Introducing the ISBD EMCC Co-Chairs
Dr. Rebekah Huber, ISBD EMCC Co-Chair
During my first term on the EMCC, I led the needs survey initiative with Drs. Katie Douglas and Sarah Sperry which set out to identify professional and career development needs of early-mid-career (EMC) clinicians and researchers in the field of bipolar disorders. Through this initiative, we developed a survey to assess the barriers to and facilitators of career advancement experienced by EMC professionals. The survey was disseminated internationally in five languages and completed by 300 individuals across 6 continents. We published papers to summarize the activities of the EMCC (Huber et al., 2022), the survey results (Sperry et al., 2023) and presented a symposium at the 2023 ISBD Conference to introduce initiatives to support EMCs (Huber et al., 2023).
The EMCC has been fortunate to have the leadership of Georgina Hosang and Ni Xu to establish a strong foundation for the future of the Committee. I aspire to follow their example of strength, dedication, and collaboration to carry out the Manifesto of initiatives proposed by the EMCC. My vision is that the EMCC supports the career development of the next generation of researchers and clinicians so they can help improve the lives of individuals living with bipolar disorder. To that end, I believe that the EMCC is well poise to foster networking and collaboration among EMCs through the creation of a community to further strengthen EMC involvement in ISBD and beyond. Finally, I aspire for the EMCC to continue to increase its global representation and engage and support a diverse community of EMCs.
Assistant Professor Katie Douglas, ISBD EMCC Co-Chair
I have been a member of the ISBD EMCC since its inception, under the strong leadership of co-chairs Georgina Hosang and Ni Xu. I am also the current co-chair of the Australasian chapter of the ISBD; the Australasian Society for Bipolar and Depressive Disorders (ASBDD). Supporting and advocating for early and mid-career (EMC) professionals in this field is hugely important to the sustainability of the discipline and something I feel strongly about.
In my first term as a member of the ISBD EMCC, I worked closely with Associate Professor Rebekah Huber and Assistant Professor Sarah Sperry in leading the ISBD EMCC Needs Assessment Survey. The role involved working collaboratively with the ISBD EMCC team, co-chairs and ISBD Executive members in developing, rolling out, and publishing findings from the survey. I held a more specific leadership role relating to the publication of the 'manifesto' paper developed from survey findings, on which I was the lead author.
I am excited to be co-chairing the ISBD EMCC with Rebekah Huber. During my term in this role, my vision is to roll out our planned initiatives from the ‘manifesto’ paper, while also being flexible to the ever-changing needs of EMC individuals. I am particularly invested in ensuring the needs of under-represented groups are prioritized on this committee.