Two Reasons, One Goal

Fellow nominations sought, diversity encouraged.

SIOP Fellowship Committee Chair Derek Avery is encouraging all SIOP Members to submit their nominations for Fellowship before the November 1 deadline. As an I-O psychologist who has devoted his career to studying and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, he acknowledges that SIOP fellows are not representative of our society in a number of key dimensions. By pointing this out, he does not seek to diminish the accomplishments of those who have received this prestigious honor, but rather to call attention to the possibility that other deserving individuals have not been recognized similarly for their accomplishments. Lack of diversity among the SIOP fellows is not a new discovery. Avery cowrote a TIP article about the racial and ethnic disparities between the profiles of students, members, and fellows more than a decade ago as the chair of the committee for ethnic minority affairs (Avery & Hysong, 2007). More recently, Silzer and Parson (2012) described the underrepresentation of practitioners among fellows. SIOP Fellow Mikki Hebl even ended her 2017 "Shaken and Stirred" SIOP talk by lamenting the underrepresentation of women among that year’s inductees before literally dropping the mic. As Avery sums it up, “We’ve got work to do.” He adds:

So what am I asking of you? I need your help in tackling this issue. I will do my best to ensure that the committee evaluates candidates on the basis of their merits and that we take as many steps as possible to diminish the impact of whatever biases we may harbor. I need your help in identifying AND nominating deserving folks that may make our Fellows more representative of our society. This includes, but is not limited to, women, practitioners, minorities, and members outside the U.S. If they aren’t nominated, they can’t be selected.

Please encourage deserving members to consider being nominated – especially if they are from an underrepresented group! If you have questions about what constitutes "deserving," (a) consult the SIOP website where there is a lot of good information about the criteria used by the committee (https://www.siop.org/Membership/SIOP-Fellowship), (b) reach out to the chair directly to discuss questions/concerns, or both.