Hello and welcome to a new school year.
I am very thankful for the opportunity to be the AUPHA Board Chair for 2022-2023. I want to thank Jason Turner for his excellent leadership this past year. We have seen tremendous progress in the AUPHA Strategic Plan, and I am especially proud of the Board’s work on the Teaching Excellence Awards. Bringing teaching excellence to the forefront of AUPHA is critical and this past year we did a great job under Jason’s leadership and insights and forward thinking from Dan and Jaime. We still have work to do and this coming year I hope to see more engagement and progress in updating the Body of Knowledge.
One goal of mine as chair is to increase faculty engagement within the various academic communities. Engaging with your colleagues across AUPHA is inspiring and educational. AUPHA’s Faculty Forums met earlier this month and the meetings, like other Town Halls and webinars, were recorded so that members may watch at their leisure. I participated in many of the Forum meetings and support the building of faculty networks to further our professional connections.
Borrowing from Dr. Jason Turner, the 2021-2022 Board Chair, I want to summarize some of the accomplishments of this past year. Dr. Turner has been a great inspiration for me as I move forward this academic year. In summary, some of the significant accomplishments of this past year, that provide a platform for the future, were:
- Reaffirmed and strengthened relationships with other associations in our field
- Continued and developed new, non-association partnerships
- Completed and distributed the biennial AUPHA Environmental Scan and Trends Report
- Continued progress on the Body of Knowledge and curricular guidance/support
- Developed a meaningful diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion statement to guide association actions
- Expanded benefits to doctoral students and programs
- Laid the foundation for the Art of Teaching Institute, and
- Increased recognition of exceptional individuals via these new teaching awards:
- Teaching Excellence Award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Social Justice, sponsored by the “Better Together” coalition – the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE); the American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity (IFDHE); the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE); and the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE).
- The recipient was Tami Swenson, PhD, Des Moines University.
- Teaching Excellence Award for Health Policy, sponsored by the American Hospital Association
- The recipients were Stephen Gambescia, PhD, Drexel University, and Allyson Hall, PhD, The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
- Teaching Excellence Award for Healthcare Management and Leadership, sponsored by the American College of Healthcare Executives.
- The recipients were: Laura McClelland, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Joy Volarich, MBA, MHA, FHFMA, The George Washington University.
Throughout this coming year, there are many opportunities to connect at professional meetings and further expand our communities. Many of us will be at the NAHSE Educational Conference in October, at ACHE Congress in March, at HIMSS next April, and at AUPHA’s Annual Meeting in June at National Harbor, outside of Washington, DC, as we celebrate AUPHA’s 75th anniversary.
I look forward to being your Board Chair this coming year and please contact me if you have any ideas or questions.