Our History

Since 2015

  1. 2015
  2. Aug 2016
  3. Nov 2016
  4. Jul 2017
  5. 2018
  6. Spring 2019
  7. Present

  1. First Steps

    2015

    The idea to start a California chapter of the American Physiological Society was hatched during a conversation between then Executive Director of the APS, Marty Frank, and myself, at a Council meeting. From there, I began to discuss the idea further with my California colleagues to gauge the level of interest. Realizing that there was significant interest to pursue the idea, I identified a few colleagues and friends to assist in the endeavor of starting a chapter in the nation's most populous state!

  2. Letter of Petition

    August 29th, 2016

    Submitted a letter of petition, on behalf of the physiologists in California, to then APS President Jane Reckelhoff to grant us chapter status.

  3. Petition Approval

    November 2016

    Our petition was approved by the APS Council.

  4. Inaugural Planning Meeting

    July 7th, 2017

    Held an inaugural planning meeting at UC Davis. During this meeting we completed the state and federal forms required to establish ourselves as a non-profit organization. We also outlined a plan for moving forward with our initial Chapter meeting, with Los Angeles in fall 2018 serving as the agreed upon site and date. However, our efforts to organize in time for this initially proposed meeting fell short for a number of reasons.

  5. Meeting at EB 2018

    2018

    Nonetheless, the interim and inaugural organizing committee pressed on and following a brief, but productive meeting at EB 2018 in Orlando, FL, the committee identified a more robust plan to move the chapter forward.

  6. Inaugural CASP meeting

    Spring 2019

    The committee identified and secured space at the University of Southern California for an inaugural CASP meeting on Saturday, November 16, 2019. The committee identified Declan McCole (UC Riverside) to chair the program committee for the inaugural meeting.

  7. What's Next

    Present

    And as they say in the movies, the rest was history!
    Rudy M. Ortiz, PhD 2019-2021 Interim President, CASP

Executive Committee

Executive Board Members Represented From Across California

Declan McCole
Declan McCole
President
- UC Riverside
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Tatum Simonson
President-Elect
- UC San Diego
Martha O’Donnell
Martha O’Donnell
Past President
- UC Davis
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Ellen Breen
Secretary
- UC San Diego
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Nick DiPatrizio
Treasurer
- UC Riverside
Sean Wilson
Sean Wilson
Communications Liaison
- LLU
Declan McCole
Declan McCole
APS Chapter Advisory Committee Representative
- UC Riverside
Elena Koslova
Elena Koslova
Postdoctoral Representative
Curras-Collazo Lab
- UC Riverside
Gabriela Arango
Gabriela Arango
Postdoctoral Representative
Simonson Lab
- UC San Diego
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Nichelle Camden
Graduate Student Representative
Simonson Lab
- UC San Diego
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Justis Cosper
Undergraduate Student Representative
- University of Redlands

Past Executive Committee 2019-2021

Executive Board Members Represented From Across California

...
Rudy M. Ortiz
Interim President and
Co-founder
- UC Merced
...
Martha E. O'Donnell
Interim Vice-President and
Co-founder
- UC Davis
...
Kim E. Barrett
Interim Secretary, Co-Founder, and
Past President APS
- UC San Diego
...
Alicia A. McDonough
Interim Treasurer and
Co-founder
- University of Southern California