The Chairperson’s Year in Review
By Russell Jay Hendel
Expanding Horizons, November 2023
My year as chair of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Education and Research (E&R) council has been most productive. In the space of a short article, I will focus on four highlights of achievement.
It is understood, and can be seen explicitly throughout the article, that the accomplishments I list were achieved with the help of a wonderful council, skilled leadership, friendly SOA staff and eager contacts from other universities. I particularly mention Stephen Orfanos, vice-chair and chair-elect; Hal Pederson, vice-chair; Fang Yang, treasurer and vice-chair-elect; Yiqing Chen of Drake University; Carla Eisenberg, the SOA staff liaison for the council; and Stuart Klugman, senior staff education fellow at the SOA.
The first accomplishment, of course, is the Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) hosted by Drake University. We achieved a wonderful conference, complete with informative keynote speakers, graduate students aspiring for mastery of the art of academic presentation, an exquisite banquet, and a delightful visit to a local winery with a review of the four S’s of wine-tasting and associated comradery.
Next, we continued the Early Career Award, now in its third year. Wenjun Zhu, the awardee, exemplifies the international nature of the award, which has been given to actuaries from three different continents in its three years. Her expertise in both actuarial and financial fields is certain to inspire others to seek this award. Rather than talking about her in this article, an interview with her will be published in a forthcoming issue of Expanding Horizons.
In addition, Stephanos Orfanos, vice- and incoming chair, has already shown his leadership skills by proposing an Outstanding Educator Award modeled after the Early Career Award. Under his guidance, an article published in the August 2023 issue of this newsletter provided details about the award.
For my last accomplishment as chair, I am pushing for increased webinars and podcasts by using membership surveys. Carla suggested this approach early in the year. I was very impressed by the models used by the Leadership and Development council, which uses membership surveys as a reservoir of good ideas for webcasts, podcasts and book reviews. I suggested that the E&R council adopt this model, and we hope to have a survey out soon.
I don’t want this article to leave you with the impression that E&R meetings have an atmosphere of only seriousness and scholarship. During the year, we also had our light moments. When no one volunteered for the post of secretary (and when my attempts to volunteer some people led to some mysterious no-shows), I developed a new model in which minutes are automatically generated by the chair from the agenda as the meeting progresses. This works well, as the minutes are fresh and detailed.
As I leave, I wish the incoming council leadership success in bringing the council to even greater heights.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Russell Jay Hendel, Ph.D., ASA, is the chair of the Education and Research Section council. He is adjunct faculty III at Towson University, where he assists with the Actuarial Science and Research Methods program. Russell can be reached at RHendel@Towson.edu.