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Elections - November/December 2024 - Charting a Course for 2025
Each November-December the RECAMFT members elect a new Board of Directors for coming year (some years there are additional issues for the members to vote on, such as bylaws updates, etc.). The presidency is a three-year commitment as President Elect, President and Past President. The Secretary and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) are each two-year terms, as are the Director at Large (DAL) seats. You can view the current 2024 Board here. RECAMFT's board composition currently consists of
2025 Board of Directors Candidates Below are the slate of candidates running for each open position. There is one candidate each running for President Elect and Secretary. There is one candidate running for one of our DAL seats. We need additional people to run for our open DAL seats. |
2025 Director at Large candidate
2025 Director at Large candidate
2025 Director at Large candidate
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Patricia Hromalik, LMFT 
Dr. Laura Strom, PsyD, LMFT
Dr. Jean Hayes, PhD, LMFT
Gwendolyn Watson, LMFT
Candidate Statements Candidates were asked to respond to 3 questions.
Below are each candidate's answers. |
2025 President Elect candidate statement Why are you interested in serving on RECAMFT’s Board of Directors? RECAMFT has been such a positive addition to my professional life as a therapist and I am a believer in giving back to those that support you. I have served in several RECAMFT board roles since joining the organization in 2014 where I became the Pre-licensed Chair/Director-at-Larger. Due to my extensive business background, I moved on to the Chief Financial Officer position in 2016-18, then took a break from the board and returned in 2023 as a Director-At-Large. I have served on the Pre-licensed Committee, the Finance committee and the Scholarship committee, where I’ve organized several fun prize raffles that have raised over $1,600 toward this worthy cause of supporting our pre-licensed and newly licensed therapists with an emphasis on underrepresented groups. I also started the RECAMFT Compassion Fatigue Peer Group and continue to facilitate this monthly service to our members in recognition of the toll on mental health workers with the stress of climate change and local wild fires, the pandemic, along with world and political unrest and division. I believe these positions have prepared me well to step forward into a leadership role as President-elect, having severed under several different presidents and learned from each of them. My prior careers also have prepared me, being in management and leadership positions, as well as doing a 4-year stint in Human Resources as a Director of Management and Leadership Development. All of my prior careers drew me to the people side of the work and lead to me fulfilling a long-term dream of becoming a therapist. Being able to actively work with, help and serve others is where I have found my greatest fulfillment. I respectfully ask for your vote as RECAMFT President-Elect. What are your 1-year goals for RECAMFT? Since the Pandemic RECAMFT (as well as many other CAMFT chapters and non-profit organizations) have struggled with member engagement and participation. The attendance at CEU events is lower, including the few in-person events we offered and our ability to attract volunteers for committees has fallen off significantly, placing a higher burden of work on the few existing board and committee members. In the next year, I would like to do more outreach to our members to better understand their needs and interests, as well as barriers to participation. I want to work on solutions that will meet those needs and drive-up engagement to maintain the vibrancy and caliber of RECAMFT. What is your 5-year vision for RECAMFT? Long term I would like to continue to explore and find ways to better support our members to provide high quality service to clients in an ever-changing technical world with people who have diverse needs and expectations regarding mental service and its delivery. In addition, I fear our financial model for mental health practitioners is broken, especially in regard to insurance. I want to pursue appropriate legal ways that we can work with our government legislators, as well as CAMFT and other aligned organizations, to engage insurers to provide fair compensation and support viable treatment. 2025 Secretary candidate statement Why are you interested in serving on RECAMFT’s Board of Directors? I am passionate about supporting ongoing growth and progress within the mental health profession and our community. Much of this potential for sustainability relies heavily upon the engagement and creativity of those at our organization’s helm. I hope to be a collaborative and dynamic member of this team, to help RECAMFT continue to address our member’s ongoing needs, with our shared purpose of supporting the larger community we serve. What are your 1-year goals for RECAMFT? I hope to prioritize providing RECAMFT members trainings on up-to-date practices of the profession, to offer more opportunities for membership connection to strengthen our sense of community, and to engage in outreach to members, specifically those whose voices are often not heard, with the goal of addressing systemic issues to create a stronger, more inclusive association. Likewise, I hope to build relationships with up-and-coming clinicians to bolster the knowledge and networks of future generations. What is your 5-year vision for RECAMFT? Through the next five years, I envision a larger, more representative, and more diverse RECAMFT. I envision a deeper sense of community felt within our membership, with opportunities for more active participation, and a more expansive reach into our community. I hope to see RECAMFT known not only by members and organizations within our profession, but recognized by all as a chapter that prioritizes expanding equity, and is devoted to bringing fresh ideas that lead to action and increase access to mental health care. 2025 Director at Large candidate statement Why are you interested in serving on RECAMFT’s Board of Directors? As a RECAMFT Director-At-Large for the past four years, I realize what a difference being on the Board can make to our professional community. I would like to use my creative thinking being a regular contributor to the Newsletter by interviewing and high-lighting members who specialize in varied and unique counseling services. I believe this would expand the knowledge of who our members are, and shine a light on the services being offered by sharing stories about our many interesting and thoughtful therapists. I had the opportunity to interview for the Newsletter, our former technical consultant, the now deceased Joe Ward. Besides being a recipient of his generous assistance, I was truly inspired by his commitment to be available to every member. Interviewing Joe Ward gave me another inspiration to develop The Spirit of RECAMFT Award in Joe and his wife, Pam's, name. What are your 1-year goals for RECAMFT? I would like to regularly follow-up with members to explore their interest and in-put in programs to be offered, both in-person and on-line. I would like RECAMFT to suggest and provide opportunities for members to get together in meet-up groups thereby developing ways to become familiar with who our members are by engaging in some fun and interactive times together along with our invaluable, specialized trainings.
What is your 5-year vision for RECAMFT? I would like RECAMFT to continue to evolve equity and inclusion across, and to be embedded in, all programs that inspire human development and build enthusiasm for each and every member of our professional community. We are a collection of professionals that form a unique system that is RECAMFT, inspiring, strengthening, and empowering ourselves while also providing the best care to every client, every day. |
Are you looking for help? Find therapists offering free natural disaster and crisis sessions here. Please check out MySonomaStrong.com. Visit the NAMI Warmline. Take a trauma-informed yoga class. We will recover together! ¿Buscas ayuda? Encuentre terapeutas que ofrezcan sesiones gratuitas de crisis y desastres naturales aquí. Visite MySonomaStrong.com. Visite la NAMI Warmline. Toma una clase de yoga informada sobre el trauma. ¡Nos recuperaremos juntos!
Redwood Empire Chapter of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists |
