Fall 2021

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AACPDM President’s Message

I was honored to be part of the planning for the AACPDM 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee meeting. On behalf of the 2021 Scientific Program Committee, we hope you found the content stimulating and the networking opportunities to engage with presenters, and each other, interesting and fulfilling. The trivia game on Wednesday night during the opening reception, the networking dinner on Friday night with the mixologist, and the many virtual discussions with your colleagues allowed the event to maintain the personal touch that makes our Academy unique and golden. The theme, “On Y Va”, meaning “Let’s Go”, was chosen to indicate our desire to emerge together from the recent difficulties, including: the pandemic, political polarization, social unrest sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and the personal burdens faced by many families. However, challenges can be opportunities for change. The AACPDM will evolve.

It was with great esteem that I introduced Dr. Damon Tweedy as my opening general session guest speaker. His presentation was furthered by the panel discussion with Dr.’s Deon, Bosques, and Sholas. The audience was highly engaged, not only with the interactive Q&A and polling offered during the session, but also with the mini symposium earlier that day. The 2021 Planning Team requested a special call for abstracts addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), so these talks were followed by a free paper session on the topic of health care disparity.

Even if you missed the live event, registration for the special Diamond Jubilee meeting will be open until March 1, 2022 so that you can still take advantage of the many offerings and the resultant CME/CEU credits through on-demand content until September 1, 2022.

The dedication of the members of our academy to evolve was reflected at the 2021 business meeting on October 7th as many Committee reports revealed DEI action items, some already implemented and others planned for the near future. With 2022 being the year for our Academy to review strategic planning, DEI will be one of the areas of focus as we revise and update our strategic goals. Other areas of focus for the strategic plan will include a comprehensive assessment of membership initiatives, Care Pathways, and our evolving relationship with the International Alliance of Academies of Childhood Disability (IAACD). Member voices can be heard with planned surveys and town hall meetings over the course of the next 3 to 4 months. Keep an eye out for these announcements! We ask you, the membership, to participate in this process by submitting your comments during the town hall sessions, through the comment button on the “Member’s Only” portion of the website, or by reaching out to the AACPDM office.

Please join me in thanking Dr. Jilda Vargus-Adams as she has completed her five year term in the AACPDM Presidential Line. We also express our sincere appreciation to outgoing members of the Board of Directors: Dr. Christopher Lunsford, Dr. Theresa Sukal Moulton, Dr. Golda Milo-Manson, and Dr. Jan Willem Gorter. We welcome: Dr. Wade Shrader as Second Vice President, Dr. Joline Brandenburg as Treasurer-Elect, Dr. Golda Milo-Manson as Secretary-Elect, and new Board of Directors members, Dr. Verónica Schiariti, Dr. Sruthi Thomas, Dr. Nancy Murphy, and Dr. Ben Shore. Lynne Fogel has replaced Brenda Agnew as Community Council Chair.

Please note that the website has received a big update this Fall! We thank the new Webmaster, Dr. Julieanne Sees, and the AACPDM Office for their incredible effort to revise it. They will be teaming to maintain it going forward. Let them know your impressions and any updates or revisions to consider!

So, you can see, there are many exciting things going on in our Academy. I look forward to serving you and the AACPDM in 2021/2022.

Be well. Stay safe.
Tom F. Novacheck, MD
AACPDM President, 2021-22

First Vice President Update

Congratulations to all who made the 75th Annual Meeting a huge success! The past two years have demonstrated the resilience of our Academy as we transitioned our Annual Meetings to online venues. The pause on in-person meetings created space to learn about the previously untapped potential of online forums for sharing and learning. As we begin to plan the next Annual Meeting of the AACPDM, we are carefully considering how we can continue to complement in-person content with online options to reach those who may be unable to attend in person and to expand our global reach. We see this as an important opportunity to reflect and build on what we have learned throughout the past two years and to celebrate being together once again.

I am honoured to serve as a member of the planning team alongside Dr. Laurie Glader and Dr. Ben Shore who will be your program co-chairs. We have selected the theme, Make it Matter for the 76th AACPDM Annual Meeting that will take place September 21 - 24, 2022 at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Make it Matter represents an opportunity to continue to explore how our research and care focuses on the outcomes that are meaningful to individuals with childhood onset disabilities and their families; to expand and refine our knowledge and application of innovative service delivery, including virtual care; and to find ways to address disparities in health and access to care that have been further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

You will hear more from us soon as the abstract submission site opens later this Fall. We are excited to be planning Make it Matter and look forward to seeing you all in 2022!

