By Dr. Susan Perkins
In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine launched a committee whose charge it was to study the problem of sexual harassment in our fields. In 2018, their consensus report was published. One of the key recommendations of that report was to “encourage involvement of professional societies and other organizations,” and, as a major step in trying to advance that as a goal, the “Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in Science, Technology, Education, Mathematics, and Medicine” was announced at the 2019 AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C. ASP is pleased to announce that via a unanimous vote of Council, we are now an inaugural member of that Consortium. This membership will give us valuable access to resources and guidance to help ASP to consistently maintain an atmosphere of collegiality, equity, and respect both at our meetings and in the business we conduct throughout the year. These include examples of policies for bestowing honors and awards, updates of any state and federal laws governing sexual and other types of harassment, and advice on best practices for instituting codes of conduct.
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