A Year Like No Other

Dear Colleagues,

This was most definitely a year gone by… like none other.

As a society, a people and citizens of the world, we have endured unprecedented challenges that would have been unimaginable at the beginning of 2020. Our nation has faced climate change in an unprecedented fashion with wildfires and hurricanes that ravaged communities across our country.

We have also experienced an election that revealed a deeply divided nation. We have witnessed appalling injustices that continue to be perpetuated on Black Americans.

And a seemingly endless global pandemic that has dramatically disrupted every facet of our lives in physical and psychological ways as well as financially and within our families….in dimensions that are sometimes hard to comprehend.

Yet, despite all of so much hardship in our own lives and the lives of others, I find myself entering 2021 enormously grateful and optimistic. And that is because of you, my colleagues and friends.

I am thankful for you, an association of remarkably resilient healthcare professionals who continue to work tirelessly, simply refusing to let these daunting obstacles stand in the way of your hopes, dreams and pursuit of our profession. I am inspired by your devotion to your patients and your single-minded passion to our special vocation, every day.

As President in this past unprecedented year, I am especially grateful to our AAE staff, who selflessly worked each day to support our members and partners in industry, often from the confines of their kitchen table. Because of our AAE staff, our membership can continue their teaching; their continuing education; and their access to meaningful evidence and research on how to practice in this new landscape of risk so that our members may continue their professional activities unabated, no matter what obstacles we face.

I am also exceedingly grateful to our AAE leadership—our executive committee members, our committee chairs and their working groups, our generous AAEF donors as well as countless others, who uncompromisingly contribute to the benefit and advancement of our association staff and membership and ultimately influence our Association’s wellbeing. You are all the definition of selfless leadership dedicated to the greater good.

I am indebted to all of you, as well as our thousands of members in the USA and internationally around the world, for welcoming me this year as your President with a warmth and generosity of spirit that has been truly humbling.

As an association of healthcare professionals we continue to face short-term uncertainty, hoping we will be able to fully return to a normal cycle of in-person meetings and unique continuing education opportunities; with the understanding that this is a tenuous proposition as COVID-19 continues to surge this New Year.

Nevertheless, I am more confident than ever that the American Association of Endodontists will continue to thrive because of our members, working together to make our association stronger than ever. . And that anticipation will make our future celebrations all the more rewarding as the sun rises above and over…. all of us, once again.

2021 will be a seminal year for the AAE. The New Year will bring to the American Association of Endodontists a unique and pivotal opportunity to change our leadership structure.  In the coming months you will be alerted to meaningful changes in the ways we wish to govern our Association. As part of its annual self-assessment, the AAE Board has consistently identified board composition as an opportunity for improvement. Board composition relates to the Board’s success in building a board made up of individuals who contribute critically needed skills, experience and perspective to the association and its leadership.

In 2021, this responsibility includes a well-conceived plan to help the board identify and recruit members and cultivate officers, while examining and addressing gaps in areas of diversity such as expertise, race, ethnicity, age, and gender.  The AAE Board desires to introduce more diversity on the Board, and for the composition of the Board to be more reflective of the membership. The AAE firmly believes that increasing diversity will strengthen the AAE Board and result in all members feeling that their perspectives and experiences are represented by the leadership. Please read and embrace these proposals in our future announcements and explanations for this important change to our governance in the coming months.

I sincerely wish all of you a Happy and Healthy New Year.