Contingencies asked the various affinity groups representing the diversity of U.S. actuaries and their allies to tell us a little about what they had planned for 2025 and encourage all Academy members to get involved in these great organizations. Here are their responses.
Abacus Actuaries
Abacus Actuaries is preparing for an ambitious and impactful 2025. Our strategic initiatives for the year are designed to significantly enhance our offerings to our members and sponsors alike. Below is an overview of our main priorities for the coming year:
- Membership Growth: In 2025, we are focusing on expanding our membership base through a robust chapter framework that promotes local and in-person engagements. We aim to utilize accessible analytics to drive strategic conversations with our board and sponsors, ensuring that our growth aligns with the needs of our community and stakeholders.
- Sponsorship Framework: We plan to deepen our sponsor relationships by fostering a better understanding of their goals and aligning our initiatives accordingly. This approach will allow us to create more tailored and impactful partnership opportunities.
- Inaugural Leadership Retreat: Next year, we have a lofty goal of launching an inaugural Leadership Retreat, designed to forge stronger connections among our volunteers, our mission, and leadership pipeline. This retreat will serve as a strategic platform to engage volunteers and deploy their skills more effectively within our network.
- Creation of Advisory Council: We are thrilled to establish an Advisory Council in 2025. This new body will consist of senior leaders whose expertise will be instrumental in guiding Abacus toward achieving long-term strategic goals. The council will also play a crucial role in maintaining high engagement levels across our expanding network.
- Enhanced Marketing Tactics: We will roll out advanced marketing strategies aimed at boosting engagement and enhancing support for our members. These efforts will be crucial in identifying the evolving needs of our community and ensuring our services meet these demands.
In addition to the strategic priorities above, we continue to track our progress to date and are striving for further growth and engagement with our membership. For 2025, our key performance indicators include:
- Member Engagement: We aim to grow our member count significantly, with targeted increases in survey participation, LinkedIn followers, and our mailing list, enhancing our reach and interaction.
- Event Participation: We plan to host a variety of engaging events, including two flagship, three virtual, and three in-person events, designed to foster networking and professional development.
- Mentorship Program Expansion: The mentorship program will be a focal point, with plans to involve 200 working professionals in 125 pairings and 75 participants in our student program, highlighting our commitment to professional development.
Each of these initiatives is designed to enrich the engagement and the overall experience of our community members. We are committed to advancing the profession through innovation. We look forward to another exciting year and appreciate the continued support from our members and sponsors as we strive to expand and enrich our offerings.
International Association of Black Actuaries
IABA’s Vision for 2025: Journey to Impact
The International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA) is excited to share its strategic priorities for 2025, a year dedicated to driving transformative impact across the actuarial profession. With a focus on growth, inclusion, and professional excellence, IABA’s initiatives are framed around its mission to increase the number of successful Black actuaries and address their underrepresentation. Here’s a high-level overview of what lies ahead:
Expanding Awareness and Strengthening the Pipeline
IABA remains committed to building a robust pipeline of Black actuarial talent. In 2025, we will continue our partnership with the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) to participate in the Black College Expo roadshow, leveraging local affiliates and corporate partners to engage students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and beyond. Our refreshed Actuarial Ambassador program will also play a pivotal role in inspiring Black STEM students to consider actuarial careers. We are also exploring new initiatives, such as a Canada-specific career fair.
Empowering Students Through Expanded Programs
Our student programs will grow to include enhanced exam preparation resources and expanded professional development opportunities, such as our Boot Camp and mentorship programs. These initiatives will ensure aspiring Black actuaries are equipped with the tools to succeed in credentialing and beyond.
Leadership and Member Development
IABA’s Leadership Development Program is designed to support Black actuaries at all career stages, from aspiring leaders to executives. Our professional development program will address the unique needs of our members, fostering growth and preparing them for leadership. Additionally, we will create frameworks to elevate thought leadership within the profession, encouraging members to share their expertise through research, speaking engagements, and participation on industry committees.
Strengthening Organizational Impact
2025 will see a renewed focus on celebrating Black excellence in the actuarial profession. We will implement systems to spotlight the accomplishments of our members, including career milestones and contributions to industry thought leadership. Strengthening partnerships with actuarial organizations globally will be a priority as we work toward a more inclusive profession.
Looking Forward: A Collaborative Vision
With a focus on outreach, leadership, and operational excellence, IABA is poised to make 2025 a year of significant impact. By championing diversity and fostering professional growth, we are building a brighter, more inclusive future for the actuarial profession.
Network of Actuarial Women and Allies
The Network of Actuarial Women and Allies (NAWA) is focused on its mission of connecting and empowering women of all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and life circumstances to be successful in the actuarial profession. In an effort to continue to support this mission, NAWA has a lot planned for 2025!
NAWA has kicked off work to produce a Barriers to Entry and Success report in partnership with the Academy, CAS, and SOA. The goal of this report is not only to identify and educate the profession on barriers that exist for women to enter or succeed in the actuarial profession, but also to help influence actions to close those gaps. As the research for this report aims to take both a qualitative and quantitative approach, NAWA will be looking for actuaries throughout the industry to share their perspectives and experiences as they develop insights for this report.
