PLEASE ATTEND AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE DISCUSSION DURING THE 2024 BUSINESS MEETING OF THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

The business meeting of the ISEMPH Education Committee this year is scheduled during the Annual Meeting in Durham, U.K. for Tuesday, 6 August 2024, from 1300-1400 in the Board Room. If you are planning to attend this year’s meeting and your schedule permits, you are cordially invited to participate in this important meeting.

MEETING FOCUS:

At last year’s meeting in California, we announced that ISEMPH had submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. National Science Foundation in July, 2023 to support the Society’s efforts to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) across the organization and in the field of evolutionary medicine more broadly. The proposal outlined plans for addressing DEIB issues within the organization by focusing on ISEMPH’s leadership, journals, website, annual meetings, Club EvMed, and education programs. We found out later last year that the proposal was not funded. The leadership of ISEMPH is now exploring ways to implement aspects of DEIB for which funding from NSF was not requested and to decide whether to resubmit a modified proposal in 2025. A 2 hour workshop is scheduled during the annual meeting on Friday, 9 August to more fully explore these possibilities and solicit input from ISEMPH members.

Accordingly, much of the agenda for the Education Committee’s business meeting also will be devoted to exploring ways in which our courses and other education activities in evolutionary medicine can be modified to increase emphasis on DEIB. This discussion will focus on improving DEIB for students (undergraduate graduate, and pre-college levels) and faculty. Since ours is an international organization, another important component of this discussion will focus on the opportunities and challenges of increasing DEIB in all parts of the world where evolutionary medicine is taught, and ways to share those resources with ISEMPH colleagues across the globe to use in their own education efforts and outreach. These discussions will inform a breakout session about education during the workshop on 9 August.

OTHER TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:

Another agenda item for the Education Committee business meeting will be to consider how the Committee’s efforts can be directed to providing ISEMPH members with other kinds of education resources that can be used for teaching about this subject.

Whether you are able to attend the meeting or not, I also encourage you to send me your ideas and suggestions for other topics that should be included in the agenda for the business meeting. Please send your ideas to me at jaylabov@evmed.org. Shortly after the annual meeting concludes, I will send everyone who is receiving this message a summary of the business meeting and discussions during the workshop that focus on education.

Thank you!