3 minute read
Message from the President
Message from
The President
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Dear ASPET members,
This is my last President’s Message. While I will miss being able to serve as your President, I am encouraged by the progressive programs instituted in ASPET during this year.
The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Task Force is diligently working to institute greater culture awareness within the Society. In recognition of the areas to be considered, the task force has adopted a name change to IDEA Task Force, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility. The importance of IDEA to pharmacology was delineated beautifully by Dr. L’Aurelle Johnson in her speech at the ASPET Presidential Symposium during EB 2022. Hand in hand with instituting more IDEA in ASPET is the need to increase diversity in membership and, of course, to increase membership. To that end, we have established a Membership Task Force that is dedicated to assessing membership trends, exploring ways to increase the diversity of members with respect to their different work environments and stepping up our efforts to provide membership with benefits from ASPET. I am very excited for ASPET to reap the fruits of both task forces. Another important task force is the Bylaws Task Force, which is pulling the by-laws out of their 1925 origins and propelling them into 2022 – and it’s not an easy task. Their endeavors, however, will create a more solid governance structure for ASPET.
I so very much enjoyed the EB 2022 meeting. It was such fun to see so many of you face to face, even mask to mask. I especially enjoyed the students. Their enthusiasm was infectious. The pharmacology attendance was nearly 1,200 participants. The sessions were all so interesting that it was hard to choose from among those offered at the same time. Always a problem, isn’t it? Rumor has it that the ASPET Student/Postdoc Mixer was such a good party that it could serve as a recruiting event for students in other societies. I want to commend all who attended EB 2022 and for helping to make the last EB meeting such a great event, certainly for ASPET.
Let us carry that enthusiasm into 2023. We have great plans for ASPET 2023. St. Louis is a great venue for many reasons, involving activities and cost among other features. St. Louis Union Station, the site of our meeting, is elegant and charming. We are planning to feature top-notch science, innovative programming, and several member social activities. Be sure to mark the date on your calendars right now: Thursday May 18 - Sunday, May 21, 2023.
It has been my pleasure to serve as the President of ASPET this year. Having been an ASPET member since 1981, I have always known it was a special Society; it became my societal home. However, I became much more aware of how the Society serves its members since becoming President. The Society owes a debt of thanks to its members (for what is a Society without its members?). ASPET is blessed with many dedicated, hard-working, and caring members populating its numerous committees and giving hours of their time and effort serving ASPET and the cause of pharmacology. There are those who have been serving the Society for years and young students just beginning their journey. It is so impressive. Equally impressive is the ASPET staff. Every staff member is skilled, hard-working, and dedicated to the Society.
A President always wants to think that they have left their purview a better place than when they came. That tends toward hubris because ASPET was doing well when I became President and changes are really group efforts. However, there have been programs developed during my term that I think have put ASPET onto a
good path and will help it meet the future with strength. I look forward to working as Past President with Mike Jarvis, our incoming president. Mike has dedicated himself to ASPET for years and will be an excellent and knowledgeable President. Having worked for years in industry, he will inject diversity into Society planning. As you know, I am committed to expanding the fields of pharmacologists who are ASPET members. We very much want ASPET to be a home for all pharmacologists.
So, work on your research this year, write those abstracts and submit them for ASPET 2023. Put on your party hats and -- Meet me in St. Louis! (If you don’t know the song, look it up).
Sincerely,
Margaret E. Gnegy, PhD ASPET President
