Officers of the Board
Heather DeShon, President
Susan Bilek, President-Elect
Ruth Harris, Past President
Kris Pankow, Secretary
Jacob Walter, Treasurer
Board of Directors
Annemarie Baltay (2026)
Ashly Cabas (2025)
Roby Douilly (2025)
Andreas Fichtner (2027)
Victor Huerfano (2026)
Debi Kilb (2027)
Diego Melgar (2025)
Zhigang Peng (2027)
Carl Tape (2027)
Aaron Velasco (2026)
Executive Committee
Heather DeShon, President
Susan Bilek, President-Elect
Kris Pankow, Secretary
Ruth Harris, Past-President
All Committees (click the name to view description):
- Audit Committee
- Budget Committee
- Community Grants Committee
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
- Ethics Committee
- Executive Committee
- Government Relations Committee
- Honors Committee
- Investment Committee
- Management Committee
- Meetings Committee
- Publications Committee
Contact Executive Director Nan Broadbent with any questions.
- Purpose: The Audit Committee reviews the external auditor’s report.
- Deliverables: The report of the Audit Committee will be presented to the Board for approval no later than the deadline for publication of audited statements in the September issue of SRL.
- Committee Membership: The committee shall consist of three sitting Board members.
- Purpose: The Budget Committee reviews the budget prepared by the staff and authorizes that it may be forwarded to the full Board for approval.
- Deliverables: The committee will deliver the authorized budget to the Board for approval.
- Committee Membership: Treasurer and Secretary of the Board of Directors.
Community Grants Program (2022-2024)
- Purpose: The committee reviews and approves grants, based on available funding, submitted to the Community Grants Program.
- Deliverables: The committee awards the Community Grants.
- Committee Membership: The committee shall consist of four board members: Chair (elected Board member) (two-year term, subject to renewal), two elected board members (two-year terms, subject to renewal) and the Secretary, who represents the Executive Committee.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
- Purpose: The DEI Committee’s charge has four components:
- Recommend to the Board actions and initiatives that will improve DEI throughout SSA;
- Support the Board’s implementation of the principles and initiatives that foster DEI in all SSA activities;
- Review DEI initiatives implemented within SSA and their outcomes; and
- Liaise with DEI groups in other geoscience societies to develop and share resources that improve the participation of under-represented groups in SSA and in geoscience more generally.
- Deliverables: The committee will provide annual updates to the Board on committee-led DEI initiatives and outcomes and recommendations to improve DEI throughout SSA. It will also develop and share resources to increase participation of under-represented groups.
- Committee Membership: Committee members shall be appointed for a term of up to three years by the President in consultation with the Executive Committee. All members of the committee shall be active members of SSA, and no member shall serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. The chair of the committee, at the time of appointment to this role, shall be a member of the Board other than an Officer.The DEI Committee shall have the following membership:
- Early-career representative
- Representative of SSA’s social science research community
- Representative of minority-serving institutions
- Industry representative
- Representative based outside the United States
- Chair of annual Nominations Committee (ex officio)
- Government Relations Committee representative (ex officio)
- Meetings Committee representative (ex officio)
- Publications Committee representative (ex officio)
- Honors Committee representative (ex officio)
- Purpose: The Executive Committee shall act in place and stead of the Board between Board meetings, as defined in the Bylaws.
- Deliverables: The Executive Committee will report its actions to the Board at least as often as the annual Board meetings. The Secretary shall include the actions of the Executive Committee for the year in the written Secretary’s Report.
- Committee Membership: The Executive Committee, as set forth in section 7.02 of the Bylaws, shall consist of the President, Vice President (referred to as President-Elect), Past-President and Secretary.
Government Relations Committee
- Purpose: The Committee on Government Relations (GRC) is charged with encouraging government support for research in seismology and related disciplines and promoting public safety. It works to enhance the use of science in public policy and in its implementation.
- Deliverables: The committee will increase the involvement of members in public policy activities and provide relevant scientific information to decision makers, their staff, and members of the public.
- Committee Membership: No specific requirements.
- Purpose: The Honors Committee (HC) oversees and encourages the activities of all honors-related subcommittees: the Reid Medal, the Richter Award, the Press Award, the Award for Distinguished Service to SSA and the SSA Awards Encouragement Committee. The committee also designates members of the Society as SSA representatives to awards conducted jointly with other organizations: the COSMOS/EERI/SSA Bolt Medal and the EERI/SSA Joyner Lectureship.
- Deliverables: The committee will designate members of the Society as SSA representatives to awards conducted jointly with the COSMOS/EERI/SSA Bolt Medal and the EERI/SSA Joyner Lectureship.
- Committee Membership: The Honors Committee is chaired by a member of the Board of Directors and a representative of each subcommittee and may include the past chair of the Honors Committee. The terms of service are generally two years and are subject to renewal based on mutual agreement.
- Purpose:The Investment Committee oversees the investment strategy of the Society’s reserves and related long-term investments, including the general reserves, quasi-endowment and restricted funds.
- Deliverables:The chair will provide annual updates to the Board of Directors or when major changes to the investment strategy are undertaken.
- Committee Membership: The committee will include five to seven members, with up to two current Board members. The chair is not required to be a Board member. The committee member term will be three years, subject to renewal upon mutual agreement.
- Purpose: The Management Committee oversees the contract with the Executive Director on behalf of the Board.
- Deliverables: No deliverables specified.
- Committee Membership: The committee consists of the Secretary, Treasurer and an elected Director.
- Purpose: The Meetings Committee ensures the continuity and vision of the Society’s scientific meetings.
- Deliverables: The committee will provide guidance to the Annual Meeting co-organizers on the proposed scientific content and support the recruitment of session proposals and abstracts; Develop proposals for the Fall meeting program and make recommendations to the Board of Directors; and Provide guidance, as needed, on all other meetings of the Society of a scientific nature.
- Committee Membership: The committee consists of at least three and no more than nine members who will serve three-year terms that may be renewed by mutual consent. No more than three Board members shall serve concurrently on the Committee, and its membership shall reflect the diversity of the Society.
- Purpose: The Publications Committee provides general supervision over the scientific publications of the Society and develops Society-wide publications policies, seeking Board input and approval as appropriate. The Publications Committee chair is responsible for adjudicating any conflicts of interest, ethical misconduct and complaints from authors that cannot be resolved by the journals’ respective editors-in-chief. The editors-in-chief are accountable to the Chair, who is responsible for overseeing the recruitment of editors-in-chief, when necessary. The Chair works with the Executive Director who directs the Society’s publishing operation.
- Deliverables: Each year the chair of the Publications Committee shall submit periodic written and oral reports to the Board of Directors.
- Committee Membership: The Publications Committee consists of four-to-six members. Each member will serve a term of three years, which may be renewed upon mutual agreement, with the exception of the chair, whose term will be five years, subject to extension upon mutual agreement. The committee membership will include at least two board members at the time of their appointment, and may include non-board members who have strong, relevant experience in publishing. The committee will always include at least one sitting board member.