December 16, 2020
FABBS held its Annual Council of Representatives Meeting earlier this month on December 7th. Meeting virtually, the FABBS Board was joined by member society and corporate affiliate representatives to hear from leadership of behavior and social sciences offices at NIH and NSF, discuss FABBS advocacy priorities for 2021, and diversity initiatives in our sciences, societies, and schools. FABBS President, Roxane Cohen Silver, provided opening and closing remarks, as well as insights and context of the consequences of the pandemic and racial trauma in 2020, as an eminent researcher in the field.
The first panel featured William “Bill” Riley, Associate Director, Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, National Institutes of Health, and Arthur “Skip” Lupia, Assistant Director of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation (NSF), who gave an overview of the opportunities and value of behavioral and brain sciences, especially in light of COVID-19. Nora S. Newcombe, FABBS Past-president, chaired the session.
The second panel covered key challenges and developments of diversity and equity work on the federal, society, and institutional level. Chaired by FABBS Board Member, Sandra Graham, the speakers were Kellina Craig-Henderson, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate, NSF; Rachel Puffer, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Robert Sellers, University of Michigan and 2021 FABBS Board Member.
