- Enthusiastic Response to ACS’ Leadership Development Institute!
- Martha Gammill to Present Patent Program
- KACS Calendar
Enthusiastic Response to ACS’ Leadership Development Institute!
By Jake Kirkendall
As a returning member of the ACS executive committee, I was granted the opportunity to attend the ACS Leadership Institute on January 26th to 28th in Atlanta, Georgia. Every year the Leadership Institute invites ACS local section leaders, division leaders, national committee chairs, student leaders, and younger chemist leaders with the goal of preparing ACS volunteer leaders by teaching them management and leadership skills so that they may be an effective volunteer for ACS and understand the opportunities that they have to provide enrichment and education through ACS to both members and the community.
I attended as representative of our local section and was on the Local Section Leader track. Though this placed me in a mostly structured track I was able to select a class for Saturday morning, so I selected the “Fostering Innovation: Styles and Process” class. All of the classes were very hands-on and focused around collaboration. On Friday there was an introduction session followed by a workshop on how to plan successful activities and the variety of grants that ACS can provide for funding of such activities.
The local section track sessions were centered around successful event planning and how to strategically build the events to accomplish the goals of the local section and ACS. The final day of the Institute had us in local section “groups” planning events starting from a simple idea and fully fleshing out all aspects including funding, volunteers, and how to measure success after the event was finished. My group developed an idea for a “Recycle-a-conference” based upon our yearly Recycle-a-poster event. Our idea was to extend that to be a day-long event bringing together multiple local sections and having student and industry presentations and posters that had been previously presented. It would also involve career resources and networking.
I found the “Leadership Institute” highly productive and enriching. I hope to bring the things I learned back to the local section and push for new and enriching events for our local section.
As with all conferences, one of the most valuable parts was the networking. During the conference I was able to meet leaders from various Michigan sections such as West Michigan, Michigan State, Detroit, and Midland sections. The newly-elected leaders from the West Michigan Section (Grand Rapids area), Carter Tomko and Brianna Gordon, showed interest in working together to do some joint events over the next year.
I thank the local section for supporting my participation in the Leadership Institute and I do hope to bring the section value from this training through my continued service as the local section Secretary.
Martha Gammill to Present Patent Program
Martha Gammill, J.D., will present “Patents 101” on Monday, March 11, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. at the WMU Chemistry Building Room 1260.
“I worked with Martha a great deal and have several patents that she was the attorney of record. This should be a great talk.” —Former KACS member
Did you know patents make the world go round? The commercial world, that is. If it weren’t for patents, companies wouldn’t spend BIG BUCKS on R&D to come up with the Next Big Thing! Come learn what it takes to get a patent and your role in the process.
Martha has practiced patent law in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years, working for companies such as Upjohn, Pfizer and Zoetis. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory & Henry College and her law degree from the University of Virginia. She is a member of the Michigan Bar, Connecticut Bar and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.