8:00am - 4:30pm

Ala Moana Hotel

410 Atkinson Dr, Honolulu

Virtual attendance on Zoom

30 programs over 2 days

Four concurrent tracks

All programs On Demand

CEs included for all

Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD 

Leading with Compassion, Empathy and Courage:

How Psychology and Our

Nation’s History Can

Positively Change Our Country

Shirley Ann Higuchi, JD is the Associate Chief for Professional Practice at the American Psychological Association (APA) and Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF). Her session will discuss her work at the APA and how behavioral health and wellness practitioners can be agents of change for our country. Shirley will discuss the World War II incarceration of her family when her American-born parents were confined as children at the U.S. sanctioned Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in rural Wyoming. The injustices imposed on her parents and the discomfort of how the judicial system treated them prompted her pursuit of law.

During the presentation, Shirley will examine the cross-generational impact and multigenerational trauma she uncovered when researching her book, Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration. She will also examine how understanding history can resolve trauma by honoring the power of place and the historical stories by sharing it with students.

Over the past several years, fear and anger have become the dominant forces in American politics. For the Japanese American elders, who were unjustly imprisoned during World War II because of their race, this political climate feels all too familiar. The HMWF's newly opened Mineta-Simpson Institute aims to address this by cultivating a society that seeks to employ empathy, compassion, and courage by working together across the aisle and bringing people of different mindsets together. The HMWF was inspired in this endeavor by the accomplishments and the friendship of Senator Alan K. Simpson and the late Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, who met as young boys at the incarceration site during World War II and spent decades putting aside their political differences to work together and better the lives of all Americans. As behavioral change agents you are a part of this effort, too!

Debra Kawahara, Ph.D.

Leadership in Turbulent Times:

Transforming Individuals, Communities & Society

Dr. Debra M. Kawahara is the 2025 President for the American Psychological Association (APA). She is also the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Distinguished Professor in the California School of Professional Psychology and Executive Director of the Illumination of Mindfulness Institute at Alliant International University.

Dr. Kawahara is a multicultural feminist scholar whose work centers on intersectionality, women’s issues, Buddhist psychotherapy, and the application of social justice principles. She is widely published and has presented extensively in these areas. In 2018, she became the Editor-in-Chief for Women & Therapy.

Her previous leadership roles include being a member at large on the APA Board of Directors, a representative to the APA Council of Representatives (COR), an APA Finance Committee member, an Advisory Committee member for the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology (LIWP), APA Divisions on Social Justice representative, Lead Coordinator for the National Multicultural Conference & Summit, and a National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology delegate. In February 2024, Dr. Kawahara and other APA officials visited the White House and spoke with Biden administration officials about the importance of reducing health disparities for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.

She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association as well as the Asian American Psychological Association. In recognition of her work, several awards have been bestowed on her, including an APA Presidential Citation and the Shining Star Award at the National Multicultural Conference & Summit.