President's Message: My SBM “Oh Sh*t” Moments

Ellen Beckjord, PhD, MPH, FSBM, SBM President

Dr. David Conroy has been personally responsible for two “oh, sh*t” SBM moments for me. The first was in the summer of 2021, when he emailed to ask if we could talk. I knew David a little bit; I admired his work in digitally-driven health interventions, and he’d gone out of his way to engage with and support a person on my team at UPMC Health Plan who was curious about his work. But David’s ask to talk was on the heels of his being newly-named president-elect of SBM, and I suspected he wanted to discuss my serving as program chair for the 2022 Annual Meeting. My “oh, sh*t” response was because a) I knew the program chair role would be a lot of work and b) I knew if David asked me, I wouldn’t say no.

He did ask me, I said yes, David ended up selecting me to serve, and it was one of the best decisions of my career.

The second instance was in the summer of 2023. David was in Pittsburgh for a conference and asked if I had time to get together for coffee. This moment was sneakier; initially, I was just delighted at the thought of getting to see David and figured he was after a rare chance to catch up in person. We met near where his conference was taking place on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus, got some coffee, found a place to sit down outside, and then David said, “I think you should run for SBM president.” My response – out loud, I think – was (you guessed it), “oh, sh*t.”

I said yes, SBM members ended up electing me to serve, and it’s been one of the best decisions of my career.

There are at least three possible morals of this story: first, Dr. David Conroy is a wile requestor; second, that David’s charm and reason make saying “no” to any of his requests extremely difficult; and third, that service to SBM – which at first may seem daunting – is never a bad bet. While the first two morals are absolutely true, it’s the third I’d like to focus on for the remainder of this piece.

I’ve been privileged to serve SBM in a variety of capacities since 2006, when my post-doctoral mentor, Dr. Brad Hesse, convinced the SBM Board that it needed a non-voting position focused on developing and growing SBM’s online presence, and then further convinced them that I was a good candidate to serve as the inaugural “Web Editor.” Brad also had a major hand in my next service opportunity, when we, along with a few others, proposed the formation of the Digital Health Council to the SBM Board (I served as the inaugural chair). Across my four instances of SBM service, one truth that has emerged, and that for me generalizes beyond the context of SBM, is this: You will get out of it what you put into it.

SBM is a funny, delightful, and sort of magical thing to me: a couple thousand people who all, in their own way, care deeply about and work for improving health through behavior change. Folks who are devoted to the science, practice, and policy of helping people to become, maintain, or preserve their health in an unhealthy world. Folks who connect year-round through SBM special interest groups, webinars, mentoring programs, social media, local meetups, and plenty more. And once a year a bunch of us travel somewhere to be together, learn from one another, support one another, and celebrate this community that was created almost 50 years ago.

At a time when Americans’ participation in voluntary community activities is at an all-time low, that SBM not only continues to exist but continues to grow and thrive is remarkable. It doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of the choices each of you make to engage with SBM, and how you engage not only is determinant of how SBM grows and evolves, but how you will grow and evolve, too. When it comes to all things SBM, you will get out of it what you put into it.

The theme for our 2025 Annual Meeting is, “Context Matters.” One feature of context that I find particularly fascinating is its similarity to a current in the water: Context can either be aligned with your efforts, and facilitate momentum, or it can be orthogonal to your intentions and create substantial obstacles. SBM is a contextual factor in your professional life, and when you choose to engage with or serve SBM, a cascade of consequences will emerge, and it’s exceedingly likely that those consequences will facilitate positive momentum for you. But engaging with or serving SBM is not always easy. You may have noted above that each of my opportunities to serve SBM were facilitated by a supportive person who already had leadership status within the society. While this is and will continue to be an avenue for service, it’s not particularly scalable. That’s why I’m excited to highlight an effort that will make engagement with and service to SBM more accessible: new tools to discover service opportunities within SBM.

This week SBM released new features on its website that make volunteer and leadership opportunities more visible, searchable, and actionable. The vitality of SBM is so dependent on the engagement of our membership, with engagement being representative of members from all backgrounds and lived experiences, at all stages of their career, from all the professional disciplines represented in SBM, and in ways that exemplify our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

If you show up for SBM, SBM will show up for you. If you are curious about opportunities to serve and lead in SBM, I’m happy to personally connect with you. And if you ever get a phone call from Dr. David Conroy, after the initial panic, it’s probably a good idea to say, “yes.”

Dr. Ellen Beckjord (then Program Chair) and Dr. David Conroy (then President) at SBM’s 2022 Annual Meeting in Baltimore.