Joanne Broder Sumerson

Joanne Broder Sumerson, PhD
joannebrodersumerson@gmail.com

Time flies when you are having fun! I cannot believe my presidential year is almost over.  It has been a great year of change and growth for the division.  As President-Elect June Wilson and I transition, the division-as-a-whole is in a fantastic place.  Our executive board is stronger than ever, membership nearly doubled, and we are creating more opportunities for students who are our future leaders.

It was great seeing so many of you in August at the annual APA convention in DC. Thank you to Frank Farley and Krishna Kumar for being the convention dream team with organizing an amazing event.  As usual, the social hour was amazing, fun, and full of positive energy. Our division is a big family with a long history of love and achievement as reflected by the awards given every year to individuals with notable contributions to media psychology and technology.  It was exciting to deliver my presidential address on Device Management and Intelligence (DMI) at the 2017 convention.  It was also wonderful to finally meet Chrysalis Wright, who stepped in as Secretary while Chairing the Sexualization of Music Committee.

I was fortunate to be able to use my presidential platform to introduce a DMI about which I feel very passionate. As much as we love and cannot live without our technology, we need to unplug and hug as well as maintain good digital citizenship. The DMI committee, led by Don Grant, is feverishly planning for next year and looking to expand our work beyond the scope of the division.  I will keep you posted as the initiative grows…

Throughout the year, we have continued to hold our Virtual Social Hours. Hosted by the dream team of Jonathan Grimes and Eric Peterson, they are fun, informative, and most importantly, we get to see each other all year round as opposed to trying to squeeze it in during convention time.  They are informal and fun.  Unlike a formal meeting, we encourage you to log on from wherever you are even just to say hi for a few minutes.  The Membership Committee also nearly doubled our membership with nearly 400 more new members!  We welcome our new members to the Division 46 family with open arms.  The board is working to make sure all of our new members have a home.  Keep your eyes open for the Member Satisfaction Survey to ensure we meet your needs as a division.

In and out of the years, we have had student committees. Unfortunately, we do not have one currently in place.  We are working to form partnerships with doctoral programs to get students networked and involved in the division.  As the field’s future leaders, we want them to find a home within the division.  We are such a strong and prominent society that we can help prepare them for the “real world” from a totally different angle.

Thank you again for the honor and privilege of being your president. It was amazing to follow the footsteps of my mentor and father Michael Broder, our founding president, 30 years ago when the division was established in 1987.  I am excited about the future of the division in 2018 and 2019 under the leadership of the exceptional, brilliant, and talented June Wilson and Kathryn Stamoulis.