Honoring a Pillar of Service: Steve Beach Receives the 2023 OIBR Service Legacy Award
Celebrating Steve Beach: A Champion of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UGA
Steve Beach is not just a Regents Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Center for Family Research—he has been a tireless advocate for the social and behavioral sciences throughout his 35+ years at UGA. This advocacy work took center stage while Steve was first associate director and then director of what is now known as the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research.
One standout accomplishment defines Steve’s legacy of service—the establishment of the William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research Endowment. As director of the Institute for Behavioral Research, Steve collaborated with Barbara Owens to honor the legacy of her late husband, Bill Owens, the founding director of the Institute of Behavioral Research. Together, they created an endowment that rebranded the institute and provided funds to foster interdisciplinary social science research at UGA.
The most tangible result is the OIBR seed grant program, which is entirely funded by the endowment. OIBR events are also funded by the endowment. These include casual meet-and-greets, lectures, workshops, speed networking and the OIBR annual meeting. None of this programming would be possible without the endowment, which would not have been possible without Steve Beach.
At OIBR’s annual meeting in early December, Steve Beach was awarded the 2023 OIBR Service Legacy Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions. Please join us in congratulating Steve for shaping the social and behavioral sciences at the University of Georgia.