Lesley Pritchard PT, PhD	Ben Shore MD, MPH, FRCSC	Laurie Glader MD
AACPDM 1st Vice President	AACPDM 76th Annual Meeting Program Co-chairs

Past President Reflections

AACPDM was excited to celebrate our 75th Annual Meeting – Diamond Jubilee! During the meeting, a special trivia game was provided. We thank the members who volunteered to participate. Jean Stout, MS Susan Sienko, PhD Sarah Winter, MD Bill Oppenheim, MD Kristie Bjornson, PhD Garey Noritz, MD Rich Stevenson, MD Larry Desch, MD Kathleen Friel, PhD

While all were winners, the final person with the most points was Garey Noritz, MD. Dr. Noritz stated that his success was sitting all day waiting for the air conditioning to be fixed! All participants enjoyed their time, and members who watched cheered on their colleagues by saying things like, “Jean – you are an animal!” and “Susan better get the answer right about who is the current President!” Larry Desch served as his own advocate with the game show host, by pointing out the correct spelling of the Past-President names.

In case you missed it, we have captured some of the trivia facts below.

Who is the current President of AACPDM?
According to AACPDM policies, leadership roles change annually following the Business Meeting. Since the trivia game was the night before the business meeting, the President of AACPDM at the time of the was Dr. Susan Sienko.

Who was the first President of AACPDM?
Winthrop Phelps was elected as the first President in Chicago in 1947. He was born in 1894 in Bound Brook, N.J., the son of an Episcopal minister. He received a BS degree from Princeton University in 1916 and an MD degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1920. As a fellow in orthopedics at Harvard Medical School he developed a relationship with Dr. Bronson Crothers, a neurologist and one of the group who later established the AACP. He served on the orthopedic faculty at Yale from 1925-36 and was chairman from 1932-36.

Who was the first woman President of AACPDM?
Margaret Jones was born on June 3, 1904, in Portland. Dr. Jones obtained a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Radcliffe College and then began studying for her master's degree while teaching at Vassar College. Jones entered medical school and graduated from Cornell University in 1933, one of the few women in her class. She held academic positions both at USC and UCLA. An enthusiastic and caring pediatrician, she was a pioneer in the treatment of cerebral palsy. In 1967, Margaret H. Jones Kanaar, was elected president of the AACPDM. She became the sixth president of the academy.

Who was the first Canadian President of AACPDM?
Peter L. Rosenbaum, MD 1997/1998

Which AACPDM President had cerebral palsy?
Earl R. Carlson was born in 1897 in Minneapolis. Dr. Carlson had athetoid cerebral palsy. Despite this, he received an MD degree from Yale in 1931. As a student at Yale, he worked with Dr. Phelps who prescribed physical therapy for him and took an interest in his future. Dr. Carlson later established a cerebral palsy clinic at the Neurological Institute in the Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. In the mid-1930’s, he set up a residential summer school for children with disabilities in East Hampton, New York. Soon after, he began to bring all the children along with him to Florida to the Lago Del Mare School of Corrective Education in Pompano Beach which he directed. He was elected third president of the AACP in 1950.

When and Where was the first AACPDM Annual Meeting held?
The 1st Venue of the 1947 Annual Meeting was at the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago, IL.

The International Affairs Committee helped the Academy become international – what year was it added?
An International Affairs Committee was added in 1986. This has opened up membership and participation throughout the world.

How many Founding Fathers are there of AACPDM?
There are six “Founding Fathers” of AACPDM.

Seated: Temple Fay, Winthrop Phelps, Bronson Crothers
Standing: Meyer Perlstein, Earl Carlson, George Deaver

AACPDM Treasurer’s Update

When the board met for the midyear meeting in March of 2020 nobody could have imaged the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the economy and consequently the AACPDM. But the Academy has previously faced fiscal challenges such as insolvency and disruption of the Annual Meeting as of the result of the stunning events of 9/11. Fortunately, the pandemic unfolded in a manner allowing us time to adjust and ultimately produce two outstanding virtual meetings. Drs. Sienko, Novacheck and their respective Scientific Co-Chairs produced meetings that exceeded our academic and financial expectations and they deserve our thanks.

This short summary provides you with the assurance that our Academy is in good standing:

- The revenues generated from the 2020 and 2021 meeting allowed the Academy to remain in a stable financial position without having to access our reserve funds.

- Leaving our investment portfolio intact during the pandemic allowed the Academy to take advantage of market gains that have occurred in 2020 and 2021.

- The other factor that helped our financial health was a reduction in operating expenses and the elimination of discretionary spending from the 2020 and 2021 budgets. In 2022, we hope to reinstate the funding initiatives, while being mindful that many costs for doing business have increased and will need to be addressed.

