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Dear colleagues, This will my last missive before the October virtual meeting and the installation of Frances Jensen as ANA President. Having worked with her as President-elect for the past two years, I know that she will be a strong voice for our organization. Despite what we have all been through during the pandemic months, the ANA is a strong and vibrant organization that is growing in membership and resources. We are anticipating a return to in-person meetings in 2022, as well as additional educational and networking opportunities throughout the year. Our two journals are flourishing, with strong editors-in-chief at the helm. Our professional development activities are helping the careers of many of our junior and mid-career faculty on a daily basis. All this reflects the tireless work of our Executive Director, Nadine Goldberg, and her staff at AH. We owe an enormous debt of thanks to them all. I am also extremely grateful to the almost 90 volunteers who have served in various capacities ~ as officers, on the Board of Directors, or serving in our many committees. Our diversity, equity and inclusion task force ~ IDEAS ~ has begun work, and is tasked with addressing actionable steps to help change our organization. I have been asked at times whether an academically-focused organization like the ANA should focus on social justice issues. I believe that we need to do both, namely catalyze discovery and professional development, but also ensure that we are an organization that welcomes all, and that our discoveries can be delivered to all, reducing, wherever possible, health care disparities. As we map our own activities within the ANA and our own organizations it is worth recalling the dual career paths of Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow. He was a German physician, anthropologist and pathologist, who is known as "the father of modern pathology" and also as the founder of social medicine ~ "medicine is social science and politics nothing but medicine on a grand scale." In closing, it has been my honor to serve the ANA as President, and I am grateful for the opportunity and for the trust that you have placed in me. Warm regards, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH, FANA |