At the close of perhaps the most impactful year many of us have ever known, I am writing to you from just south of Boston, listening in the darkness to the sounds of the ocean. The stars are bright and clear tonight, with Orion the hunter, followed by Sirius, the bright blue dog star, overhead. It is cold; the grass is brittle with ice. The windows glow with warmth behind me. I have been honored to work as the President of the Board this year. I am blessed with committed colleagues who love ACBS, who put in many hours weekly to support it, to help us as an organization grow in our wisdom and support of our members, to reflect honestly about where we can grow. I am lucky. Not all of us are so lucky.
ACBS is growing. We are growing steadily more diverse, with members around the world, from many cultures and nations, from different professions from coaches to public health scientists to evolutionary biologists, from marginalized to privileged groups. It is exciting to me that our organization may become a scientific home for so many different perspectives, for as we become more varied, and as we flex our thinking, we will richen and deepen our work.
But we are also experiencing growing pains. We continue to grapple with how best to amplify the diverse perspectives that make up our community; we continue to build our infrastructure to support our scientific and clinical goals; and we have had to be flexible to find our way through 2020. It has been a challenging year around the world. Yet, true to our nature, our community has stepped up, has reached out, has marshalled our resources to support those around us as we make our way through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many in ACBS have been creating resources, offering their time pro-bono, and reaching out in support of our colleagues and communities. If you are one of our members who has done this, thank you. Thank you for representing us well, and thank you for your generosity, time, and for sharing your expertise.
Now at the beginning of 2021, as the year turns towards the light and begins the slow and quiet shift into a new season, it seems a good time to reflect on how this time has changed us and has forged our community into something new.
Little did we know.
Little did we know that 2020 would be a year that would bring fires and floods around the world, the steady loss of biodiversity, unrest in many countries, and to top it off, we are in the middle of a pandemic that has resulted in mass lockdowns and over 2 million deaths.
Little did we know how short our time would be with each other. We have suffered many losses in our families, in our friends, to COVID.
Let’s pause for a moment and breathe. A good friend of mine sometimes reminds me that we can only take steps from where we are – not from where we wish to be. So let us take some steps now, as we are, together. And let us look back to see how far we have come.
Lisa Coyne, Ph.D.
ACBS Board President
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