A message from 2024 GSA President, Mariana Wolfner.

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Thank you for being a member of the Genetics Society of America! As GSA’s current president, I am writing to tell you about Society projects and initiatives that we hope you will find useful in advancing your science and your career. Scientific research is a collaborative and exciting endeavor. Scientific societies like GSA exist to support their members and relevant research fields by fostering scientific communication, publication, exchange, and collaboration, and by building an inclusive scientific community whose members feel supported and inspired. It is also increasingly important for us to continue to advocate for evidence-based science and policies that rely on it and support genetic inquiry and geneticists. We welcome geneticists and genomicists of any career stage, working on any organism, and (despite our name) from anywhere in the world, and we offer programs and resources to serve our broad community.

As I wrote in the past weeks, GSA is working with our partners—including FASEB and the Coalition for Life Sciences (CLS)—to advocate to government officials and the public about the value of scientific research and the importance of maintaining its support and using its findings to make rigorous evidence-based policy decisions. Among our many activities in this area, we’ve organized Capitol Hill Days where scientists spoke to members of Congress and staffers about the importance and value of genetics research, we host workshops on science policy careers, and spotlight members who have chosen to pursue careers in science policy and are involved with advocacy. 

An important way in which GSA fosters scientific exchange and supports our community is by organizing conferences. In 2024, we hosted The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), which brought together 2,900+ geneticists from all over the world and spanning all career stages, for scientific discourse, networking, and building important partnerships and collaborations. We thank conference chairs Harmit Malik and Maureen Barr, their organizing committees, and GSA Staff for their heroic work to pull off this amazing meeting. GSA also holds organism- or field-centric conferences like the upcoming 66th Annual Drosophila Research Conference and the 25th International Worm Meeting, which will both take place next spring. At all of our meetings researchers hear and present the latest science, network with colleagues including leaders in the field, and meet potential collaborators, mentors, employers, and friends in a supportive atmosphere that also provides career-development opportunities. We hope you will continue to attend and present at these conferences, and spread the word to your network.  

It is also very important to us to support all members of our scientific community, pursuing any career that incorporates genetics, throughout the entirety of their career journey, from early- to mid-career and beyond. Our website highlights resources for early career scientists, including a dedicated program that offers real-world peer-review experience. Early career scientists are also encouraged to take on leadership roles through our Early Career Leadership Program, and through serving on Society committees or GSA’s Board of Directors, providing their perspective while gaining important experience and expanding their network. They can also access funding for conference attendance, abstract submission, and completion of lab courses, as well as professional development opportunities free of charge. If you are a mid-career GSA member, we are currently creating analogous resources for you, including a resources page on our website that will aggregate opportunities for this particular stage of your career, and mentorship or advice to help you seize them. And, in the spirit of cross-career stage collaboration, we aim to connect these communities for mutual benefit and help them engage with the public. We offer mentoring programs at conferences that match individual mentees and mentors and hold lunches where mentor–mentee groups can discuss career or science questions. And, valuing mentorship as we do, we have created the Genetics Society of America Mentorship Award to recognize outstanding mentors annually. 

Our excellent journals—GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics—serve our community by publishing the highest quality research on a wide range of topics in genetics, genomics, molecular biology, and more. Supported by Editors in Chief Howard Lipshitz and Lauren McIntyre, respectively, and their talented Editorial Boards along with GSA Journals Staff, both journals have fast turnaround and provide authors with clear, consolidated, and helpful feedback from editors and reviewers who are also practicing geneticists. We partner with Review Commons, and offer hassle-free, one-touch transfers between our journals. We use multiple communication mediums to increase articles’ visibility. Finally, we’re committed to data availability and are mission-driven publishers. All of this ensures you’ll have a top-notch publishing experience if you decide to make our journals a home for your valuable research.

Finally, a major goal of GSA is to foster a diverse and inclusive genetics community. We have undertaken this through many initiatives, including piloting an Inclusion Ambassador program at two conferences in 2024 to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment for attendees and funding childcare and caregiver financial assistance at TAGC to make our conference family-friendly and equitable. We provided over $97,500 in support for scientists from low- and middle-income countries as well as from underrepresented communities to attend TAGC. We held a plenary panel discussion moderated by past presidents Tracy Johnson and Denise Montell, to revisit the complicated history of eugenics and its relationship to geneticists and to the field today.  

To do all these things and more, we rely on the amazing staff at GSA, led by Executive Director Tracey DePellegrin, and on GSA members who volunteer their time and expertise serving on committees, working groups, our Board, and other key leadership roles. If you are eager to participate, please let us know. I invite you to check out our Year in Review to see what we accomplished in 2024 and what more we can do with your help! We are most grateful to members of our community who donate funds to champion these efforts and to all of our members whose membership dues also greatly bolster our work. We are also very grateful to our community members who support the Society by submitting their best work to our journals and encouraging colleagues to do the same, and by reviewing for our journals and encouraging their university or institution to subscribe to them. We strive to keep ahead of upcoming changes in the publishing landscape and are reinforcing our strategies to continue publishing high-quality research in the GSA Journals, ensuring that they remain competitive, expand coverage of new subject areas, extend our geographic footprint, and continue to provide the best author experience.

As a scientific society, we embrace our responsibilities to foster the best research, to advocate for the support and use of evidence-based science and to work with policymakers to ensure this, and to continue building an inclusive and intellectually-vibrant community for all geneticists. We hope you consider GSA your professional home. On a personal note, it has been a great honor to serve as GSA’s President in 2024, and to work with GSA Staff, current and former leadership, and members to foster our field. Thank you for this privilege, and for your support of GSA.

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