As we once again approach another change in the seasons, I have been reflecting on the many persistent environmental challenges we face. I spent my summer at home in Utah, where we continue in an extreme drought and faced record high temperatures. This, in addition to smoke from the ongoing fires in Northern California and the spike in COVID cases from the delta strain of the virus, gave the summer a distinctly apocalyptic feel.  

In spite of these challenges, however, I generally remain hopeful. I watched (some of) my neighbors turn off their sprinklers for the season. In my classes, many of the students have gotten vaccinated and continue to mask, even though our state has banned mask and vaccine mandates. An Afghan refugee family is moving into the neighborhood today and members of our community banded together to ensure that they would have everything they need to make them feel at home. In the continuing strangeness of these times, I try to focus on the ways that people choose to preserve their communities and the planet more broadly. 

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During these difficult times, it has been a great pleasure to begin holding zoom meetings with SPSSI members and their colleagues and students. What do I mean by this? As president, I have been contacting various SPSSI members and sharing with them that I would love to meet virtually with people from their campus, community, or workplace. The purpose of these meetings is to learn more about what problems and issues SPSSI members and their colleagues and students are working on and see as vitally important to address. These sessions have been great. People tell me exciting stories about issues they are addressing in their classes and through research and action. People share how they have become involved in certain issues. People share work they are doing in their communities or in schools or other locations. I have been hearing about policies people see as needing to be in place and research that they are doing to help develop a basis for policies. People share the problems they see as most urgent and their hopes for doing work that will make a difference. We talk about ways that SPSSI might be helpful to their efforts. SPSSI members and their students are vitally important to the future.

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As the incoming chair of SPSSI Graduate Student Committee this year, it has been a privilege to work alongside other passionate students amidst a turbulent yet awakening time. Throughout the year, we worked on projects ranging from political education on social justice issues to policy/advocacy workshops. Among our many accomplishments, GSC completed a webinar series entitled Societal Psychosis: A Meta-analysis of Systems that Make it Difficult to Determine and Connect with Reality. Topics included: 1) Public Reckoning with the Criminal Justice System, 2) The White Supremacist State through the Racial Triangulation of Black, Asian, and White Communities, 3) A How-To Webinar on Producing Policy.

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