Reflecting on Three Years at ASPET
February 1, 2025, marked my 3-year anniversary as the Executive Officer of ASPET. It has been both a privilege and a pleasure to serve in this role for the Society. While three years is a relatively small period to lead a scientific society that was founded in 1908, it’s also striking to me just how much has changed at ASPET during that time.
When I arrived at ASPET, we were still in the middle of the COVID pandemic, and I spent the entire first month as Executive Officer without being able to meet the ASPET staff in person. At the time, ASPET had only 11 employees on board due to staff turnover and the Society was preparing for what would be the last iteration of the Experimental Biology meeting (where ASPET held its annual meeting in conjunction with four other scientific societies). Three years later, with the support of the ASPET Council, the ASPET staff has doubled in size and currently work on a hybrid schedule to enable the Society to both grow existing programs and create new ones to meet the needs of our membership. Additionally, we’re now preparing for the third iteration of our stand-alone ASPET annual meeting taking place soon in Portland, Ore. from April 3–6. In just three years, we’ve gone from holding an annual meeting where ASPET was a relatively small part of a larger event, to now holding a meeting that focuses solely on the field of pharmacology.
Three years ago, ASPET was finishing up the work of its Strategic Plan set in place in 2017. While a helpful document guiding the Society’s work, it was also clear that ASPET needed to update its areas of strategic focus considering how much has changed since then. Guided by the new Strategic Plan that was established by the ASPET Council in 2023, we’ve added a variety of new programs and resources these past three years to meet the needs of our members: the ASPET Editorial Fellowship Program, MentorMatch, Advocacy Action Alerts, the ASPET Family Support Fund, and the Faculty Program on Inclusive Teaching are just a few of the new programs launched these past three years to support our members in alignment with our Strategic Plan.
Another major change in the past three years involves our highly respected journals program. When I arrived at ASPET, a thorough analysis of the journals program was already underway by ASPET leadership as they understood just how important ASPET’s journals are to the Society and the field. As I detailed in the January 2025 issue, after self-publishing for the last 30 years, ASPET now partners with Elsevier to expand the reach and impact of our journals.
After three years with ASPET, I’m very proud of what we as a Society have accomplished so far. I can’t wait to see what lies ahead in our pursuit to advance the field of pharmacology.
Dave Jackson, MBA, CAE
Executive Officer, ASPET