The board greatly appreciates your ongoing financial support of the Academy and its mission. Moving forward, the board encourages you to support the Academy via the new member challenge initiatives or you can donate directly to one of the endowment funds (click here: https://www.aacpdm.org/forms/donation.php). Contributions to the endowment funds are much like the clinical and basic science research we do, in that new information may not benefit our current clinical practices but we “pay it forward” for the future benefit of the Academy, and the care of individuals with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities in general.

In the coming year we will be reviewing and reassessing the Academy’s investment policy, strategy, and portfolio with the help of our new financial advisors, Mediqus. This analysis will be part of the strategic planning discussion the board will undertake in March 2022.

We all hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, in-person meetings can resume, and that the Academy retains a strong financial position. We thank you, the membership, and the board for your dedication to the stewardship of our Academy.

“On y va!” to “Make it Matter”!

Respectfully,

Francisco G. Valencia, MD
AACPDM Treasurer

Congratulations 2021 Award Winners!

Each year the Academy recognizes the brightest and most talented in the CP Community! Some of these awards are decided "on-site" as they are reviewed and graded during the live meeting. Award winners, and the work they are honored for, are listed below. Congratulations to all 2021 award winners!

Southern Family Cerebral Palsy Center Best Adult Paper Award
Harold Moore, BS
Total Hip Arthroplasty in Patients with Cerebral Palsy: A Matched Comparison of 90-day Adverse Events and 5-year Implant Survival

The Best Adult Paper award is Sponsored by The Southern Family Cerebral Palsy Center at Rady Children’s Hospital and is given to the highest ranked free paper involving adult participants with Cerebral Palsy or other childhood onset disabilities.

Mac Keith Press Promising Career Award
Jacinta Quartermaine, Bachelor of SpPath
Participation Measures for Young People Aged 15 to 26 Years with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review

This award is given to an Academy member within four years of completion of training. The winner is selected based on the Awards Committee rating of presented work and is announced shortly after the Annual Meeting. The award is supported by Mac Keith Press, publisher of the Academy's journal, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.

Best Scientific Poster
Steffen Berweck, MD
Safety of Incobotulinumtoxin/a Treatment for Children/adolescents with Sialorrhea Associated with Neurological Disorders

The highest-scoring Scientific Poster abstracts are reviewed in their final poster form by the Awards Committee during the Annual Meeting. The Scientific Poster that scores the highest in the Awards Committee review is announced at a Saturday plenary session during the Annual Meeting.

Best Demonstration Poster
Egmar Longo, PT, PhD
Go Zika Go Protocol: A Modified Ride-on Car Intervention for Children with Congenital Zika Syndrome in Brazil

The top rated Demonstration Posters are reviewed and voted on by the attendees at the Annual Meeting.

Lifeshots Photo Contest
"Life is more colorful when we are together"
Photograph by Carrie Sewell-Roberts

Fred P. Sage Award
Dana Anaby, MD
Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation

The Sage Award is given to the best multimedia submission presenting clinical, research, or educational material in a digital format. The Award named after Fred P. Sage, MD, past president (1981) and Chairman of the A/V Committee of the AACPDM. Dr. Sage envisioned the great potential of audio-visual use in the Academy. He advocated for ways to popularize this method of teaching, and this interest eventually lead to the Sage Audio-Visual Award for the best program submitted each year.

Gayle G. Arnold Award
Jessica Sun, MD
A Clinical Trial of Umbilical Cord Blood and Umbilical Cord Tissue Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Children with Cerebral Palsy

The Gayle G. Arnold Award is the most prestigious award of the Academy. This award is named in honor of Dr. Arnold, a self-taught developmental pediatrician and President of the Academy (1989-90). The award is presented annually to the authors of the best scientific paper.

Mentorship Award
Bernadette Gillick, PhD, MSPT, PT

The Mentorship Award recognizes an individual who is an active member of the AACPDM and has demonstrated outstanding leadership mentoring trainees and colleagues in the field of childhood-onset disabilities. Particular focus is placed on the contribution and impact of the mentoring to improve services/care, promote professional education and/or promote research for children with disabilities.

