Presidential Note: Celebrating the Academy

Health Behavior Research Volume 5 Number 1 Article 1 February 2022 Presidential Note: Celebrating the Academy Katie M. Heinrich Kansas State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/hbr Part of the Public Health Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Heinrich, Katie M. (2022) "Presidential Note: Celebrating the Academy," Health Behavior Research: Vol. 5: No. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/2572-1836.1135 This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Health Behavior Research by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact . Presidential Note: Celebrating the Academy Abstract N/A Keywords presidential note This editorial is available in Health Behavior Research: https://newprairiepress.org/hbr/vol5/iss1/1 Heinrich: PRESIDENTIAL NOTE: CELEBRATING THE ACADEMY Presidential Note: Celebrating the Academy Katie M. Heinrich, PhD, FAAHB, FACSM Kansas State University Dear AAHB members and friends, When I attended my first Academy meeting in 2011, I knew I had found my professional home. The personal and professional relationships I have gained through my AAHB membership significantly contributed to my professional growth as well as offered me numerous opportunities for Academy involvement. Starting in 2011, I served on the Professional Development Council, followed by Research Review Chair, Awards Committee, Conference Planning Committee, Poster Judge and Abstract Reviewer, and three separate Ad Hoc Journal Committees including the creation of this journal, which is housed at my university. I have also mentored two fabulous junior faculty members through our Research Scholars Mentorship Program. I have served on the Board since 2014, first as Chair of the Marketing and Communications Council and next as Member Delegate, and for the past year I have been honored to provide leadership to the Academy as President. By design, AAHB is a smaller organization, focused on research excellence. Our mission is to serve as the “research home” for health behavior scholars committed to excellence and diversity in research to improve the public’s health. We strive toward six goals, including: fostering health behavior knowledge development and dissemination; recognizing outstanding research achieve-ments; encouraging collaborative research; influencing health policy and resource allocation within agencies, private foundations, and universities; mentoring young scholars; and creating/sustaining a welcoming and diverse environment, reflected in our membership, health behavior issues, approaches, and dissemination. Our strengths include: recognizing and rewarding outstanding research among our members; our Research Scholars Mentorship Program; our multiple health behavior foci; our encouragement of collaborative research; and our welcoming and increasingly diverse environment – particularly at our annual meetings. A key and important aspect of the Academy is the strong relationships that are built among members who are dedicated to conducting excellent health behavior research. Over the past year I have led the Board in moving forward through the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, including hosting our first in-person meeting since 2019! I also asked the AAHB Board to continue to work on strategic planning for each respective council and committee as well as to increase our offerings throughout the year and not just at our annual meeting. As with all of academia and research, it has been difficult to sustain operations during the continuing restrictions posed by the pandemic. Yet, we had a very successful online conference in 2021, largely due to our engaged membership and the leadership our dedicated AAHB Board members. The 2022 conference will pay homage to our collective gratitude for being able to gather together again in person. Thank you for the opportunity to serve, 2021-22 President, American Academy of Health Behavior Published by New Prairie Press, 2022 1  (...truncated)