WSAS Annual Report 2021

Fiscal year 2021 (July 2020 – June 2021) was one for the record books. As the pandemic swirled around us, we stayed on course and increased our members’ engagement through many virtual activities, built a solid organization, and expanded our programs. Although COVID-19 restricted our in-person outreach to legislators and state agencies, we interacted virtually and secured three new projects, and for the first time were awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

We include a few highlights in this brief summary, with more details available on our website, washacad.org. I would like to call particular attention to a few important developments in our small, nimble organization:

• We welcomed a record 36 new elected members into the Academy, each of whom brings a unique set of skills to bear on issues of importance to the state.
• We held a successful symposium (September 2020) on how science and technology can drive decarbonization in three key areas of the State’s economy: aerospace, agriculture, and information and communications technology.
• We designed and implemented a series of community dialogues both to learn about issues of concern to smaller communities around the state, beginning with pandemic-related topics, and then to tap research expertise to discuss those issues with community members.
• We launched three new committees to help the Academy improve its actions related to COVID-19 response, diversity, equity and inclusion, and communications with tribal entities.
• We began expanding the scope of our educational work.
• We created new ways to involve science and engineering graduate students in WSAS projects, as they explore the kinds of productive exchanges that can occur between researchers and state and national policy makers.

We are grateful to the scores of members and other scientists who have been involved in our activities in this past year, for our legislative and agency sponsors who recognize the value we add to policy discussions, for our donors who provide critical financial support, for the state’s many stakeholders who pay close attention to our projects, and for our staff who keep the WSAS moving forward with high energy and good spirit. The Academy succeeds because of the synergy among these various groups as we continue to act on our mission – science in the service of Washington State.

Sincerely,
Roger M. Myers
WSAS President
September 2020 – 2022