President's Corner

President’s Message

January 2026

I am honored to write my first President’s Message to kick off our ISEE 2026 newsletters. For those of you who may not know me, let me introduce myself. I have been an ISEE member since the organization began. I actually attended the first meeting where the idea for ISEE was born in 1987. I spent my career at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (part of the US National Institutes of Health). During those 40 plus years, I held a succession of positions where I led programs that help to foster and grow the field of environmental epidemiology in the US and around the world. Through the direction and stewardship of the environmental epidemiology and then more broadly the entire extramural research and training portfolio in public health, environmental health, toxicology and related science, I was able to work with scientists at all career levels, many of whom are members of ISEE. In my final years at NIEHS, I led the NIH Climate Change and Health program from the Office of the Director and led efforts to create the strategic plan for NIEHS for 2025-2029. In March of 2025, I retired from US Federal service and became part of the elected leadership of ISEE. I am thrilled to have the time and energy to devote to a society that has been my professional home, to maintain relationships with friends and colleagues I have known for decades and to create new relationships with our members across our chapters.

2025 has been a year of learning and listening for me as I connected more closely to the work of our Society. I learned so much about the different facets of our work and the many ways that our volunteers give their time tirelessly to develop and promote the various activities of ISEE. I have been delighted, and also overwhelmed, with the commitment and devotion that so many of you have to ISEE. Each month, through webinars, chapter and committee meetings, Special Interest Groups, and meetings of the ISEE Executive Council, our members connect on-line or through email and social media to discuss a variety of different issues important to you, your work, and our field. ISEE has grown substantially over the last decade, and there have been some growing pains. I hope to use my experience in organizational change management and governance to help create a stronger ISEE that can withstand future pressures. We have witnessed attacks on our science, funding, and the practice of public health in the last year which have caused stress for many members. As we create a resilient ISEE, I would like us to be ready to face the future.

With the launch of our new strategic plan this year, I encourage you to delve into it and see where you and your work fit in. I hope that our goals and many of the ideas that we have to achieve them resonate with you. You can read our strategic plan here: https://www.iseepi.org/strategic_plan.php

I believe that an organization’s Strategic plan should be a living document that reflects the priorities of its members. It isn’t just a document that we write to fill a space on the web, but something we use as a guide for activities and actions over ISEE's life span. Early in 2026, the Executive Council, together with the Chapter and Committee chairs, will meet to discuss the plan in detail and spend time aligning our current activities with the goals. We will also do a deep dive into the many items listed in the plan that we want to accomplish over the next 5 years and strategize on how to implement them. This will include establishing some metrics to measure our accomplishments over each year. We will be gathering data on what we accomplish and I’ll be sharing updates on our progress periodically.

In closing, I’d like to share my gratitude to those of you who helped me get my footing last year in order to feel prepared to lead ISEE as your President. I can’t thank Nelson Gouveia and Michelle Turner enough for sharing information and perspective on so many issues and giving me a strong sense of the history of ISEE. As President-Elect, I had the luxury of asking many, many, many questions so that I could grasp the nuances of our organization, it’s policies, procedures, and culture. I was lucky to be able to learn from two people that have served the Society well. They were generous with their time and welcomed, or should I say, put up with what might have seemed liked endless questions. A great thanks to both of them for their incredible service to ISEE. I’d also like to give a big thank you to Kathryn Salucka who led our Secretariat as the account manager at Infinity Conference Group. She and her staff were unbelievably responsive to all of my questions and requests. I’d also like to announce that ISEE underwent a rigorous search process this fall to select a new company to manage our Society. The contract was awarded to Bocere Group on January 5, 2026, to lead operations as the ISEE Secretariat in 2026. I am delighted to share that Kathryn Salucka is the CEO of Bocere Group and so I am confident that we will have a smooth transition and not lose any momentum.

I would like to thank all of you who have welcomed me into this new role. Those who have taken time for 1:1 calls, catch up conversations at the August conference, and for emails sent over the year. As your President, I am anxious to connect with as many of you as possible and engage in dialogue about issues that you care about. I am available by email when you’d like to share your thoughts, your successes, and your concerns as the year goes on. You can reach me at president[at]iseepi.org and you can be sure that I will get back to you for further discussion. I hope that 2026 will be an engaging and vibrant year at ISEE and I look forward to working with all of you and seeing you at our annual conference in Munich in August.

Best,