Task Force to Review Division 19’s Named Awards

The 2020 and 2021 Presidents of the Society of Military Psychology have authorized a task force to review all Division 19 named awards and develop a process for naming future awards. We are establishing this taskforce in response to an external request to rename the Robert M. Yerkes Award. Instead of only reviewing the Yerkes Award, we believe this provides an opportunity to review all our awards and take a more deliberate and thoughtful approach designed to ensure all of our members have a voice in the process and to build consensus around doing the right thing based on our organization’s core values. Two Task Force co-leads have been appointed and nine additional Taskforce members will be selected to reflect the diversity of our Society’s membership as specified below. We encourage the Taskforce to hold virtual “focus groups” or meetings with different membership constituencies to gather stakeholder perspectives. See attached for Named Awards Task Force charter and associated correspondence.