Stephanie L. Fitzpatrick, PhD, FSBM
Since January 20th, President Trump has issued over 75 executive orders. These actions have resulted in mass firings of federal employees, freezing or significant cuts to federal funding for life-saving programs and research, pause in essential federal processes, and discontinuation of programs and initiatives that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In this Spring issue of our Society’s newsletter, it was hard for me to decide what the focus of my piece should be for the President’s column. Usually the Spring piece is supposed to be upbeat and highlight the exciting programming and resources we are launching this spring, which we do have quite a few coming up (see Update for 38). But, as I strive to be transparent and authentic during my presidency, I felt not addressing the current state of our country would be tone deaf. Below are some of my personal reflections, thoughts, and feelings.
Feel all the Feelings. In the beginning of the year, I thought that because of my leadership positions at work and within other organizations, I needed to present as positive, hopeful, and calm; be a role model on how to cope effectively and contribute to finding solutions and not just complain. However, I quickly learned that was not an authentic nor sustainable approach for me. Fear, sadness, joy, anger, happiness, disappointed, annoyed, connected, energetic, guilt, anxiety – are just some of the emotions I feel throughout the day. I had to allow myself to feel all the feelings whenever they arise. I can be angry and frustrated after reading the news headlines, find joy in celebrating a friend’s milestone birthday, and be sad when a mentee tells me they were just fired from their federal position. To not allow these emotions to be expressed created an unnecessary weight that I realized was not healthy for me to carry. To process these emotions, I have really leaned in to fostering community with others.
Engage with Community. Since the first set of executive actions have been issued, I make a point to dedicate space and time during my weekly team meetings for us all to share how we are feeling about the latest news. During this time, we also work together to separate fact from misinformation, keeping in mind that executive orders are not laws, and process how some of these actions may impact our current research projects and future research grant applications. I also use this approach during my 1-on-1s with my mentees, most of whom are postdocs or early career faculty. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I find that just allowing a brave space for people to express and process their emotions allows for genuine connection, which I feel like we need more of these days.
Advocate. I have been very appreciative of APA’s regular communication about their advocacy efforts and how we as constituents in our respective states can get involved (see APA/APASI Response Center). Sending a letter to my congress persons – Done! Boycotting certain businesses – Check! But I’m stuck feeling like I should be doing more. However, it is hard to come up with a game plan when the game changes daily. At the foundation of all of this is chaos and distraction. There clearly needs to be a collective response, but what happens when the collective is not truly together? The compliance to some of these executive orders have been appalling – deleting of publicly available datasets, removing gender as a variable, discontinuing DEI initiatives and deleting DEI language from websites and job titles, and use of AI to search for DEI-related and other terms in awarded and submitted federal grant applications. What really is the best advocacy approach when institutional and corporate leadership have appeared to give in? Perhaps time will tell.
Maintain Integrity and Stay True to Values. Maintaining integrity and staying true to my values are probably the most challenging right now. When I first learned about the list of words/phrases that are ‘forbidden’ to be used in federal grant announcements, applications, or websites, I first decided that I was going to launch my own individual protest and ignore this order. However, I had several colleagues sharing with me their plans for using alternate words/phrasing so their grants would not get rejected. “We have to get funded Stephanie, and we have to fund our staff.” I completely understand this reasoning as I too need to ensure continuous funding for my team – there are people’s livelihoods at stake. However, what happens when we are not allowed to call out the disparities and inequities out loud? Do they go away? Do we no longer have Black birthing people being 3 times more likely to die in childbirth than White birthing people or does the significant gap in obesity and diabetes prevalence between Black and White adults narrow? If the truth isn’t recorded, does it stop being the truth? No, it doesn’t, but if no one is willing to tell the story I fear the implications it has on our next generation of students, scientists, and practitioners. So, what am I doing to maintain integrity and stay true to my values right now? I am focusing on the work that needs to be done in minoritized, marginalized, and low-income communities. I may have to be creative about how I get funded, but the mission remains the same.
I want to be clear that in writing this piece, these thoughts and feelings are my own and do not represent APA or SfHP leadership. My goals are simply to bring voice to perhaps some of your own thoughts and feelings as well as start a dialogue amongst Society members in which we can support one another.