Welcome back, everyone,
We have arrived in 2022 together. I would first like to thank the immediate past chair Samina Azad for her service to the St. Louis Section and the national organization. I also share gratitude and thankfulness to the governance team, committee members, and all the members at large within the chemical enterprise that we work on behalf of to foster a love for chemistry and the advancement of the profession.
It’s been a privilege that we have had an opportunity to belong to a profession that brings hope and science to American communities even in the midst of tough times. The present pandemic has shown us not only the need but the value of what happens when we work together. We have also during this time seen a recommitment of our professional society to make sure we foster a love of chemistry and spread the hope of science in a way that fosters diversity, inclusion, and respect. In fact, we have seen this play out in many aspects of our greater society.
I welcome each of you to join as we put action behind our commitments, reimagine inclusion, and begin making our words our reality. Therefore, as the section chair my stated focus is clear: building inclusive chemists. We each have a solid shared understanding to go about building a more inclusive section and overall professional society.
In the words of one of my favorite chemists Dr. Bettye Washington Greene; ” I am satisfied, but nothing is ever enough.” I ask that with the strength of belief in our ideas, with courage and conviction, we take action to learn, grow, explore what can be, never to be simply satisfied, and look for ways in which we ourselves might think differently. This is the true measure of our human capacity to carry the profession forward. I welcome you to come with the section on this path to true inclusion, and I am more than humbled to be able to lead and serve in this capacity as your 2022 chair.
Cynthia Chapple, Chair 2022
“Computers and the physics of complex biological systems”
