I feel quite a mix of emotions as I write my last column to the SPSSI community as outgoing President. I’m thrilled at the tremendous turnout and intellectual vitality of our 2024 annual meeting in Philadelphia, which broke our all-time participation record with over 600 attendees! I’m excited about the new leadership elected to Council and for the upcoming presidencies of both Heather Bullock and Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, two of the most inspiring and insightful psychologists and leaders I know. I’m proud of the work we did this past year to advance the psychology of social issues during major transitions in the organization and amid terrible tumult in the world around us. I often feel desperate—and sometimes a bit despondent—about the suffering and hate we witness daily in our lives both here in the U.S. and on the global stage. And I’m bewildered at how quickly the past 12 months went by.

As I pass the proverbial baton to President Heather Bullock, I’ve been reflecting on all that SPSSI does and will continue to do for its members, for psychology writ-large, and for society. In Philadelphia, Executive Director Anila Balkissoon and I hosted a breakfast to talk about the future of SPSSI with generations of SPSSI Presidents who have indelibly changed the discipline of psychology to make it a place more welcoming of the critical questions SPSSI scholars ask, as well as the disquieting answers they often provide. I’ve been thinking about past-President Abby Stewart’s leadership of our new NSF ADVANCE grant to study epistemic exclusion in academic societies/professional organizations, which will begin by examining how psychological societies may falter in our aspirations to radical inclusion despite our stated intentions. And I’m thinking about all the graduate students and other junior scholars who approached me at the conference this summer to tell me this was their first time attending SPSSI and that they had never been to a meeting like it.

In my presidential address, I talked about the need for those of who do psychology for social justice to “meet the moment” of American fascism. I was compelled to say this by the continued onslaught of discourse, law, policy advanced by those who seek to harm socially marginalized groups, to deny our freedoms, and to eliminate dissent as they usher a theocratic, hyper-capitalist, and deeply racist version of American society. This is not the type of talk one usually expects at a psychology conference. However, I was only able to give such an address, because I was buttressed by the intellectual bravery and political vision of generations of SPSSI scholars who demanded that psychology meet all the important moments before 2024. The 2024 presidential election will be historic, regardless of the outcome. And SPSSI scholars will be there to document, analyze, and influence the way we understand 2024 and its diverse implications. But 2024 will come and go, and there will be more moments to meet. If my year as your President has taught me anything, it is that SPSSI scholars are exceptionally prepared to meet the moments of today…and to help guide us toward far brighter futures.

Thank you for being a part of SPSSI today and tomorrow.

-Patrick