NAWA also has lots planned in terms of learning and development! The second round of the NAWA mentorship program will be wrapping up shortly, and their next cohort will start up in February and end in June, following the intended six-month cadence. If interested, visit NawaActuaries.org to become a NAWA member and to receive newsletter announcements for the next mentorship cohort. As mentorship pairings span across varying tenures, participation is encouraged for mentors and mentees across all industries and experience levels.
In addition to hosting NAWA’s two annual events—one in March to celebrate Women’s History Month, and another in the fall for the NAWA Annual Meeting—NAWA also plans to further facilitate opportunities for its members to connect through co-sponsored happy hour events and virtual discussion groups through NAWA’s “Let’s Talk About…” series. Targeted to occur twice a year, this series is an informal opportunity for NAWA members (allies included!) to get together to discuss key, and often difficult, topics for women in the profession and to brainstorm ideas on how to address them. This past summer, the discussion was focused on the representation of women in leadership (visit NawaActuaries.org/the-nawa-narrative for a summary), and NAWA is looking forward to hosting more robust discussions in the coming year.
NAWA will also look to continue the conversation and highlight new topics through their new podcast series, Real Actuarial Women (RAW), now available on all podcast platforms and at NawaActuaries.org/raw. In each episode, you will hear unfiltered stories and advice from women and allies across the actuarial profession.
This is just a glimpse at what is to come for NAWA and its members in 2025! If you’d like to stay connected and receive future updates on all that NAWA has planned for the new year, visit NawaActuaries.org to become a member or volunteer.
Organization of Latino Actuaries
OLA’s 2025 Priorities: Elevating Latine Actuarial Professionals and Cultivating Future Talent
Building on a Strong 2024
OLA saw major developments and successes in 2024 with continued growth in the development and placement of Latine aspiring actuaries (prospects) through our Early Careers programs like OLA Academy, the Rising Leaders Program (RLP), scholarships, exam support, and travel sponsorships to OLA’s inaugural Early Career Symposium in Las Vegas in August 2024. The Early Career Symposium, OLA’s first full in-person conference, welcomed over 60 prospects, 30-plus corporate sponsors, and dozens of Latine actuarial professionals who make up OLA’s Leadership team for two days of networking, development, and community building at a scale OLA had not yet experienced!
In addition, OLA expanded its partnerships with other industry organizations and increased its offerings to Latine actuarial professionals by introducing a Creative Leadership program to encourage leadership development among the young, bright talent OLA is bringing into the actuarial profession.
Expanding Our Offerings: A Two-Pronged Approach for 2025
Building on this, OLA will undertake a two-pronged approach in 2025 to elevate the professional development of Latine actuaries and cultivate future talent:
- 2025 OLA Avanza Conference. Firstly, we will expand OLA’s 2024 Early Career Symposium by incorporating a new specialized professional conference, offering a platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and continuing education in the form of CE/CPD credits. This expanded event will be known as the 2025 OLA Avanza Conference, taking place Aug. 13-15, 2025, in San Diego. “Avanza” means “advance” or “go forward” in Spanish, the language of a large segment of the OLA community. With this event, we will integrate the full spectrum of the Latine actuarial pipeline in one event, from prospect to professional and, hopefully, to leader!
- Desafiando el Riesgo High School Case Competition. Secondly, we will pioneer a high school case competition to stimulate interest in the actuarial profession among young, diverse students. The Desafiando el Riesgo High School Case Competition is a brand-new competition sponsored and led by OLA, and managed by the Institute of Competition Sciences (ICS), for Latine high school students in the U.S. with an interest in STEM. The competition will invite students to get a deeper look at risk management; hone their problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills; and get connected to OLA’s career development resources and network. During the two-week virtual competition, students will investigate a real-world scenario and formulate their own data-driven solutions to problems facing the Latine community. Submissions have a chance to win $3,000 in scholarship awards, recognition, and an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2025 OLA Avanza Conference!
Looking Ahead
Finally, OLA looks to continue improving its scalability as the organization continues to grow both in members and leaders! The organization’s leadership team, which was started by the original six co-founders, has grown to 10 members of the board of directors and 25 program managers (PMs), as well as dozens of volunteers. As OLA expands the offerings mentioned above, we will continue to utilize technology, outsourcing, and volunteer efforts to ensure our operations are scalable for the future and sustainable for the well-being of our hard-working volunteers.
Sexuality and Gender Alliance of Actuaries
2025 Priorities
The SAGAA Board met in Hartfort, Connecticut, in November at the offices of our sponsor Travelers. At this in-person board meeting, the board elected new officers and discussed strategic priorities for 2025.
