Reflections by NWSA President JUDITH ROY and NWSA Journal Editor BRENDA DALY

Judith Roy, NWSA President, 2005–2006

As I rushed from meeting to session to meeting at the 2006 NWSA conference, I reflected on all the recent changes within NWSA. My presidency was the "transitional" presidency, the last one-year presidential term, and the year before I was the last president-elect. It's been quite a ride! We now have a new organizational structure that took more than five years and many people to accomplish. As a result, NWSA is better positioned than ever before to fulfill its mission.

Space limits prohibit naming everyone who deserves praise for making this transition possible. However, past presidents Colette Morrow and Jacquelyn Zita, plus the former chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, Jo Tigillio, worked with the Governing Council and others to put us on the right track. Without a doubt, one of the most important decisions made during this period was to hire an executive director. With Allison Kimmich on board, we were able to make real progress toward key goals: to increase the diversity of NWSA's membership and leadership, to showcase the rich scholarship of the field, and to reinforce recognition of NWSA as the primary professional organization for Women's Studies.

I will continue to work with NWSA, confident about our ability to meet our goals. For example, our Women of Color Leadership Project had a record number of participants this year and is set for long-term expansion. Through this project and others, NWSA is fully committed to increasing its inclusion and diversity. As for scholarship, more and more women's studies practitioners see NWSA as the place to present their best work. The high quality of conference sessions in 2006 generated a buzz of positive response among both long-term members and the large number of first-time attendees. That second group represents the future of NWSA; growing numbers of women's studies graduate students and junior faculty clearly see NWSA as their professional and intellectual home. The Ford Foundation shares that positive view; it awarded NWSA a one-year grant of $275,000 to build organizational capacity.

NWSA celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2007 with justifiable optimism. We have learned from the past and laid the groundwork for an exciting future.

Brenda Daly, NWSA Journal Editor, 2003–2007

Editing the NWSA Journal has been an absorbing, sometimes exhausting, educational and occasionally exhilarating experience. As might be expected, we have made a number of changes during my term as the Journal's editor, and I have many people thank. One of the most important changes begins with this issue: our new publisher is The Johns Hopkins University Press. I owe a special thanks to those who have helped make this transition possible—Christie Farnham Pope, national board member; Becky Ropers-Huilman, incoming editor; and Bill Breichner at The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Because I believe that we can improve the lives of women only by working collectively, I have also worked to strengthen the Journal's relationship with the NWSA. For helping to initiate this effort to work more closely with the organization, I owe a special thanks to former NWSA President Colette Morrow, who also became a member of our national board. I also thank past Presidents Jacqueline Zita, Judith Roy, and current NWSA President, Barbara Howe, for inviting me, as the Journal's representative, to meet regularly with the Governing Council. With the help of Allison Kimmich, the NWSA's dynamic new executive director, we are finding new ways to collaborate—to the benefit of all members and journal subscribers—and I thank her for her assistance and good will. For example, Allison invited me to co-facilitate a workshop on publishing at the 2006 conference, a successful effort that will be repeated at the 2007 conference.

As the Journal moves to Louisiana State University in June 2007, I want to thank members of the national board's site search committee—Betsy Birmingham, Jill Bystydzienski, Michelle Mattson, and Maggie McFadden—for their assistance. Over the past year, it has been...