President's Column

Eden King

It is a pleasure and privilege to serve as your president for the 2019–2020 term. With this responsibility comes the opportunity to share my observations of and hopes for SIOP. Here I will gladly take the opportunity—via our favorite I-O publication (TIP)!—to guide your attention to three particularly exciting SIOP happenings.

First, I want to recognize the continuing efforts of Talya Bauer, outgoing SIOP president, and to reinforce her assertion that we are better together. Talya led celebrations of science–practice and practice–science translations in her presidential address and in the theme track that she ideated and Elizabeth McCune created. Talya also helped to build SIOP’s partnerships with the American Psychological Association and the Society for Human Resource Management with the help of SIOPers who are directly engaged with APA (e.g., Jeff McHenry, Sara Weiner, Tammy Allen, Steve Stark) and SIOP members at SHRM (e.g., Alex Alonso).

Second, building on the strength of our collective, I want to emphasize that it is together that we are SIOP. Now is the perfect chance for you to engage further with colleagues, friends, and strangers toward a shared goal of using science for a smarter workplace. I encourage each of you to consider volunteering to join a committee using the online volunteer system: http://www.siop.org/Membership/SIOP-Committees/Volunteer-System. You may not get your first choice, but you will get a chance to engage meaningfully with SIOPers who share a commitment to building the practice and science of I-O psychology.

Third, it is my sincere hope that everyone who attends our conference or joins our society finds a welcoming and inclusive professional home. I want to bake inclusion into not only the informal culture of SIOP (which we are working on through task forces led by Lilia Cortina and Stefanie Johnson), but also our formal governance structure. In line with this, the executive board unanimously supported a proposal that began with the thoughtful suggestions of committee chairs Mindy Bergman, Ismael Diaz, Enrica Ruggs, and others to create a new Portfolio for Diversity and Inclusion. All SIOP members now have the opportunity to vote for this profound change to the bylaws, and I urge you to do so.

These represent only a few of the many exciting things happening in SIOP. I feel lucky to be part of it and will work to ensure that you feel the same.