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• HIE Essentials: What Oklahoma Psychologists Need to Know

  • When
    01/21/2026
  •  
    12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Virtual Event
  • Spaces left
    129
  • Registered
    21 registrants

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  Description:

  Understanding health information exchange (HIE) can be challenging, especially given the prevalence of unclear information in behavioral health. To address this, OPA—an HIE-neutral organization—convened a focus group of our senior members, with input from Mark Jones, to identify key questions that psychologists need clarified to better understand the value of HIE for their practices

  Join Mark Jones, MS, MBA, LPC, LMFT—Senior HIE Consultant at the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ)—a pioneering leader in building the secure exchange of mental health information in Oklahoma for more than 16 years, from the state’s first HIE (SMRTNet) to the current MyHealth Access Network—for a fact-based, research-informed discussion tailored to your practice questions

  What you will learn

  • Clinician and client control over shared data
    
  • HIE value for safety, diagnosis, treatment, and efficiency
    
  • Insights into costs and benefits of OKSHINE
    
  • Ethical and privacy considerations
    
  • Discussing HIE participation with clients to strengthen your practice and community
    

  Attendees receive: 1 CEU hour, presentation slides, webinar recording, and a Mental Health HIE Office Manual.

  Register now to get clear, unbiased answers on HIE, built from the real questions Oklahoma psychologists are asking.

  MEET YOUR SPEAKER:
  
  Mark Jones is a state and nationally recognized expert in Health Information Exchange, with a focus on improving integrated medical and behavioral healthcare. As an AHRQ and HHS Principal Investigator in 2006, he organized and led the development of Oklahoma’s SMRTNet, an HHS‑recognized national model health information exchange connecting over four million patients and more than 500 providers. He then helped build and operate MyHealth Access Network and worked to integrate SMRTNet and MyHealth as Oklahoma’s statewide HIE. Mark has directly shaped HIE initiatives in four states, presented at five national webinars, and has been invited to speak at institutions including three presentations to MD Anderson Cancer Center, including a live demonstration of SMRTNet.

  In addition to his HIE work, Mark served as a county health administrator and project leader for the Oklahoma State Commissioner of Health. In that role, he hosted three CDC projects, led a two‑day quality management training for 2,400 employees resulting in 17 regional public health improvement plans, directed a confidential agency‑wide OSDH employee survey with numerous follow‑up actions, helped to establish state bioterrorism policy and the replacement of the OSDH software system.                                                    

  Mark also has an MBA and is licensed LPC and LMFT with over twenty years experience in public practice and six years in part time private practice using medical records in a physicians’ office. He also is trained in neurocognitive assessment and provided trauma care in the Maui fires and Oklahoma tornados for the Red Cross. Since 2011, he has ensured that mental health health information exchange has been continuously operational in Oklahoma state HIEs. He now provides HIE training to mental health providers across the state as Senior Mental Health HIE Consultant for the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality.

  REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

  Disclaimer: This session is informational and the content is not endorsed by OPA. We are always open to collaboration and cooperation in letting psychologist and others who employ psychologist have valuable information and perspectives. 

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• The Desperate Identities of Dangerous Men: Understanding Mass Attackers by Understanding Personality Disorders

  • When
    01/30/2026
  •  
    12:00 PM - 3:15 PM
  • Location
    Virtual Event
  • Spaces left
    150
  • Registered
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  Course Description:

  How do we make sense of mass attackers? All too often we focus on things that happened to them, not who they were as people. School shooters were bullied, workplace attackers were terminated, and so on. Yet, the overwhelming majority of people who experience such stressors do not become killers. Such explanations fail to consider who the people were that these things happened to. In other words, personality is often ignored as a factor in violence.

  Though there is no profile of a mass attacker, there are common personality traits that occur in a wide range of perpetrators. One commonality is that they are psychologically fragile people with profound vulnerabilities. How these vulnerabilities manifest, however, varies dramatically. This presentation utilizes research on personality disorders to illuminate common traits among mass killers and the multiple pathways to extreme violence.

  PROGRAM LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
  At the end of this program, participants will be able to...
  

  1. Explain the connection between psychological fragility and violent behavior
  2. Describe two personality processes which can lead to people becoming more prone to violence
  3. List three personality disorders common in violent perpetrators
     
     

  PRESENTER:
  Dr. Peter Langman is a psychologist whose research on school shooters has received international recognition. His book, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters, was translated into German, Dutch, Finnish, Russian, and Serbian. His work has been cited in congressional testimony on Capitol Hill and he has been interviewed over 600 times by media outlets in 35 countries. After the Sandy Hook attack, the CEO of the American Psychological Association presented Dr. Langman’s recommendations on school safety to President Obama. He has presented at both the FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, and the FBI National Academy in Quantico. He has been an invited speaker at the National Counterterrorism Center and was hired by Homeland Security to train professionals in school safety. He has trained thousands of professionals in education, law enforcement, and mental health on the psychology of violent offenders. He maintains the largest online collection of materials relating to school shooters at schoolshooters.info, including over 600 documents totaling 70,000 pages. His book, School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators was published in 2015. From 2018 to 2023 , Dr. Langman was a researcher with the National Threat Assessment Center of the United States Secret Service. His latest book is Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike.
  

