President's Environment

Hi everyone! I hope the Salt Lake City (SLC) meeting was enjoyed by all who attended! We owe much to the meeting organizers and our conference services – they did a wonderful job! Of utmost importance to SFS members is the degree to which meeting attendees – new and old, alike – felt valued and respected by others and that the meeting venue and vibe was welcoming to all. The sense of community embodied by SFS is part of our DNA – but for breakthrough progress on inclusivity, we need sustained energy and focus in this area.

The New Year always brings thoughts of transformation— aspirations for change that are often mixed with poignant appreciation for the way things were.  I’d like to comment on just a few of these for SFS.  

One consequence of serving as SFS president is that I have become more attuned to the rich array of contributions made by individuals in our community. Rather than attempting to impart wisdom or inspiration directly (fat chance, Baxter!), I'll encourage you to find these in my accounts of others–I've always been a story-teller anyway, though an admittedly long-winded one!

This is a re-post of Emily Bernhardt's essay "Being Kind" that was recently featured in Nature. The original essay, from September 2016, was lost in the recent transition to the new website. Dr. Bernhardt was the president of SFS in 2016. The original post is archived here.