NASP Communiqué, Vol. 38, #4
Steven R. Shaw to Become Editor of School Psychology Forum
 By Jim Batts

NASP is pleased to announce that Dr. Steven R. Shaw has been appointed editor-elect of the School Psychology Forum. Ray Christner, the first and current editor, will mentor Steve during his “elect” year (2010), and Steve will assume editor duties in January 2011. The new editor-elect of the School Psychology Forum brings to this position 20 years of experience as a school psychologist practicing in schools, hospitals, independent practice, and universities in the United States.

These experiences include 7 years of administrative and budgeting experience as lead school psychologist with the Children’s Hospital in Greenville, SC. This breadth of experience as a practitioner, supervisor, and administrator provides him with a strong grounding and understanding of the issues and needs of clinical practice. In 2005, he changed careers to become a researcher and trainer of school psychologists at McGill University (recently ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as the #12 ranked research university in the world). He has published over 100 scholarly papers and presented over 160 papers, posters, and workshops on the topics of pediatric psychology, special education, and school psychology.

Steve’s editorial experiences include being coeditor of the Pediatric School Psychology column (2003–present) and contributing editor (2001–present) for Communiqué. He is currently working on the latest edition of the popular NASP publication, Helping Children at Home and School, as the junior editor with Andrea Canter and Leslie Paige. He is on the editorial advisory board of School Psychology Forum, Journal of Applied School Psychology, and Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research. Steve has served as an ad hoc reviewer for several journals over the years including the Journal of Child Health Care, Journal of School Health, The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mental Health and Social Justice, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities Research, and Journal of Applied School Psychology— to name a few.

During his selection interview, Steve said that School Psychology Forum needs to coordinate with School Psychology Review, Communiqué, the annual NASP convention, and the NASP Publications Board. School Psychology Forum has the potential to be the nexus where trends, news, research, science, and policy information from other publications meet.

The goal is to create a journal emphasizing original research and scholarly reviews that directly affects clinical practice and science-guided policy. Steve gave as examples of this goal inviting the author of research published in School Psychology Review to write a similar paper explicitly addressing how the research can be applied to clinical practice or policy, inviting symposium presenters at the NASP convention to develop a special issue on the topic, and encouraging professionals who have described an innovative program in Communiqué to publish an evaluation of that program in School Psychology Forum. In addition, consultation with NASP leadership would allow School Psychology Forum to respond to new policies, regulations, or laws by inviting authors to provide a scholarly treatment and analysis, emphasizing research to practice.

Steve lives in Montreal, Canada with his wife, Joyce, and his two daughters, Zoe and Isabel. Steve and his wife are learning French to keep up with their bilingual daughters who attend French-language schools. Not all of Steve’s time is spent teaching, conducting research, and writing. He lists his hobbies as knife throwing, kayaking, reading fiction, and cooking. Steve could not help mentioning the upcoming book series he coedited with Paul McCabe, Pediatric Disorders: Current Topics and Interventions for Educators, Genetic and Acquired Disorders: Current Topics and Interventions for Educators, and Psychiatric Disorders: Current Topics and Interventions for Educators. Since NASP is copublishing this series with Corwin Press, we were only too happy to mention it.

Jim Batts, NCSP, is chair of the Publications Board and School Psychology Forum search committee.