Matthew Evans
President, LA-CAMFT

Dear colleagues,

Each year in February, Board Members from 28 CAMFT chapters throughout California, as well as CAMFT State Board Members, attend the annual Chapter Leadership Conference. This year, the CLC conference was held in San Francisco and the presentation topics included Engaging Members, How to Govern your Board Effectively, Building Relationships with Sponsors and Market Effectively, Manage your Chapter as a Business, and Surviving and Thriving in Chapter Leadership.

Our own Past President of LA-CAMFT and Member of the Diversity Committee, Christina Castorena facilitated a training on Diversity and Inclusion which received an overwhelmingly positive reception from attendees. All the hard work by Christina Castorena, co-chairs Janaki Neptune and Marvin Whistler, and other dedicated members of the Diversity Committee has paved the way for LA-CAMFT to become one of the leading chapters in discussing and advocating for diversity issues.

The LA-CAMFT Board of Directors was honored to nominate Shelley Pearce as Outstanding Chapter Leader for exemplary service and commitment. In addition, our Los Angeles chapter was nominated for the Chapter Excellence Award for Best Membership Development. The importance of membership development goes beyond the number of members, but is the foundation and lifeblood of any organization. Our achievements related to membership over the past year include continued growth of the Diversity Committee, holding the first LA-CAMFT event located in East Los Angeles, and the 3000 club for pre-licensed clinicians, facilitating its first virtual meeting in order to make attendance more accessible and to discuss issues pertaining to pre-licensed clinicians.

While collaborating with other chapter and state leaders to brainstorm ideas is just one step in continuing to grow as an organization, LA-CAMFT’s Board of Directors will have many more meetings and discussions in order to incorporate these ideas into our chapter so to best meet the needs of our members.

All the best,

Matthew Evans, LMFT

Matthew Evans, LMFT, utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy in his work as a Primary Therapist in Resilience Treatment Center’s residential program for adults.

Matthew may be contacted at president@lacamft.org.