How Diversity is Becoming a Reality in the American Physiological Society.

Each year during Experimental Biology (EB), an informal class reunion takes place at the President’s Reception that is traditionally documented by a group picture of the current, past, and elected presidents in attendance. Marty Frank, APS Executive Director, shared the most recent one a few days after EB. This year’s presidents’ picture – with a distinctive and impressive group of women front and center – prompted a gut reaction that inspired us to seize this moment to emphasize a message of hope, progressive thinking, and accomplishment for our Society. During the first 100 years of APS’s existence, only one woman, Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen, served on APS Council, first as a councillor (1971) and then as president (1976). Sadly, this issue of The Physiologist also bears her obituary (p. 162). But we like to think she would enjoy our progress and the visible evidence of it shown in the picture. Now, women leaders within APS are no longer a rarity, but the norm! The contribution to diversity, through our training, professional experiences, personal life challenges, and focus of discipline that each of us, as women leaders, brings to our Society is captured below. Each woman’s trajectory to the We’ve Come a Long Way! July 2015 • Vol. 58/No. 4