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Student Advisory Committee Integrates SOT's Strategic Plan to Enhance Student Experience in the Society: 2008–2009 Highlights
Submitted by: Thomas J. Kannanayakal, outgoing SAC President and SS-GC Chairperson; Kristina D. DeSmet, outgoing SAC Secretary-Treasurer and RC/SIG-GC Chairperson.
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(l to r) Top Row: George Corcoran,
Erica Sparkenbaugh, Melanie Weed,
Betty Eidemiller, Dan Hochman,
and Sheppard Allen Martin
Bottom Row:
Thomas Kannanayakal
and Kristina DeSmet |
One of the major goals of the Student Advisory Council (SAC) is to play an integral role in implementing SOT's Strategic Plan. Members of SAC, George Corcoran, Council Liaison, and Betty Eidemiller, SOT Staff Liaison, met in Reston, Virginia, this past fall to align SAC's mission, goals, and objectives with the SOT Strategic Plan. The goals that the SAC set as highest priority include increasing scientific impact, building for the future of toxicology, expanding and deepening member engagement, and strengthening organizational effectiveness. SAC is working with specific objectives that are encompassed by these goals to further enhance the student services we provide. SAC has accomplished a number of milestones already, including the creation of the Outstanding Leadership Award, development of a Regional Chapter Contact List, retooling of the Student Event Planner for the Annual Meeting, and development of a survey that will be distributed to all student members to better gage the effectiveness of our programs.
Outstanding Leadership Award
The Student Advisory Council's success is the result of hard work from each graduate student representative. To recognize the contribution of graduate student representatives who go beyond their expected duties, proactively identifying student needs and using innovative methods to improve students experience in SOT, we established the Outstanding Leadership Award. This year Enrique Fuentes-Mattei and Sheppard Allen Martin were the award recipients. Mr. Fuentes-Mattei, the graduate student representative for the Hispanic Organization of Toxicologist Special Interest Group, was recognized for his service to minority and undergraduate students. Mr. Martin, the graduate student representative for the Risk Assessment Specialty Section, was recognized for his proactive approach in identifying student needs within his Specialty Section.
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| Thomas Kannanayakal presents award to Sheppard Allen Martin |
Kristina DeSmet presents award to Enrique Fuentes-Mattei |
SAC/PDA Joint Research Symposium Session
SAC collaborated with the Postdoctoral Assembly (PDA) to develop the symposium titled "Gene-Environment Interactions: Epigenetic Pathways in Chronic Disease Promotion and Progression" for the 2009 SOT Annual Meeting. Heather S. Floyd from PDA and Mr. Martin from SAC chaired this session. Planning for another joint symposium to be held at Salt Lake City in 2010 is currently underway.
Regional Chapter/Special Interest Group Graduate Committee
The Regional Chapter/Special Interest Group Graduate Committee (RC/SIG-GC) was responsible for organizing the Student/Postdoc Mixer and developing the 2009 Annual Meeting Student Event Planner. The Mixer was a success yet again with more than 350 students and postdocs attending this function. This year the 2009 Annual Meeting Student Event Planner was redeveloped. The Student Event Planner was pared down from previous years to more effectively help student members, especially first time attendees, navigate the Annual Meeting. On top of our normal annual projects, the RC/SIG-GC put together a Regional Chapter Contact List to help graduate student representatives distribute regional and national SOT information.
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| Student/Postdoctoral Fellow Mixer |
Specialty Section Graduate Committee
The Specialty Section Graduate Committee (SS-GC) organized the Lunch with an Expert (LWAE) program at the Annual Meeting. This program provides participants with a great opportunity to network and gain insights from seasoned toxicologists. The LWAE program was a great success again this year. About 60 experts volunteered to meet 150 students during the Annual Meeting. The SS-GC greatly appreciates and thanks the experts for their continuous support for the program. At the Annual Meeting, the SS-GC representatives took the initiative to introduce the LWAE program to new students and encouraged their participation in the program. LWAE team members worked hard in matching the students and experts, establishing communication between the students and their experts, and facilitating the event at the Annual Meeting. SS-GC representatives do not meet the student members of their Specialty Section in person very often. To bridge this lack of face-to-face communication, the SS-GC decided to expand our interaction with our student members through SOT's Web site and another social networking Web site.
RC/SIG-GC and SS-GC Elect New Officers
New officers were elected for the Regional Chapter/Special Interest Group Graduate Committee (RC/SIG-GC) and the Specialty Section Graduate Committee (SS-GC) during the Annual Meeting. The incoming RC/SIG-GC officers include Erica M. Sparkenbaugh, Chairperson, Ofek Bar-Ilan, Chairperson-elect, and Erica Rogers, Secretary. Incoming SS-GC officers include Sheppard Martin, Chairperson, Haitian Lu, Chairperson-elect, and Dan Hochmann, Secretary. New officers for the Student Advisory Council are Erica Sparkenbaugh, President, and Sheppard Martin, Secretary-Treasurer (pictured below).
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| (l to r) Enrique Fuentes-Mattei, Thomas Kannanayakal, Natalie Johnson, Kenneth S. Ramos, Erica Sparkenbaugh, Kristina DeSmet, and Sheppard Allen Martin |
We are proud to serve the SOT community, and sincerely thank Dr. Corcoran and SOT staff for their outstanding guidance and support. We are grateful for the continuous support and encouragement from SOT President Kenneth S. Ramos and the SOT Council members.
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