Gratitude is a simple word often overlooked and underused. So, for today, I want to focus on it because my heart is full of gratitude for many things.
First, let me thank the incredible team at ACPM for bringing their unique gifts and talents to the organization. Cara Molinari, Director of Medical Education, recently lead the 2023 Board Review Course with chief faculty, Dr. Jill Waalen, which occurred last week with so many expert faculty delivering hours of rich content to help trainees and others properly prepare for the board exam. Many thanks to the faculty who worked tirelessly to update content and negotiate schedules to deliver a timely course and answer learner questions! Thanks also to Eric Oyan, our Director of Membership and Marketing, who has been working tirelessly on the upcoming launch of a new association management system. This is no small feat to enable us to move into a more advanced techological solution to better engage and efficiently manage member transactions. (Stay tuned for more updates on what will be needed to update individual member records to ensure we have robust data from which to pull member experts as needed). And, my thanks to Kate Shreve, Director of Grants and Programs, who has shepherded the grants team and the robust work across many disease categories – diabetes, hypertension, HIV, brain health and of course the vaccine work. The many members who serve as consultants on these projects – thank you for your work and engagement. We appreciate you. By the way, we onboarded a few new faces to the staff mix, so I am hopeful you get a chance to meet them either virtually, via email or at Preventive Medicine 2024 in Washington, DC, next year.
Second, let me congratulate and thank Chris Ondrula, Executive Director of the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM), and Dr. Wendy Braund, ABPM Presidentfor their 75th Anniversary and for a wonderful event in celebration of this milestone. It was great to see so many leaders of this diverse specialty in one place. And a hearty congratulations to President-elect Dr. Heather O’hara who will be stepping into the leadership role at the conclusion of Dr. Braund’s term next August. It is wonderful to see these women leaders step into important volunteer roles and positions — thank you for your service.
Finally, words of thanks and gratitude to the many dedicated, engaged and energized members who volunteer their time, talents and expertise in so many ways:
- Drs. David Niebuhr and Randall Freeman who review so many documents on behalf of the College and their recent work on the prioritization of the USPSTF topics for the future.
- Dr. Sherry Mills for her work developing a tutorial for how to write an abstract for scientific conferences. A small but needed tool to guide those interested in submitting their work for our annual conferences.
- Dr. Michele Soltis for her leadership with the Education Committee and her leadership on the recent site visit by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). Staying compliant with the ACCME requirements is an important part of our ability to be an approved provider of CME.
- Drs. Miriam Alexander, Jeff Tzeng and JP Ahluwalia for their service and leadership with the subcommittees of the Strategy Committee ideating innovative solutions to challenging questions.
- Drs. Hunter Jackson Smith and Yuri Jadotte for their leadership with the 2024 Conference Planning Committee and their ideas and outreach to plenary speakers and the incredible leadership of the Track Chairs — Drs. Michele Soltis, Sherry Mills, Jennifer Chevinsky and Elizabeth Erickson. Thank you for bringing your talents, passion and humor to develop a wonderful experience with cutting-edge sessions for PM2024. I can hardly wait for April to get here!
- Dr. Chris Pernell and the 100 ambassadors who are amplifying the important messages in our Vaccine Confident campaign and the This is Preventive Medicine campaign. Your voices matter and we so appreciate your efforts to amplify important public health messages.
- Drs. Andrew Karasick and Ankush Bansal have been leading meetings with the Advocacy Committee ensuring Hill visits and briefings occur with priority leads on Appropriations, our policy position statements remain relevant and up-to-date, and we keep our finger on the pulse of opportunities to advance resolutions at the AMA House of Delegates.
- Drs. Prasad Acharya and Tina Singh for leading the Membership Committee and the work they are doing to prepare for the Resident Orientation session next month. Your spirit and enthusiasm for the College is contagious.
- And the members of the Executive Committee, Drs. Mirza Rahman, Ryung Suh, Jill Waalen and Jim Tacci, thank you for the gift of personal leave for the next two weeks to recharge and for your leadership of the important Committees of the Board and your time and attention to so many approvals in between Board meetings.
In gratitude,
Donna
Donna Grande, MGA
CEO