Treasurer of the Margaret S.   Mahler Child Development Foundation. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, (including Division 39 - Psychoanalysis, and is Treasurer and Past President of its Section II - Childhood and Adolescence). 

I have volunteered to be involved with the ACP in the form of Board participation for almost all of the 40 years that I have been a member. I have always considered the ACP as my professional home. Serving on the Board has always brought with it the pleasure of working with the many members of the organization who I share that feeling.

Councilor Nominees

Herman Daldin, Ph.D - no information submitted

Dee Desnoyers, Ph.D - no information submitted

 Callie Emery, MD

 I have spent the last 17 years running my psychiatry private practice In Dallas, TX offering pediatric psychoanalysis,   consultation, psychodynamic psychotherapy, parent-child interaction training, pharmacogenomics, functional psychiatry   consultations, and psycho-pharmacologic management. My training as a child analyst through the Houston Center for   Psychoanalytic Studies has provided invaluable depth to the work I have the opportunity to do with children and their   families. I enjoy teaching with the CFPS Faculty.

 I am volunteering to serve as a Councilor for the ACP Board. I would be happy to represent my peers of the ACP in   taking part in voting on issues which come before the Board. I value my membership in ACP and the collegiality of this   organization. It would be my honor to volunteer for a more involved role.

Jacqueline Langley, Ph.D - no information submitted

 Deborah E. Lynn, MD

 I am the oldest child of three, a daughter of an immigrant girl from East End London, and a blue-collar factory working   man.  I am the first in my family to go to college. I am a Hoosier and graduated from the great Carmel High School in   Carmel, Indiana. I went on to graduate from the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University. My   training then proceeded from University of Chicago, where I completed my internship during the height of the AIDS crisis,   to University of Wisconsin in Madison for my psychiatric residency. I moved cross country for a Child and Adolescent   Psychiatry Fellowship at UCLA, then finally an added UCLA Research Fellowship. All throughout those years, I was   emersed in psychoanalysis and eventually graduated from The New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP) in LA. I am well   published in bench research, studying rats and monkeys and cells, but I have always been most interested in   psychoanalysis. I spent some years at UCLA trying to crack the code of federal funding to study personality development. I   am now in private practice and hold a faculty position at UCLA, a board position at NCP, a teaching position at Reiss Davis Child Development Center, and I am a co-founder of The Center for Authenticity. My greatest blessing are my two wonderful children, now in college. And I also have two dogs, two birds, and two turtles, and all have a very good origin story!

I have an abiding respect and love for our profession. The Association for Child Psychoanalysis is the guardian institution of deeply compassionate and highly rational understanding of children and development. As a board member of the ACP, I will build a mandate of ensuring that we remain steadfast and strong in our mission to keep our children safe and growing up unencumbered, healthy, and with an integrated personality. In my early career, I was engrossed in bench research with mice, rats, and monkeys as I was also in my early psychoanalytic training. I witnessed the unfortunate uncoupling of psychoanalysis from academic institutions. I watched as the field of child psychiatry became focused on the brain instead of the mind, connections of neurons and neurotransmitters instead of internal object connections. This prompted the resulting explosion of diagnoses of ADHD, Anxiety, OCD and other designations that have led an uneven press to medicate our children. This has overshadowed psychoanalysis for our children. We know this imbalance is not what it best. I would be honored to be a part of strengthening and guiding our ACP to be a strong and safe place to protect what we do know is best for children.

Kathleen O'Connor, MSW - no information submitted

Ballots must be completed no later than midnight on March 5, 2026

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