Sundeep Khosla Named to NIAMS Advisory Council
Sundeep Khosla, MD, a past chair of the Society’s Clinical Endocrine Education Committee, the Annual Meeting Steering Committee, and the Laureate Awards Committee, has been named to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) advisory council. Part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the council comprises scientific and lay members who have expertise in the mission areas of the institute. Council members provide advice to the institute on broad policy issues and make recommendations on research proposals.
Khosla is the Dr. Francis Chucker and Nathan Landow Research Professor, a Mayo Foundation Distinguished Investigator, and the dean for clinical and translational science at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn. As principal investigator on a number of NIH grants, Khosla’s research projects include investigating the mechanisms of bone loss in women and men, sex hormone action on bone, and the biology of osteoprogenitor cells (those involved in the growth or repair of bone) and stem cells.
Aside from his duties as a past committee chair and member, Khosla has seved on the ENDO Editorial Board, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Editorial Board, and is currently on the Advisory Board for Endocrine Reviews.
Society Journal Sites Gets Upgraded
The Endocrine Society journal sites are in the process of moving to a responsive web design, which will optimize the journal content viewing experience for readers.
This new responsive design will allow readers to view content on your smartphones, tablets, and a variety of other devices. With this user-friendly shift, the journals are doing away with the current journals app and will cease production within the next few months.
If you have questions or concerns about this, please contact Maggie Haworth, associate director, Publishing Operations, at [email protected].
HHN’s Cheretta Clerkley Recognized by the ASAE
Cheretta Clerkley, MBA, CASE, director of the Endocrine Society’s Hormone Health Network (HHN), has been chosen as one of the American Society of Association Executive’s (ASAE) Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) scholars for the class of 2015 – 2017.
DELP provides individuals from underrepresented segments of the association community an opportunity to advance into the ranks of leadership in the association profession by offering access to ASAE educational programs, career guidance, mentoring, volunteer service, and networking opportunities. Clerkley is one of 12 scholars chosen as part of the 2015 – 2017 class, a two-year program that includes a dynamic learning experience that will prepare the scholars for future leadership roles.
“I’m so thrilled to be selected as one of ASAE’s DELP Scholars,” Clerkley says. “I’m looking forward to the professional development opportunities the program will afford me, the chance to participate in open dialogue about diversity and what it means for an organization to truly champion, and most importantly, to represent the Society and promote the importance of communicating effectively about diversity commitments. It’s such an honor and one that I humbly accept.”
Clerkley came to the Society in November 2013 to oversee HHN after serving as director of marketing and corporate relations with the American Society for Parenteral & Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) from 2011 to 2013. Prior to that, she was the corporate client services manager with the American Diabetes Association where she was charged with driving full-scope corporate communications and serving as project lead for the Annual Corporate Sponsor Summit. Other experience includes the Children’s National Medical Center, Kingsbury, and Prince George’s County (Md.) Health Department. A 2005 graduate of Temple University, Clerkley received her MBA from University of Maryland University College in 2011.
Since coming to the Society in 2003, Clerkley has overseen remarkable growth in the programs that HHN offers in its mission to increase patient awareness. Among the initiatives she has set in motion are: Secured funding for a new patient initiative for Diabetes University from BI Lilly Diabetes Alliance and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; developed and launched an updated Menopause Map with an accompanying extensive social media campaign; redesigned HHN’s fact sheets to create a new line of easily digestible infographics; launched new International Resource Center on hormone.org to support global patient education and the Society’s global initiatives; and wrote and submitted a successful Strategic Plan Initiative (SPI) proposal to Council for the Journey Through the Endocrine System a 21st century solution that will enhance the understanding of the intricacies of the endocrine system through the use of contemporary technology to tell a comprehensive story of the endocrine system and its related conditions.
ASAE is a membership organization of more than 21,000 association executives and industry partners representing 9,300 organizations. Its members manage leading trade associations, individual membership societies, and voluntary organizations across the U.S. and in nearly 50 countries around the world.
