A square version of the marker-style illustration of Dave Jackson, Executive Officer, ASPET seated at his desk, writing in a notebook
  1. May 2024

A Note from Dave’s Desk

An icon representing Dave's Desk that depicts three lines of text and a pen drawing a signature.

ASPET’s Strategic Plan: A Year Later

After one year of the 2023–2027 ASPET Strategic Plan guiding our work, it’s reasonable to ask what difference this plan has made for the Society. To start answering that question, I want to focus this month on the progress we’ve made toward being the “leading voice promoting the field.” Overall, ASPET’s objective is to be the leading voice for pharmacology, advocating for the essential and unique role the field plays in biomedical research.

From an advocacy perspective, ASPET has launched many new initiatives in the past year as it aspires to be a leading voice for the field with government leaders. These include:

  • Launching an Advocacy Action Center, where members can use resources to contact their legislators directly about what’s important to them.
  • Hosting the first-ever Capitol Hill Day for the ASPET Council, where ASPET leaders advocated for issues of concern to pharmacology on behalf of the Society.
  • Holding the first-ever Capitol Hill Day for all ASPET members at ASPET 2024, providing dozens of ASPET members interested in advocating for pharmacology in person the chance to do so in Washington, D.C.
  • Creating the Advocacy Brief, a member-only newsletter providing the latest updates from Capitol Hill as well as relevant government agencies.

While ASPET strives to be a leading voice with the government guided by its strategic plan, the Society also seeks to serve as a leading voice educating the general public about the importance and impact of pharmacology. To kick off this effort, ASPET launched several initiatives.

  • Creating a new Newsroom site and expanding distribution of press releases to share accomplishments about our members involvement in pharmacology.
  • Expanding ASPET’s news reach through a relationship with Newswise, a web-based service for science writers to receive releases from organizations and universities on news featuring advances in science, medicine and technology.
  • Designating ASPET members who serve as media experts.
  • Launching Pharmaco Corner, the official ASPET Blog, where pharmacology experts can discuss issues that affect them professionally and personally. The blog connects science and society through various pharmacology disciplines.
  • Initiating Pharmacology Awareness Week to promote the field of pharmacology.

While much work remains to be done, we believe ASPET is off to a strong start in establishing itself as the leading voice promoting the field.

The signature of Dave Jackson, Executive Officer, ASPET, rendered in green

Dave Jackson, MBA, CAE
Executive Officer, ASPET