ISPA Award For Distinguished Services

BERNIE STEIN

The International School Psychology Association has great pleasure in presenting an award to Dr Bernie Stein in recognition of his outstanding services to the Association.

Bernie’s first introduction to ISPA was in 1977 at the Helsingør colloquium in Denmark. From the beginning he was committed to becoming an active member of the association and, in particular, he was instrumental in raising the importance of crisis intervention as part of school psychological services through his workshops in Dundee, Eger and Melbourne. In 1997, was elected onto the Executive Committee as President Elect. He was a very active president of ISPA from 1999 until 2001, full of new and innovative ideas for the development of the association, on occasions impatient with others for not always sharing his vision, but at all times extremely passionate about furthering ISPA’s goals. In addition to fulfilling all his presidential duties with energy and commitment, he also took on many additional tasks, including an intensive workshop on school psychology in Italy and an application to the European Union for funds to support the development of crisis intervention training and research. During this period he also ran workshops in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

One of Bernie’s unfulfilled dreams was to host an ISPA colloquium in his home town of Jerusalem. Plans were well in advance for this to take place in the summer of 2002 but unfortunately, due to the ongoing unstable political situation in the area, the colloquium had to be switched to Denmark where Bernie took responsibility for chairing the scientific committee and planning the programme.

Undoubtedly one of Bernie’s main contributions to the Association has been the development and maintenance of the ISPA website. He took on this task in 2002 and since then has transformed the site into being one of the most informative websites on school psychology throughout the world and the only one that devotes itself to international issues. Throughout this period Bernie has been full of innovative ideas as to how the site could be refreshed and updated. He is instrumental in posting resources on issues to do with the theory and practice of school psychology, he actively solicits full written papers from presenters at colloquia and he maintains a rich pictorial record of colloquia going back over the years. The website is also beginning to have an impact on the management of the association. There is a members' only list that enables members to vote online in ISPA elections and it is possible to use the site to join ISPA and to register at colloquia. There is no doubt that the development of the website has raised the profile of the ISPA around the world. This is evidenced by the large number of requests for information that are directed to the site and by the increasing numbers times that the people access it each day.

It is a very great pleasure for me to present this award to Bernie Stein, on behalf of ISPA, as an expression of our appreciation for what he has done for the Association and for his commitment to continue to support our activities.

Helen Bakker

President of the International School Psychology Association, July 2007