Helga Rippen, MD, MPH, FACPM, ACPM Board of Regents
Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to be part of the College’s Visibility Task Force. We’ve been working to find new ways to share the story of our specialty and amplify ongoing efforts to evangelize the power of prevention, and we are excited to share more of what we have been working on in the coming months! This work has been, in many ways, very different than much of my career as a leader in health IT — it has asked me to stretch my strategic and creative problem-solving strengths in new ways and allowed me to further hone the communication skills essential in other parts of my career. This is just one of many opportunities I have had through Fellowship and Board service to both contribute my skills and expertise to ACPM, and to be enriched by those opportunities myself.
For those of you who may be considering applying for ACPM Fellowship in the coming weeks, I wholeheartedly endorse the decision. The path to Fellowship rewards engaging with ACPM’s committees, programs and educational work, encouraging the development of an expanded skillset and providing leadership opportunities that will serve you for the rest of your careers. The FACPM credential is a distinction and is recognized and respected in the field of public health and prevention. It will open doors for your professional life and as a volunteer with ACPM. If you want to one day sit on the Board of Regents and shape the direction of the College and profession in a hands-on way, you’ll need to become an ACPM Fellow.
In my work on the Board, Visibility Task Force and Finance Committee and through the duration of my experience with ACPM, I have had the fortune of working with a truly remarkable diversity of talented, energetic and experienced physician leaders. The wide scope of backgrounds, career paths and interests present in the field of preventive medicine is one of our great strengths. I hope many of you will consider Fellowship and eventual Board service to bring your unique voices to leadership positions and provide the input and direction needed to fully realize the strength of our diverse and inclusive specialty.