Third Decade
Executive Director’s Report
Bruce Wheeler
This is a big year for SRNT.
2024 marks the Society’s 30th Anniversary—we were founded by a dedicated band of nicotine and tobacco researchers in 1994, offspring of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
2024 marks my 20th anniversary as SRNT’s Executive Director (!!!). Can I just say that until SRNT
my longest professional gig was seven years? But SRNT has become my home not just my job.
This is a unique and truly special organization. I’m so grateful the Board hired me back in 2004! And I’m especially grateful to my first SRNT President, Ken Warner, who held my hand and helped acclimate me to the wonderous new world of nicotine and tobacco research.
Lastly, 2024 is the 10th anniversary of leadership providing detailed, written annual reports to the SRNT membership. Ten years ago, when I was drafting my first executive director’s report, I took a stroll down memory lane, looking back at my first decade—SRNT’s second. And here we are again, time to take a look back at another decade, my second and SRNT’s third!
And what a decade it has been! Here are just some of the highlights:
- In 2015, a number of SRNT volunteers completed work on the Global Nicotine & Tobacco
Foundational Research Certificate Program, a 10-course educational program designed to
help non-researchers working in community clinics and LMICs learn the how to conduct
and incorporate research into their practices. - Also in 2015, we rolled out SRNT’s new logo. Did you know the “wreath” that is the logo’s
focal point is a graphic interpretation of a nicotinic receptor? Terrific detail about a beautiful
logo. - Marcus Munafo became the third editor of Nicotine & Tobacco Research and this year is
completing his second five-year term as Editor-in-Chief. We owe him a collective debt of gratitude for all he has done, building on the work of David Balfour and founding Editor- in-Chief, Gary Swan. Thank you, Marcus. And David and Gary! - The Global Certificate Program was the cornerstone of the new online educational platform,SRNT University, originally led by Robin Mermelstein and later by Natalie Walker. SRNT-U also included links to a number of external resources and later housed the archive of SRNT Network webinars as well as a tremendous library containing links, documents,
videos, and podcasts related to different aspects of nicotine and tobacco research from all
parts of the globe. - In 2016 then-President Debbie Ossip oversaw development and implementation of the
new Fellows category of membership. This had been an idea as old as SRNT—it was even mentioned in the original Bylaws! But the idea of a Fellows category remained just that until
Debbie’s presidential term. Thank you, Debbie, for spearheading what has become a terrific way to recognize outstanding leaders in our membership! - 2018 saw the launch of the 18-month-long initiative, SRNT 2025. The idea was to take a long, hard look at who we are and who we are not. Workgroups, focus groups, and a member survey provided a ton of great info, including nearly unanimous agreement that SRNT is, first and foremost, a scientific society. The main ‘output’ from that internal review was a set of Guiding Principles and Boundary Statements, essentially a list of guardrails to help the Board in decision-making as the Society continues its natural growth and evolution.
- Another significant initiative in the past 10 years was the Racial Equity Task Force. Put together in the wake of the George Floyd tragedy, the Task Force’s charge was to take a look at SRNT’s structure, programs and activities, policies and procedures, and Bylaws to see how and where to make changes in support of our goal to become an anti-racist organization; systemic racism, however unintentional, is a problem that needs to be eradicated, and SRNT is an organization that was/is not immune. The Task Force presented a final report containing more than 60 individual recommendations to the Board of Directors. I’m pleased to report that 23 of those recommendations have been implemented (such as adding the Health Equity educational track to the Annual Meeting and revising the Bylaws to give all members the right to vote) and at the time of this report, 13 more are in the review process awaiting implementation. SRNT wants to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I am grateful to the members of the Task Force for bringing to light the many things that need to be changed. That group—and so many others working to fight racism—have my undying respect and gratitude. You have educated me, as well as SRNT.
- SRNT has a new Chapter! In 2019 SRNT members Down Under came together to form the Oceania Chapter, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and the islands in the South Pacific. One group supported by the Chapter is the SRNT Indigenous Circle.
- The past 10 years have seen a number of webinars and papers presented/published by SRNT Networks. These groups are astounding in their dedication—and their output! In addition, SRNT came up with Virtual Events in 2020 as a way to help close the financial gap, a result of Covid fallout, and to provide more detailed information and discussion on hot topics.
- On the subject of Covid, who can forget SRNT’s first (and hopefully last) fully virtual Annual Meeting? SRNT presented the 2021 conference as if we were meeting in person. While other associations dabbled in virtual conferences with one or two concurrent breakouts, SRNT’s 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting had five plenary lectures; hundreds of virtual posters; and believe it or not, our usual 10 concurrent breakout sessions across four tracks in each of the podium sessions! Oh, and my father became an honest-to-goodness hashtag thanks to his hysterical conference promo. That conference was so much work for everyone involved, but it was a tremendous success and just goes to show what can be accomplished by a handful of very dedicated volunteers and staff working together!
- We had two firsts in SRNT presidents in the last five years: Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin became our first South Asian President and Patricia Nez Henderson became our first Indigenous President. Congratulations—and a huge THANK YOU—to both!
- Two more firsts in the last five years were the creation of the Pebbles Fagan Health Equity Award and the Mira Aghi LMIC Researcher Award. Both are much-needed, welcome additions to SRNT’s Scientific Awards Program.
- We’ve had two non-US Annual Meetings in the last 10 years: Florence in 2017 and Edinburgh in 2024.
- Finally, and bringing us up to date, Chris Bullen became the first SRNT President to come from the Oceania region. Speaking of SRNT Presidents, I want to give a shoutout to all the presidents of the past 10 years: Thank you Chris Bullen, thank you Patricia Nez Henderson, thank you Megan Piper, thank you Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, thank you. Suzanne Colby, thank you Marina Picciotto, thank you Jodi Prochaska, thank you Debbie Ossip, thank you Robin Mermelstien, and thank you Tom Gould!!
In closing, I hope each and every one of you is blown away by the accomplishments of the past
10 years as I am! People forget what a relatively small association SRNT is. What we’ve collectively
accomplished is nothing short of jaw dropping. None of those accomplishments could have
happened without you, the members of SRNT. You are the inspiration and the reason we do what we do. You are the reason I get out of bed and come to work every day.
Thank YOU.
If you’d like to read first SRNT President Ovide Pomerleau’s review of SRNT’s first decade, click
here.
If you’d like to read his more recent commentary, “Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco as an Outgrowth of the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Nicotine Addiction: Reflections of the Early Presidents,” click here.
If you’d like to read my retrospective of SRNT’s second decade, click here.
And, if you’d like to see a more comprehensive list of highlights from our third decade, click here.
(link to be added)
Here’s to SRNT’s fourth, fifth, and sixth decades! May they be as productive and impactful
as the first, second and third!