Society of Senior Ford Fellows

In 2023, the Society of Senior Ford Fellows (SSFF) entered its third full year of incorporation following official incorporation in spring of 2020. In 2023, the SSFF focused program services on members services including further development of a web-based, public facing membership directory and growth of the membership base. SSFF income in 2023 was based on a membership campaign and associated member donations and on a general grant received from the Ford Foundation. The SSFF had 305 active members at the end of the calendar year. A 'general support' grant from Ford Foundation was submitted in the summer of 2022 and funded for a period of 5 years. We held several professional development conferences and board retreats. We held our first in-person members meeting in March of 2023 at Arizona State University. We held our third virtual members conference in October of 2023. The virtual conference provided scholarly presentations with a keynote address by Dr. Carol Anderson (Emory) as well as professional development sessions addressing key aspects of the academic life cycle. These conferences are free. Financial support for member participants in the in-person conference were provided. In May 2023, we held a hybrid Executive Board Retreat and facilitated visioning session. The facilitator and three quarters of the board traveled to Vanderbilt University to undertake a mission and visioning session. Travel for board members and facilitator was sponsored by the SSFF. In 2023, the SSFF also continued to build infrastructure. The infrastructure developed in 2023 included expansion of the SSFF web-presence and member-to-member communication tools. The directory has been used by academic institutions and the press to identify scholars for panels and articles. It is also used by members and students to identify potential mentors. The SSFF additionally contracted services to develop the website further.