Justin Yopp, PhD, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at UNC School of Medicine, was elected as a fellow of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS), a distinction that recognizes and honors people who make outstanding contributions to the science and practice of psychosocial oncology.
Yopp is program director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Support Program at the North Carolina Basnight Cancer Hospital. He provides outpatient psychotherapy services for adults with cancer, specializing in working with parents with cancer who have children at home. His research is in the areas of family adaptation to when a parent has cancer and widowed parenthood.
In 2018, Yopp and Donald Rosenstein, MD, professor of psychiatry and hematology at UNC School of Medicine and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Support Program, published The Group: Seven Widowed Fathers Reimagine Life, a critically acclaimed book that followed a group of widowed fathers who were trying to make sense of being sole parents while grieving the loss of their spouse and helping their children address the loss of a mother.
APOS was formed in 1986 to bring together professionals working in the psychological, behavioral and social aspects of cancer with the purpose of advancing the development and delivery of equitable and evidence-based psychosocial oncology care through research, practice, education, and advocacy. Its mission broadened in the early 2000s to network professionals from all disciplines working in psychosocial oncology.