Cathee Johnson Phillips, executive director of the US National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) in Washington DC, will step down on 30 April. The NPA's board of directors has launched a nationwide search and hopes to hire a new leader before she leaves. Johnson Phillips joined the NPA — which represents some 2,700 US and Canadian postdocs — in September 2008. She has helped to advocate for stipend increases and benefits for postdocs funded by the US National Institutes of Health; launch a best-practices certification programme for institutions; and facilitate the creation of postdoctoral offices and associations at US universities. She aims to maintain a postdoc-advocacy role but has no specific plans yet.