Dear Colleagues,
I hope you all are getting back into the groove after what—hopefully—were restorative and joy-filled holidays and winter breaks.
I feel the need to share with you that in the fall I experienced a significant personal family tragedy that has necessarily taken my focus, energies, and bandwidth away from volunteer duties, and as such I’m humbly asking for grace and forgiveness while I get back in the saddle full-time. Thank you.
I am delighted to share here that Lauren Highfill, PhD longtime SBNCP member and Professor of Psychology & Animal Studies at Eckerd College, is our President-elect for 2022-23. Lauren has already brought several exciting ideas forward for how to build upon our strong foundation of interdisciplinary work and collegiality, and I know she will have every success in her term on the SBNCP Executive Committee.
Speaking of which - it’s nearing election time! Please see further in the newsletter the open slate of positions we have for our upcoming elections and do send in your nominations (self-nominations are welcome). This is a wonderful opportunity to gain professional service for any and all career levels.
Related to nominations, I want to underscore our division’s commitment to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for all our professional colleagues, which I have and will continue to support with my own personal commitment. We as a professional society should not only strive to achieve this goal because it’s the right thing to do, but also because we are bound by duty to work toward this goal every day, as detailed in the SBNCP Policies & Procedures (PDF, 172KB)opens in new window. It is incumbent upon each of us to do the work necessary to ensure that all people feel welcome here, regardless of the myriad identities one holds. I firmly believe that this obligation extends to SBNCP’s annual awards and that no one who has exhibited behavior in direct opposition to our society’s values and policies should be rewarded for such behavior.
Finally, a special thanks to Erik Thrailkill for his work on the program thus far for our division programming at APA Convention, which will be in person August 3-5, 2023, in Washington, DC. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Sincerely,
Amanda M. Dettmer, PhD
SBNCP, Division 6 President