Chief among these, the board plans to enhance and formalize engagement among their community members, focused on two parallel tracks
1. Sponsorships, Scholarships, and Advocacy:
Focus on sustaining and enhancing engagement to ensure ongoing support and growth for these initiatives. Establish clear maintenance strategies, such as routine sponsor check-ins, annual reviews of scholarship processes, and ongoing advocacy partnerships. Develop metrics to monitor the effectiveness of these efforts.
2. Committee and Membership Engagement:
Prioritize the definition and initial activation of committees and membership rolls. Ensure clear guidelines, expectations, and communication channels are in place for all participants. Build a communication plan to keep members and committees informed, engaged, and supported throughout the year.
Be sure you’re on our mailing list at sagaactuaries.org/
contact-us/ or reach out to us at info@sagaactuaries.org. We look forward to sharing more soon!
South Asian Network of Actuaries
With a highly successful 2024 under our belts, including the launch of SANA Scholarship, the Infinite Opportunity Actuarial Career Fair, and in-person networking events across the country, we are excited to launch several new efforts in 2025. These include:
- Launch SANA’s micro-volunteering infrastructure—In an effort to prevent volunteer burnout, we will be undertaking a one-of-a-kind restructuring of how volunteer organizations can operate. We plan to deconstruct our most time-consuming tasks into manageable chunks that can be taken up by any volunteer, regardless of their previous experience with SANA. We believe this will engage more members, spread the work across more people, and provide opportunities for our less experienced members to grow.
- Establish local SANA chapters across the South Asia region and other diaspora communities—SANA is actively seeking “ambassadors” who will lead SANA’s presence in other countries. These ambassadors will establish university relations, plan local networking events, and attend local insurance/actuarial events furthering SANA’s reach in these regions and building a global network of South Asian actuaries.
- Re-launch SANA’s mentorship program—This was an initiative we had during SANA’s launch in 2021–22 but was put on hold while we focused on other initiatives. We are excited to bring this program back in full force for 2025. Our goal will be to focus on two tiers of mentor-mentee pairings: entry-level to mid-career pairings, and mid-career to senior-level pairings.
- University and high school outreach—The South Asian community is renowned for producing some of the most accomplished engineers, doctors, and lawyers in the country. SANA wants to tap into this pool of talent early to broaden the pipeline of students into the actuarial profession in the U.S. and bring awareness of the field to the broader South Asian community.
- Multimedia update—We hope to refresh our branding, website presence, and social media strategy to reach the most people globally and be a destination for aspiring actuaries to learn more about the career and the opportunities available to them.
Follow us at sanaactuaries.org.
The Actuarial Foundation Launches All for Math Campaign
In 2024, The Actuarial Foundation marked 30 years of unlocking potential and advancing opportunities for young people through math education. Our yearlong celebration featured donors, volunteers, and students sharing powerful stories about how our programs have impacted their lives. Thank you to all who helped us celebrate this milestone anniversary.
As we turn to the future, we see that the need for our free math tutoring, competition, and scholarship programs has never been greater.
- According to The Nation’s Report Card, the average mathematics score for eighth-grade students was eight points lower in 2022 than in 2019.
- The National Science Foundation reports that STEM occupations are expected to grow faster than non-STEM occupations (7% vs 2%) from 2022 to 2032. Will today’s students be prepared?
We are proud to serve nearly 13,000 students annually, and with the help of individual actuaries everywhere, we can reach even more. Currently, only 3% of U.S. credentialed actuaries make financial contributions to the Foundation, and only 4% of actuaries have volunteered as mentors, tutors, and competition judges. Imagine how many more students we could reach with 5% or 8% of actuaries giving and volunteering!
That’s why we’ve launched All for Math: The Campaign for Math Proficiency, a three-year initiative to bring together hundreds more actuaries to help ignite a passion for math and prepare young people to be the problem solvers, innovators, and leaders of tomorrow.
Our Campaign Spokes-Numbers, Zero and One, will be our guides throughout this journey, reminding us that there is power in numbers and in us! Zero is less than optimistic about his ability to make a difference, while One is uber-confident and enthusiastic about helping others. Their interactions reveal that we all have the potential to be The One who steps up, makes a difference, and shares their love of math.
Will You Be The One?
By joining as a donor and/or volunteer, you will help students like Isaiah Choy, a young man whose life was touched by the volunteers and programs of the Foundation. As a first-generation college student, Isaiah faced unique challenges pursuing a career in actuarial science. Now, he is excelling academically and professionally thanks to his determination, family support, and opportunities from the STEM Stars Actuarial Scholars Program, which helped reduce costs and provided resources to pass two actuarial exams. “Finding The Actuarial Foundation and the STEM Stars scholarship was such a blessing. This is an organization that wants to see you progress; that’s it. They just want to help you achieve your goals.” You can learn more about Isaiah and other students who have been impacted by our programs at our website, actuarialfoundation.org.
Please join us on this transformative adventure: All for Math! With your support, we can provide even more students like Isaiah with the tools they need to succeed and build brighter futures.
Make a donation or sign up to volunteer at our website, actuarialfoundation.org. You can also follow us on social media for information about upcoming events.