Duncan Wyeth Award
Bradley Heaven

This award is presented to an individual who demonstrates outstanding participation in or promotion of sports and recreation and serves as a role model for people with disabilities. The award is named after Mr. Duncan Wyeth for his passion towards life and for encouraging people with disabilities of all ages to pursue interests and dreams based upon their abilities and not to be limited by their disability. Duncan is an active advocate in his local community as well as nationally and internationally. His enthusiasm for life, sports and recreation are contagious and inspirational to all.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Richard L. Lieber, PhD

This award is presented to a special presidential guest lecturer, specifically selected by the First Vice President. The recipient of this award, during their lifetime, has made creative contributions of outstanding significance to the field of medicine and for the benefit of patients with cerebral palsy and other childhood-onset disabilities.

Corbett Ryan Pathways Pioneer Award
Rachel Wobschall

This award is given to persons representing excellence while pursuing their interests, their dreams and a high quality of life who also happen to live with a personal physical challenge.

Committee Corner

Adapted Sports
The Adapted Sports and Recreation (AS&R) Committee consists of 21 members from around the world (Canada, China, Greece, India, New Zealand, Qatar, USA). This year we created four new subcommittees in addition to our three standing ones (Community Council & Community Forum; Duncan Wyeth Award; Equity & Diversity; Journal Article Digest; Let’s Move! (renamed from Get Up and Move! to be more inclusive); Opportunities & Resources (renamed from Social Media & Awareness); AS&R Special Interest Group). Over the past year we continued our close collaboration with the Community Council; our Chair participated in their monthly calls, and we organized and presented a panel entitled “Navigating Local Sports and Recreation Programs” at the 2021 Community Forum. We solicited and reviewed nominations, and selected Mr. Bradley Heaven as this year’s Duncan Wyeth Award winner. Our Let’s Move! subcommittee again organized and facilitated pre-recorded opportunities for movement during break times during the 2021 Annual Meeting. Our Journal Article Digest completed 27 reviews (summarizing recent literature on adaptive sports, recreation, & physical activity for people with disabilities) and collaborated with the Communications Committee to have these promoted via the official AACPDM social media accounts. Our SIG subcommittee drafted a proposal for a AS&R SIG and submitted to the BOD for consideration at the Mid-Year Meeting. Our other two newer subcommittees drafted mandates, set goals for the coming year, and started working towards them.

Advocacy Committee
The Advocacy Committee has been active in working on the restructuring and updating of the website as it pertains to advocacy. Our goal is to have the necessary resources easily available for the membership and for patients/families. We will be surveying the membership about topics for a reference library. We would like to be able to provide supportive literature to providers advocating for their patients. Our hope is that this will also guide the need for research in areas that are lacking supportive literature. We continue to work on the Fast Track for advocacy issues and hope to be able to participate in larger advocacy efforts in combination with organizations in the disability community.

Awards Committee
The Awards Committee looks forward to participating in another virtual Annual Meeting during which we will have the great honor of reviewing the best posters and presentations. We will anticipate presenting to the AACPDM Board of Directors our selections for winners approximately two weeks after the meeting becomes fully available online. Be on the look-out for social media updates.

Please join us in congratulating our International Scholarship recipients who will be joining us for the Annual Meeting. While we certainly look forward to the opportunity to gather in person, a virtual meeting allows us to spread our resources and invite additional authors from throughout the world to participate.

As always, we encourage the AACPDM membership to consider joining the prestigious and exciting Awards Committee.

Care Pathways
The focus of the Care Pathways Committee in 2020-21 has been on implementing and dissemination the new methodology for Care Pathways development. Work on this project began in late 2018 and was published online in August 2020. The new methodology endorses the GRADE approach. The new instruction documents replace the AACPDM’s Systematic Review Methodology. Considered a living document, annual revisions are planned. We have a Methodology group within the Committee who monitor the evidence-based medicine literature in order to stay up to date on recommended best practices for systematic reviews and guidelines. Care Pathway Committee members serve as liaisons to each active Care Pathway Team in order to provide support and ensure the Teams follow the new methodology.

Currently, six Care Pathways developed with the previous methodology are available; one remains due for revision, and 3 are actively under revision. Three new pathways are in development and are transitioning to the new methodology. The Care Pathways website homepage has been updated. Dates of original postings and revision due dates are provided so anyone accessing the Pathway can determine its currency. There are active links to the new instruction documents. The link to the AACPDM’s Systematic Review Methodology has been removed. It had become woefully outdated because there was no mechanisms put in place to actively support and maintain it. The content of the individual Care Pathway pages will be phased in as Pathways using the new methodology are completed. Links to these website pages are recommended for any references to or citations of Pathway material.

