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Fall 2015

ABLE President's Report July 24, 2015
Association for Biology Laboratory Education
Ralph Preszler
New Mexico State University

I am happy to report that ABLE has had a successful and productive 2014/2015. Two highlights of the year were the Regional ABLE conference (RABLE) at University of California, Irvine and the international ABLE conference at Boston University.

RABLE 2015 provided a full day of workshops and events for over 60 participants. This very well-organized event was orchestrated by a team working across four departments: Brian Sato and Pavan Kadandale in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Justin Shaffer and Debra Mauzy-Melitz, Developmental and Cell Biology; Andrea Nicholas, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior; and Nancy Aguilar-Roca, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The diverse set of 12 workshops, as well as a keynote address by Dr. Susan Wessler, strengthened the growing presence of ABLE on the west coast. Thanks to all of you who hosted this event. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. For any of you interested in hosting a regional ABLE, please contact our RABLE Chair, Joe Newsome, who will provide you with plenty of encouragement and support.

The capstone experience of the year was the ABLE conference at Boston University. A big thanks to Kathryn Spilios and Angela Seliga for hosting a record number of attendees. They managed to organize all the major workshops, mini-workshops, and the poster session and kept the participants and presenters on track. They also hosted a REIL-Biology preconference on Tuesday, as well as field trips and socials throughout the week. I have now seen Big Papi hit a home run, and ABLERS dancing up a storm on a boat in the Boston harbor. The heart of the conference was to provide informal and structured opportunities for people to share their experiences teaching biology, particularly in laboratory settings. It was a great success thanks to Kathryn and Angela, the presenters, and all the participants.

ABLE is volunteer organization that continues to thrive because the members value its positive impact on their efforts to continue to find new and creative ways to teach biology. Alec Motten is stepping down as Treasurer and is transitioning these responsibilities to our new Treasurer Brian Sato, and Marielle Hoefnagels who is serving as our first Assistant Treasurer. Susanne Altermann is joining the Board as the 2015 first-year Member-at-large and Dianne Jennings agreed to join the Poster Committee. We are also in the process of transitioning the Proceedings Production Editor responsibilities from Dan Johnson to Megan Cole, Saewan Koh, and Kathryn Spillios. Many more individuals are serving in both elected and appointed positions that make ABLE work. I apologize for not listing all of you individually, but I would like to thank you for your great work. I am confident that Chris Beck, our new President, will successfully guide ABLE over the next two years. I look forward to seeing many of you at future ABLE conferences.

Ralph Preszler, ABLE President

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