BUILDING BRIDGES TO SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS:
AAA, SFAA, AND NAPA INITIATIVES

Meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology
Portland, Oregon
March 21, 2003

This panel and audience discussion explores the ways that anthropological organizations promote and support practicing, applied and professional anthropologists. To recognize and promote communication and collaboration, this panel is designed to encourage innovative bridges across these boundaries by stimulating audience and panel discourse to identify needs and solutions. This panel should result in suggestions for future directions, initiatives, and goals for organizations to pursue, as well as setting an agenda for the AAA/SfAA Commission on Applied/Professional Anthropology.

Foundations for the dialogs are the past and current activities of the AAA/SfAA Commission on Professional/Applied Anthropology, a committee formed in 1999 to address organizational collaborations and initiatives. These include such topics as a common web page for practitioner/career resources, training program accreditation and professional certification. Panel discussants are leaders in the profession including the current and past presidents of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the National Association for Practicing Anthropology.

Discussion focuses on how anthropological organizations and their members could enhance applied/practicing/professional anthropology among professionals, practitioners, stakeholders, and diverse publics. By highlighting the historic and contemporary linkages among the leading anthropological professional organizations, the panel stresses the significance of meaningful engagements across sub-disciplinary and professional boundaries.

Panel Discussants:

Dennis Wiedman, Organizer and Discussion Leader.
AAA Executive Board, Past SfAA Treasurer, and NAPA Bulletin Editor

Louise Lamphere, Past AAA President

Noel Chrisman, SfAA President

Susan Squires, Past NAPA President

Ed Liebow, NAPA President

Linda Bennett, Past SfAA and NAPA President, New AAA Executive Board member