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Return to the Spring 2023 Newsletter President's Message
Let me start by saying how proud, honored, and humbled I am to be representing the American Academy of Oral Medicine as President for this fiscal year. I am lucky to be taking the reins during this truly exciting time. We have come out of the pandemic, and attendance at the Annual Meeting in Savannah was larger than it was pre-pandemic. There was a feeling of excitement and energy in the air, which was directly due to the efforts of the scientific, sponsorship, and meeting planning committees. We had 18 sponsors, including nine exhibitors, and their contributions enriched the attendees’ experience and led to the successful annual meeting. With the support of several sponsors, we offered three pre- and post-meeting workshops for the first time in the history of the academy, which the attendees and sponsors are still raving about. Savannah was a lovely meeting place, and we were fortunate to soak in the southern charm as we stretched our legs between scientific sessions. I have a lot of work cut out for me these upcoming eleven months. As you may recall, after specialty recognition in March 2020, the Academy has developed a strategic plan under Dr. Pinto, which was implemented last spring by Dr. Treister, who assembled a cast of highly motivated and dedicated members tasked with addressing the three pillars of the strategic plan are Sustainability, Collaboration, and Engagement. My focus is to create more value for our academy members, enhance their experience, increase member satisfaction, attract new members, and collaborate with national and international associations to increase awareness. With regards to these initiatives, we were very fortunate to have Dr. Dave Preble, Chief Strategy Officer of the ADA, join us in Savannah. I am thrilled to say we have a common vision on the importance of mouth/body connection, and we will work together to help “pull the ADA into the future.” Our Fall meeting working group was tasked with refocusing the aim to target a broad group of members of the dental community to help increase awareness of the specialty, attract new members with interest in oral medicine, and ultimately enhance access to care for patients in need of our services. We will share the results of their efforts at the upcoming Fall Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in October 2023. We’ve strengthened relations with our sister organization, the ABOM, and our co-chairs of the digital archive subcommittee have almost completed the task of preserving the rich history of our Academy. The student engagement and membership growth subcommittees have developed concrete and ready-to-implement plans, which they will continue this upcoming year. My role in the next eleven months will be to support these strategic planning task force groups and standalone committees, maintain the energy and enthusiasm and help push our plans to fruition. If you are interested in serving on these committees, please reach out to me, and I will make every effort to get you involved. Importantly, as I announced at the annual meeting, we are coming to the end of our partnership with SBI, our management firm. SBI has been instrumental in our academy’s achievements over the past several years. We have found that as we began implementing our strategic plan, the academy’s goals have expanded and evolved; it was time to identify a new partner to help us achieve our goals. We have begun the process of submitting an RFP for new management. I am lucky to have the help of our President-Elect, Ken Ikeda, Vice President, Jaisri Thoppay, and two past presidents, Bob Eskow and Craig Hatch, to help me with this undertaking. I am really excited to tackle the many items I have on my plate, and I promise to do my best for you, the American Academy of Oral Medicine.
Vidya Sankar, DMD, MHS
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