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As the airliner descended into the Seattle skyline, the picturesque background of the popular medical TV show set in the Emerald City came to mind. Luckily, it wasn’t pouring rain, so the Space Needle stood out among the architectural marvels between Lake Washington and Elliot Bay. Shortly before Grey’s Anatomy played its role in cementing Seattle on the pop-culture map, a committee of postdoc reps across America came together at the Science’s NextWave Postdoc Network in Washington, DC, in 2002 with the goal of “improving the postdoctoral experience.” The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) was created to carry out that goal and today works to advocate for policies and practices that create an inclusive and supportive community for postdoctoral scholars with postdoctoral affairs offices, postdoctoral associations, professional organizations, funding agencies, and institutions.

The 2024 NPA Annual Conference, held at the Hyatt Regency Seattle March 15–16, showcased several enlightening sessions. A keynote by Teresa Foy, PhD, Senior Vice President, Bristol Myers Squibb Cancer Immunology and Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center, detailed the twists and turns of her journey from academia to industry, highlighting the guidance of a mentor. Concurrent sessions considered equity in postdoc hiring, mentoring structures, effective networking, and taking action in the community, among other topics.

Poster sessions comprised the exemplary initiatives that individuals and organizations have instituted to positively impact postdocs, and I demonstrated the achievements of the SOT Postdoctoral Assembly in enhancing professional, networking, and leadership skills among postdocs. Someone in my audience had members of her lab who had just attended the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in Salt Lake City, and many attendees were excited to learn about the SOT initiatives.

One of the suggestions that the final keynote speaker, Harmit Malik, PhD, Professor and Associate Director, Basic Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, had that I found interesting was to admit postdocs into programs instead of individual labs to protect international postdocs on visas and to provide mentoring through career progression.

Overall, as the African proverb puts it, “It takes a village,” and this was demonstrated by the many organizations, institutions, and individuals who are working to improve the postdoc experience. The 2025 NPA Annual Conference will be held in Boston, my home turf.

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