Funding Opportunities

Steven O. Walfish Competition

The Steven O. Walfish Grants, supported by the APA Division 42 Next Generation Fund promote and support the next generation of student and early career practitioner psychologists to expand the knowledge base in the practice of psychology.

Deadline: October 2, 2025
Amount: 2 grants of $2,500
Sponsors: APF

The Steven O. Walfish Grants, supported by the APA Division 42 Next Generation Fund, promotes and supports the next generation of student and early career practitioner psychologists to expand the knowledge base in the practice of psychology.

Applicants are required to submit manuscripts on clinical, practical, or research innovations that address evolving standards, practices, and methods in psychological practice. Topics may include population‐based practice issues, procedure or technique‐based practice issues, diagnosis‐based practice issues, or service delivery models describing a practice innovation.

Grant recipients are encouraged to use the grant to attend the APA convention to present their work. The papers of the grant recipients may qualify for publication in the APA Division 42 journal, Practice Innovations.

Up to two $2,500 grants are available to graduate students (within 2 years or less of completing the doctoral degree) and/or early career psychologists (within 10 years of earning the doctoral degree). Winner(s) will receive a 1-year free membership to Division 42.

More information about Division 42 (The Community for Psychologists in Independent Practice)

Eligibility

APF encourages applicants from diverse backgrounds with respect to age, race, color, religion, creed, nationality, ability, sexual orientation, gender, and geography.

Applicants must:

  • be a graduate student or an early career psychologist
  • submit a manuscript that has not been previously published
  • provide a letter of recommendation from a colleague or mentor, ideally an APA Division 42 member or other psychologist not related to the applicant and not a co-author. The letter of recommendation should speak to the applicant’s graduate or early career accomplishments. 

In the case of multi-authored manuscripts, the role of each co-author should be described, and the award candidate’s role must be clearly primary.

Application Instructions

Application Materials:

  • CV
  • manuscript: must conform to the APA Publication Manual style
  • letter of recommendation
  • statement that the division’s journal, Practice Innovations, will have a right of first refusal with respect to publication of winning manuscripts

Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be evaluated on:

  • goals and impact
  • innovation and originality
  • methodology and quality
  • competency 

Please be advised that APF does not provide feedback to applicants on their proposals.

Please review our Program FAQs for important details on the application process.

Recent Recipient

Lauren Zaeske

University of Kansas

“Addressing Harm from Adverse Religious/Spiritual Experiences in Therapy: A Scoping Review”

Past Recipients

2023

Professor Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces, Indiana University-Bloomington
“Wider, faster, more: Re-envisioning the treatment and research of depression to address its public health burden in the United States”

Lauren Zaeske, University of Kansas
“Addressing Harm from Adverse Religious/Spiritual Experiences in Therapy: A Scoping Review”

2022

Cassandra Bailey, PhD, Metropolitan University of Denver
“Religiosity and Religious Scrupulosity as Markers of Poor Mental Health in The Latinx Community: A Mediation Model”

Stacey Brothers, University of Utah
“Application of Novel Technological Solutions in the Assessment of Culturally Diverse Older Adults”

2021

Aleesha Young, PhD, Massachusetts Psychological Association

Nancy H. Liu, PhD, University of California, Berkeley

2020

Maegan Paxton Willing, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences

Adela Scharff, University at Albany—SUNY

2019

Tyler Lefevor, PhD, Rhodes College

Adelya Urmanche, Adelphi University

2018

Stacy Forcino, PhD, California State University, San Bernardino

2017

Lori M. Hilt, PhD, Lawrence University

Nili Solomonov, PhD, Adelphi University

2016

Laura M. Grossi, Fairleigh Dickinson University

Emma Hamilton, The University of Texas at Austin