Wendy Williams

Personal and Professional Background:
I was introduced to SPSSI when a mentor gifted me a membership during my first year of graduate school. As a social psychologist interested in social class and poverty, SPSSI quickly became my intellectual home because of its emphasis on applying theory to social problems. Looking back, that gift membership was a formative moment in my career as an academic. Now, as a midcareer social psychologist, I continue to find SPSSI’s mission central to my teaching, research, and policy work. As a result I have served SPSSI continuously throughout my career as both a graduate student and faculty member: as the Chair of the Graduate Student Committee, a member of the Junior Scholars Taskforce, Chair of the Clara Mayo Grants Committee, Book Review Editor for Analyses of Social Issues (ASAP), member of both the Journal of Social Issues (JSI) and ASAP Editorial Boards, and as SPSSI’s Representative to the APA Council of Representatives. In addition, I have published in SPSSI journals (JSI and ASAP) and been an award recipient (Grant-in-Aid Dissertation Award). I regularly respond to SPPSI’s need for conference submission reviewers, and I give presentations at SPSSI conferences on both pedagogy and research. I have attended SPSSI policy workshops, and I have both lobbied my representatives and given a Congressional briefing on behalf of SPSSI issues. Collectively, these experiences give me an excellent understanding (from the perspective of a student, faculty, researcher, and activist) of SPSSI’s history and functioning, as well as its goals and concerns. No other organization has influenced my career as much as SPSSI has, and I would love the opportunity to serve as SPSSI’s President to give back to an organization that has been instrumental in my growth as a scholar.