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• Antiracism in Action: Clinical Skills for Ethical Mental Health Practice

  • When
    03/06/2026
  •  
    12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    Virtual Event
  • Spaces left
    150
  • Registered
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  Course Description:
  

  Antiracism is not an add-on to clinical care—it is a core ethical responsibility. This workshop invites mental health professionals to critically examine how racism and systemic inequities affect diagnosis, treatment access, and client outcomes. Using an antiracist and trauma-informed framework, participants will gain tools to reduce harm, strengthen the therapeutic alliance, and provide more equitable, culturally responsive mental health care. Further, clinicians will learn practical strategies to identify bias, address racial dynamics in the therapy room, and integrate antiracist principles across assessment, diagnosis, and intervention.

  PROGRAM LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
  At the end of this program, participants will be able to...

  1. Identify ways racism operates as a chronic stressor and traumatic exposure affecting mental health outcomes across the lifespan. 
  2. Apply antiracist principles to clinical decision-making, including intake, diagnosis, goal-setting, and termination. 
  3. Identify signs of racialized stress responses that may be misdiagnosed as pathology.

  PRESENTER:

  Jessica M. Smedley, PsyD is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a long history of providing direct care and psychological evaluations to adults, children and families across several geographic locations. Dr. Smedley completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from UC Riverside, and her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with Marriage and Family Therapy emphasis from University of San Francisco. Dr. Smedley completed her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, where she also completed two additional Masters' Degrees in Christian Leadership and Clinical Psychology, respectively. Her dissertation work was focused in the areas of trauma and spirituality in urban communities.  Dr. Smedley continues to be present in academic settings and currently holds adjunct faculty appointments at The George Washington University and Howard University.

  Dr. Smedley completed a significant portion of her clinical training in community mental health settings (i.e., residential, outpatient, community-based) as well as private practice settings, providing direct care and completing psychological evaluations for adults and children who have experienced complex trauma, chronic and severe mental illness, co-morbid diagnoses, learning disabilities, and several family and environmental systemic issues and disparities.  Dr. Smedley has also facilitated several workshops and trainings for a number of agencies about mental health education and wellness, mental health stigma, racial trauma, and general self-care and wellness.  She has also provided expert insights for the media to include NBC4 Washington, BNC News, Essence Magazine, AARP Sisters Column, Associated Press, and various local radio stations.  

  Dr. Smedley believes in giving back to the profession and generations to come by volunteering in several leadership roles in her career span thus far.  She served as the Ohio Psychological Association Diversity Committee Chair in 2017 and has since engaged in many leadership and advocacy training opportunities within the American Psychological Association (APA).  Dr. Smedley is a Past-Diversity Liaison/Diversity Subcommittee Chair for the 2020 APA Practice Leadership Conference.  She has served a three-year term on the  APA Membership Board and was recently appointed to the APA Advocacy Coordinating Committee (ACC); this committee has a unique role of recommending advocacy priorities to the association.  In January of 2023, APA President, Dr. Thema Bryant, appointed Dr. Smedley as the Chair-Elect of the APA ACC, and she will transition to the role of Chair in 2024.  She is also active with the DC Psychological Association (DCPA) and started and co-led the COVID-19 Task Force in 2020 to provide advocacy and services to members and the community during the initial stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Further, Dr. Smedley was elected by DCPA to serve as the 2023 President-Elect and APA Council Representative (2021-23). She also helped to co-launch an initiative with fellow licensed healers of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) with the long-term goal of the association providing support to members of the community impacted by health disparities. 

  As a clinician, Dr. Smedley highly values the importance of growth, cultural awareness, positive racial identity, and incorporating one's unique individual background into treatment. She has found that a strength-based approach has greater, long-term impact, encouraging individuals/families/professionals to hone their strengths and thrive based on a positive belief system. 

  As a former Division-1 athlete and dancer, Dr. Smedley strongly believes in the importance of self-care and often applies a holistic approach to wellness in her work.  She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc

  
  

  _________________________________________________

  REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED
  

  Disclaimer: This session is informational and the content is not endorsed by OPA. We are always open to collaboration and cooperation in letting psychologist and others who employ psychologists have valuable information and perspectives. 

  Show details
• ON-DEMAND - Building On Legacy - Honoring the Past....

  • When
    05/16/2026
  •  
    8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
  • Location
    NSU Broken Arrow Campus - Education Center
  • Registered
    1 registrant

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  ON-DEMAND -- ORIGINALLY OCCURRED NOV 14-15, 2025
  You will have access to audio and video recordings of most sessions from the event.

  
  

  

  OPA 2025, themed “Building on Legacy: Honoring the past through leadership, shaping the future through collaboration,” was held November 14–15 at NSU–Broken Arrow. The conference brought together psychologists, students, and leaders from across Oklahoma for dynamic speakers, cutting-edge research presentations, engaging networking opportunities, and interactive sessions designed to strengthen professional skills and connections.

  

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