Greeting ASB members,

It has been a great academic year so far and I’m excited for another semester. I would like to start with a recap of my highlights from ASB 2024 in Madison. It was a pleasure to present the President’s Service Award to Ana Ebrahimi. Ana has been truly dedicated to ASB and was a wealth of knowledge as ASB Secretary! I also enjoyed visiting as many posters as possible and awarding the Best Poster Award to Fatemeh Aflatounian, a doctoral student from Montana State University.

Presenting the President’s Service Award to Ana Ebrahimi

Awarding the Best Poster Award to Fatemeh Aflatounian

As we move forward to this year’s ASB activities, I have been shepherding the Fellows nomination and approval process, working with the Nominations Committee to develop this year’s election slate, and meeting with the relatively new Development Committee. I would like to thank the members of the Fellows Review Committee: Silvia Blemker, Dan Ferris, Maury Nussbaum, Glenn Fleisig, and Karen Troy. We had a difficult time forming the committee this year due to many conflicts of interests inherent with seven nominees. This is a good problem though and I am thankful to all who agreed to review the nominations.

I would also like to thank my colleagues Jason Franz and Janet Dufek, who are serving on the Nominations Committee and helped me develop a strong list of potential candidates.

With regards to the Development Committee, we are working hard to fulfill the mission to grow relationships and resources to support the strategic priorities of ASB. The committee has had many thoughtful discussions about creating development strategies, and I am meeting with some professionals for potential guidance for ASB Development. I encourage all ASB members to contribute to the “culture of giving” we are trying to create within ASB. Whether it be through purchasing ASB Swag, donating your time through service to ASB, or making a big or small financial contribution.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve ASB and please feel free to reach out with ideas or comments related to ASB Development, Fellows, or Nominations!