The Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC) has elected its 2017 leaders. The new vice president-elect is Kelly Dobos, who is currently the cosmetics technical manager for Americas at Sun Chemical Corporation. She has been heavily involved in the SCC, previously holding positions as Area II director and national treasurer. She has also held a seat on the executive committee, committee of scientific affairs (COSA), committee on chapter affairs (COCA), constitution and bylaws committee, nominations and elections committee and the editorial review committee for Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Her goals for the SCC include continuing to build the SCC NextGen initiative, increasing the value of educational opportunities at the chapter level and national level, building attendance at local and national events and developing innovative ideas for future growth and advancement of the SCC.


The new treasurer is Liz Streland. She is currently the key account manager for Croda, Inc. She has been a member since 1995 and has maintained a large presence within the SCC community, having served (twice) as California Chapter treasurer, Chapter chair, Area I director and her most recent position of Area III director. Streland also held a seat on the national constitution and bylaws committee, national NextGen mentor committee, national future scientist initiative subcommittee, Area councilor, and COCA. Her goals for the SCC include furthering the growth of the Society and increasing the value of membership by including more benefits and offering group memberships/discounts to companies in order to encourage their support. She also seeks to offer a training program for incoming chapter treasurers to include financial software and non-profit requirements, increasing chapter rebate increments to reward membership growth and allowing all those interested and eligible to run for National Office to do so—eliminating the two candidates per office ballot limit.  


The new Area II director, Yulia Park, is currently the manager of toxicology group for Amway. Her participation within the SCC includes being one of the founding members of the Michigan Chapter. Park has also been involved with the SCC as a COCA member, Area II councilor, and COSA member. Park’s goals for the SCC are to help chapters with delivery of quality content that would benefit current members and attract new ones, maximizing participation numbers by communicating the benefits of SCC membership through various channels and reaching out to populations not yet familiar with SCC.


The new Area III director is Karen Chun, who is currently the West Coast sales director for Symrise, Inc. Chun served as Area III councilor, and held seats on the COSA committee, national by-laws committee and nomination committee. As Area III director, her goals are to be a liaison between chapters within Area III and the board of directors to ensure continuous communication and encourage expression of ideas and suggestions. She also seeks to support Area III chapters in planning educational meetings by gaining access to speakers and topics from other chapters and organizations that may not be otherwise easily accessible.  


The new Area IV director, Dennis Abeduto, is currently a senior applications chemist at Colonial Chemical, Inc. He has been on the COCA committee and since becoming a member, he has served as chapter chair and secretary for the Midwest Chapter. As Area IV director, Abeduto seeks to facilitate communication between Area IV chapters and the national office by being actively involved in those chapters, strengthen the collaborative capabilities between Areas and increase membership and member involvement throughout Area IV.