I am delighted to announce the endowment of the Lefkowitz Fund within the SIOP Foundation. Created as an “incubator fund” a year ago, it has reached its full $75,000 endowment target. Its proceeds will support the Joel Lefkowitz Early Career Award for Humanistic Industrial-Organizational Psychology.

As was announced during SIOP’s inaugural #SIOPServingMilitary social media campaign during Veterans Day week last November, SIOP is doubling down on its commitment to veterans, current military personnel, and military family members by relaunching the Military and Veterans Initiative (MVI) as an official SIOP task force. The effort was originally founded in 2011 by Nathan Ainspan to leverage the unique skills of I-Os for the betterment of the veteran community. Soon after its start, Kristin Saboe joined as volunteer coordinator and eventually codirector of a collaborative effort of SIOP members offering career coaching to wounded and transitioning service members, as well as corporate consulting on the topic of veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce. As of this month, with support from President Talya Bauer and the Executive Board, SIOP is recognizing the group as a formal task force. 

Use the #SIOP19 tag on social media for the upcoming SIOP conference. Hashtags used effectively leave important bread crumbs for others to follow to I-O psychology gold. 

What is the big deal about using hashtags? People get encouraged to use them, and some people clearly use them a little too much. There are those on social media who almost never use tags and on the other end of the continuum those on social media who have fun trying to make up new ones on a frequent basis. But what is the purpose or the actual functionality of a hashtag?

As anticipated by a majority of polls, Democrats took back the majority in the House of Representatives, and the Republicans made gains in the Senate in the mid-term elections on November 6.  With the House and Senate moving in opposite directions, the elections defied a simple takeaway message. Americans appeared more polarized along party lines than any time in modern history. With many moderate Republicans losing in the House and several moderate Democrats losing in the Senate, finding areas of common ground may be even more difficult in the next Congress as the House and Senate set up dueling agendas in the months ahead.

Over the next several TIP articles, the SIOP UN team is proud to present perspectives from I-O psychology professionals who have worked with the UN and shared their inside perspectives with us. This first issue will focus on students and early career individuals who have interned or volunteered for the UN. In future articles, we will also interview some volunteers and more mid-career level UN employees and collaborators.