Happy New Year SPSSI members! Despite continuing to face significant societal challenges, I am energized seeing our newest SPSSI Teaching Award winners and the inspiring work they are conducting inside and outside of the classroom. They represent the very best of teaching practices, igniting students’ interest in psychology and challenging views of the social world to inspire new possibilities.

I reflect back on past SPSSI President Kurt Lewin, and how we mirror his values in our teaching. Lewin believed that good research is both basic and applied, and that sentiment relates to teaching as well. He championed action research, in which psychological knowledge is used to address social problems through social action. We see this same orientation in “action teaching,” in which education goes beyond classroom learning to enhance the societal good. Field experiences embed students into the social context and create meaningful real-world change on the systems they are studying. Observation is key to developing sound theory – so let’s take that observation beyond the “lab” of the classroom to see real world phenomena in action. And beyond simply observing, we can intervene and improve our local context and beyond. While creating meaningful educational experiences for our students, we simultaneously teach them to be the agents of change that Lewin championed.

I encourage our members to learn more about the influential work of our Teaching Award winners. Their classrooms take action to address societal issues such as prejudice, human rights, reproductive justice, climate change, and immigration. They engage in service learning, collaborations with local agencies and community organizations, and have students serve as mentors and volunteers to vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Coming full circle, as SPSSI President, I was overjoyed to recently receive a letter from a university class in New York. Their class focused on identifying and creating interventions to improve outcomes for children in the legal system. Following a model from a past SPSSI Action Teaching award winner, at the end of class, the class chose to support SPSSI with a small donation. They selected us as an organization doing the type of action research on social issues that they valued in class. I am inspired by these students’ generosity, passion, and vision for the future. This is the power we all hold as educators, and what Lewin motivates in us all.

We need such action teaching right now. As education is being threatened and rights are violated, the simple act of teaching and sharing our science is becoming more challenging. We note the concerns of SPSSI members who are teaching in environments which are openly hostile to social justice and science, attempting to silence our discipline and research in the classroom. SPSSI is here to help, and we are developing a toolkit with resources available for these situations. As always, please reach out to SPSSI with your concerns, and we can help advocate and provide support. As I said in my incoming President’s column, collectively, we can meet the challenges of the times, persist, and even flourish. As our 2026 SPSSI Conference in New Orleans theme celebrates, “Lespwa fe viv”: Hope makes us live. Let’s be the hope in the classroom for our students, and reflect SPSSI’s Lewinian values in all the work we do in teaching, research, and mentorship.