August 20, 2025 | Brian Tepper, LCAT, LPAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, MPS, MSA, 2025 Conference Committee Chair
We are honored to announce that Lynn Kapitan, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM, will be our Opening Plenary moderator for the AATA2025 Virtual Conference!
Dr. Kapitan is former Editor-in-Chief of the Art Therapy Journal and a Past President of the American Art Therapy Association. She has practiced art therapy with children, adolescents, and adults, and in community-based, intercultural settings in the U.S. and Latin America.
Dr. Kapitan is also Professor Emerit and former Director of Graduate and Doctoral Art Therapy at Mount Mary University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In 2016, she was awarded Honorary Life Membership (HLM) by AATA in recognition of her major contributions and broad influence on the field of art therapy.
(Photo of Dr. Kapitan, left, being presented the HLM award by then AATA President Donna Betts.)
Dr. Kapitan will be joined by AATA President Nadia Paredes, MA, LMFT, ATR, and AATA Board Secretary Michael Galarraga, LPC, ATR-BC, CSAC, CSOTP, for the conference’s Opening Plenary, Meeting this Moment: Art Therapy’s Collective Response to Hate and Fear. With political attacks on vulnerable communities growing, Dr. Kapitan will lead a conversation about how art therapists can disrupt harm and respond effectively in the face of oppression, hate, and fear of the “other.”
The Opening Plenary session will be held on the first day of the conference, Oct. 25, 10 – 11:30am ET. Registration to attend the Conference can be purchased for one or both days. Attendees will have access to participate in the sessions “live” or watch at their own pace On Demand and may earn up to 17 CE credits.