From the Desk of the Executive Director

Building an even better ACS

In my last column, I wrote about the new ACS strategic plan for 2007 and beyond. I hope each of you has read the plan and provided your ideas and feedback. I always look forward to hearing from you, so please write me.

As a reminder, the core strategies of the plan are

• Enabling Scientific Progress: Provide the highest quality education, knowledge, and tools to facilitate solutions for major scientific challenges safely and sustainability
• Fostering Community: Strengthen the power of association by connecting people around the world in chemistry-related disciplines
• Transforming the World: Focus on challenges and opportunities at the intersection of chemistry and society that improve the quality of human life.

As Executive Director and CEO of the ACS, my major goal is to ensure that ACS staff supports its members in the context of the new strategic plan in the most successful, creative, and cost-effective ways. To that end, in January, I announced changes to the ACS staff organizational structure that optimally align our talented staff in order to achieve our mission.

In keeping with the strategic plan’s emphasis on enabling scientific progress, we have expanded the scope of the Membership Division and renamed it the Division of Membership and Scientific Advancement. The mission of the division is to serve the needs of the membership and to provide scientific and professional programs, products, and services that advance chemistry and its practitioners globally. Denise Creech, who has served as Director of the Membership Division, is leading this expanded division.

“It is imperative, if ACS is to remain the premier scientific society, that ACS links its members more closely with the scientific activities of the Society.”

ACS is both a membership and scientific society. It is imperative, if the ACS is to remain the premier scientific society, that the ACS links its members more closely with the scientific activities of the Society. Indeed, an important benefit of ACS membership is the ability to take part in a wide variety of scientific activities, including regional and national meetings, technical divisions, scientific awards, and the ACS Green Chemistry Institute.

The major units in this newly expanded division are

• Professional Advancement, headed by Martha Lester. This office includes Awards, Career Management and Development, the Office of Diversity Programs, and Leadership Development.
• Member Communities, headed by John Katz. This office includes Alliance Building, Industry Member Programs, Local Section/Community Activities, and Technical Divisions.
• Marketing and Operations, headed by Al Hutchins. This unit includes Consulting Services, Finances, Marketing, Meetings and Expositions, Conference Management, Member Research and Technology, and Member Services (which oversees production of Chemistry).
• Office of International Activities, headed by Tamara Nameroff. This unit was transferred from the Division of External Affairs, which was eliminated in the realignment. The Office of International Activities helps advance our vision of “fostering community” and serving our membership on a global basis.
• ACS Green Chemistry Institute was also transferred to the Division of Membership and Scientific Advancement from the Division of External Affairs. We are currently in the process of recruiting a new director to replace Paul Anastas, who resigned in December to accept a position at Yale University.

Another change to the staff organizational structure is the elevation of the Office of Research Grants—the largest component of which is the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF)—to a direct reporting relationship to me. Research Grants continues to be headed by Chris Hollinsed.

With assets approaching $600 million, the PRF is one of the nation’s largest private chemistry philanthropies, occupying a unique niche in the chemical enterprise. It is one of the ACS’s largest financial commitments to the scientific community and, more importantly, serves to advance our fields of science in ways that no other organization can accomplish. A special committee appointed by the ACS Board Committee on Grants and Awards and the ACS Board of Directors has been studying ways of revising the way the PRF operates with the goal of creating an even more vibrant future mission for this fund.

The staff realignment also consolidates under the Secretary and General Counsel, Flint Lewis, several key units that have a synergistic effect on one another and centralizes some of the most important ACS-wide functions. These functions are

• Office of Legislative and Government Affairs, headed by Glenn Ruskin. This function moved from the Division of External Affairs to the Office of the Secretary and General Counsel.
• Office of Communications, headed by Jane Shure. This office was also transferred from the Division of External Affairs.
• Planning functions, headed by Robert Rich. This office includes Strategic Planning, Program Review Advisory Group, Governance Review, and Contingency Planning.

The General Counsel/Legal function and Governance functions—supporting the Board of Directors and other volunteer governance—remain under the direction of the Secretary and General Counsel.

My senior management team and I are excited about serving our members better with this new realignment. The team consists of Brian Bernstein, ACS Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer; Robert Bovenschulte, President, Publications Division; Denise Creech, Director, Membership and Scientific Advancement; Chris Hollinsed, Director, Research Grants; Mary Kirchhoff, Director, Education Division; Flint Lewis, ACS Secretary and General Counsel; Robert Massie, President, Chemical Abstracts Service; Claudette Simpson, Director, ACS Human Resources; and John Sullivan, Chief Information Officer.

I am confident that these staff changes provide the ACS with a wonderful new platform to perform at our highest levels of accomplishment. The ACS staff and I look forward to working with all our members, our volunteer members of governance, and the ACS Board of Directors to help the ACS realize the ambitious vision that we have for the future of our organization and the global society: Improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry.