ASAE Winners!

What do diversity and ski slopes have in common? They helped at least two associations win this year’s coveted “Power of A” awards. The ASAE honor recognizes associations’ impact on society. We talked to some of the winners to hear how they won. (No, it didn’t involve fresh baked brownies.)

Of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s 173,000 members, only 10.77% are under-represented groups. That stat didn’t sit well with the Rockville, Md.-based global organization, says ASHA membership program manager Melanie Johnson, so it launched two programs a few years ago that give minority college students access to ASHA’s resources, senior leadership, mentoring, and networking. Over 2,500 have participated. The idea is that once they graduate and are working in the field, they’ll join the association and help make ASHA’s membership base more diverse.

In Mark Dorsey's first year heading the Professional Ski Instructors of America/American Association of Snowboard Instructors, he was going to have to write off the organization’s investment in instructional books for teaching skiing and snowboarding to disabled students. The Lakewood, Colo.-based association was having no luck selling the manuals the traditional way. So its foundation bought the books back and gave them away to over 70 nonprofits that teach skiing and snowboarding to the disabled. 11,000 instructors got them, meaning 20,000 disabled students got well-taught lessons. Mark says the association's reputation also improved. 

The Society for Neuroscience is also tackling diversity with a scholars program launched with NIH funding in 1982, says senior director Lowell Aplebaum. It helps underrepresented minority students in post-doctorate and grad programs with networking, mentoring, and career advancement. The program has helped over 650 people, who have also attended the group’s annual meeting with over 30,000 attendees. It’s a challenge to pinpoint how many minorities are in neuroscience fields but the society has seen the number of underrepresented minorities in its own membership more than triple. Other Power of A winners this year included the United Fresh Produce Association Foundation and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.