Society Proposes Revisions to New Chemical Safety Legislation
The Endocrine Society has proposed several changes to new chemical safety legislation under consideration in the Senate.
Recently, several stakeholders contacted the Endocrine Society for its perspective on the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety in the 21st Century Act, a new bipartisan attempt to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which was implemented in 1976 and gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority over chemical substances and mixtures. After a careful review of the bill by expert members of the Endocrine Society, the Society wrote a letter to the sponsors of the bill, Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and Senator David Vitter (R-LA), acknowledging that the Society is unable to support the legislation as it currently stands.
In the letter, the Society outlined key concepts that should be revised in the final legislation:
• The draft bill emphasizes “standardized test designs and methods” and relies heavily on Good Laboratory Practices. The Society asked that the legislation be clarified to ensure that regulatory agencies are able to use high-quality academic studies that have been subject to peer review.
• At the time this was written, the legislation prioritizes chemicals that result in “high hazard” and “widespread exposure.” The Society recommended more inclusive criteria, such that chemicals could be prioritized due to “high hazard and/or widespread exposure” and also prioritized when exposure or hazard impacted “pregnant women, infants, and/or children.”
• The Society was concerned that the fees added by the draft legislation would be insufficient to cover the expanded scope of activities by the EPA. The Society therefore recommended that caps on fees be removed or increased to ensure that EPA would be able to effectively conduct new regulatory activities.
The legislation has generated significant momentum in recent months; on April 28, the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works voted to pass an amended version of the bill. The Endocrine Society will continue to monitor progress on this legislation and keep members informed of developments.
If you have any comments on TSCA reform efforts in Congress, please contact Joe Laakso, associate director, Science Policy at [email protected].
New Endocrine News Website to Debut in Fall
The online version of Endocrine News is undergoing a significant redesign that will totally change the way the magazine is accessed electronically.
Currently, the magazine’s sole online representation is in the form of an e-book that allows users to click through page by page. The new site will be contemporary, modern, interactive, and updated in real time. In other words, as news breaks, Endocrine News can actually share this information with Society members and other relevant audiences.
“In its current form, the Endocrine News site is simply an easy reference to the print magazine,” says the magazine’s editor, Mark A. Newman. “The plan for the new website is to have it updated on a daily, if not hourly basis, and be fully interactive with the members. We often get news items and other information that we would like to share immediately, but presently there’s not an appropriate outlet to do so. That will change soon, and change in a very big way with the new website.”
The website is being created essentially from scratch by Matrix Group International, Inc., a website design company based in Arlington, Va. No stranger to the needs of membership associations, Matrix’s clients include the American Counseling Association, Goodwill Industries International, NECA, Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, as well as the Endocrine Society’s own Hormone Health Network.
Newman adds that there will also be a number of social media applications that will accompany the new website, all in an effort to keep Endocrine News and the members of the Endocrine Society better informed and better connected.
According to Newman, the new website should be rolled out in the fall.
New York Times Highlights Society Transgender CPG
The New York Times recently profiled a transgender teen and pointed to the Endocrine Society’s clinical practice guideline from 2009 that helped legitimize the protocol for administering puberty-blocking drugs to transgender adolescents.
The 2,800-word story details the teen’s painful journey changing from a male to a female, including her depression and fear before her operation and her struggle after the surgery. Reporter Anemona Hartocollis quotes Norman P. Spack, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the members of the task force who wrote the guideline. Spack, who has treated more than 200 children since 2007, tells Hartocollis that he first learned about puberty blockers in transgender adolescents 15 years ago in Europe. Puberty blockers are administered to children and adolescents to help them decide whether they are truly transgender – the drugs can be reversed; surgery cannot be. However, treatments are not always covered by insurance, and as Spack tells Hartocollis: “That’s where the dilemma came in: Who the hell could afford it?”
The article points out that advocates “say that extending treatment will alleviate depression and suicide”in the transgender population and that Oregon’s Medicaid now covers “the gamut of treatment, regardless of age,” but goes on to note that the “evidence is mixed.”
Loading ...