Communications Committee
The Communications Committee works to utilize coordinated strategies to disseminate Academy communications broadly and to promote its overall mission and that of each sub-committee. We use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as our key social media platforms and create our society newsletters. Our goal is to not only inform our members and the public of our society’s work but to also promote research, tech, disability awareness and rights, and more! Please contact us if there is something you would like to share with the world.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aacpdm
Twitter: @AACPDM
Instagram: @AACPDM

Community Council
The Community Council continues to focus on fostering relationships between patients, parents, and other stakeholders and to increase awareness, education and research opportunities to improve the lives of children with CP and other childhood onset disabilities.

The Community Council is pleased to share the 2021 Community Forum here: https://www.aacpdm.org/events/2021/community-forum. You can share the link with patients and families.

Topics included in the 2021 Community Forum are:
Adaptive Gaming and Home Automation
Mental Health Panel
Navigating Local Sports and Recreation Programs

Complex Care Committee
The AACPDM Complex Care Committee is an inter-professional team that promotes academic discussion, scholarship, collaboration, and mentorship for clinicians in the care of children with medical complexity. The Committee identifies a yearly complex care track to highlight complex care content and hosts the Complex Care SIG at the Annual Meeting. This year’s SIG topic will be The Future of Health Care Delivery for Children with Medical Complexity. Several members of the Committee are presenting sessions including the third complex care pre-course, Practical Approaches to Complex Care: Care of Medically Complex Non-verbal Children with Suspected Pain Behaviors. We will be working on converting the 2020 respiratory pre-course into an e-course for education beyond the Annual Meeting.

The Committee identified initiatives for improving diversity, equity, and inclusion at AACPDM. We are eager to collaborate with other Committees and have a formal liaison with the community council to include lived experience in our initiatives. We look forward to creating and promoting content relevant to the care for children with medical complexity at the Annual Meeting and beyond. Please share your ideas with us!

Education Committee
The Education Committee is excited to offer regular eCourses for CME credit. The courses are open to all, with a discounted rate for AACPDM Members in good standing. Courses are provided on-demand, so you can learn as your schedule allows. Offerings are for both short courses, and longer courses. Our first eCourse of the year opened 2/1/2021: Neuropsychological Challenges Associated with Congenital and Acquired Brain Injury by Kristine Stadskleiv, PhD, from University of Oslo. There were 149 individuals enrolled in the course.

The second eCourse was launched in summer 2021, total of 68 participants completed the course.

Reach out to the Education Committee if you have ideas for future eCourses!

Lifespan Care
The Lifespan Care Committee look forward to delivering a pre-conference course tackling the prevalent issue of mental health and wellbeing in adolescents and adults with cerebral palsy. The Adults and Aging SIG continues to address a need in service providers and consumers, and we continue to work closely with them to maximize the reach of the work we do. The Lifespan Care Committee undertook a priority setting activity that has enabled us to focus on prioritizing our work for the year ahead – with a mini e-course proposed providing an overview of physical and mental health issues in those aging with developmental disability, a journal review subcommittee formed, and ways to ensure that we continue to work closely with the Adults and Aging SIG for the benefit of adults with developmental disability. We look forward to welcoming our new Community Council Liaison Committee member and I wish Caitlin Cassidy, supported by Heidi Haapala good luck in their leadership roles over the coming year.

Membership Committee
The Membership Committee broadened its Committee scope this year to include a detailed and thoughtful review of the AACPDM membership data, and development of a broad membership recruitment and retention strategy. Included in the task was a review of the current AACPDM mission statement, and a discussion of how and why, as an association, it works to meet that mission. Recognition was given to the organization being one constituted of members (volunteers) who are motivated by this common goal (the mission), and/or one of the six core values of its strategic plan.

The Committee studied multiple educational resources pertaining to types of association membership structure, function, recruitment, retention, and data assessment to better understand the current Academy framework, then put forward a comprehensive proposal focused on member recruitment and retention. The resulting 40 page document was forwarded to the Board of Directors, and will hopefully be dispersed to the Committees after their next meeting.

Research Committee
Approval from the Board that the following statement be added to grant applications beginning with the Spring 2022 cycle: Please describe how you will address recruitment of underrepresented population(s) based on the needs and characteristics of the region in which your research study will take place.

Approval from the Board that the Research Committee be permitted to test the benefits of an ad hoc Committee to review grants in the Spring 2022 cycle. The ad hoc Committee will include past members of the Research Committee, who have experience with the review of AACPDM and/other types of grants.

AACPDM SIGS – Specially Designed for You!

AACPDM Adult and Aging SIGS
The Adult and Aging Special Interest Group of the AACPDM continues to grow and attract new partners to join us in conversation about life and care through the years with childhood onset disability. We had our largest gathering yet during the AACPDM’s Annual Meeting, when over 200 people participated in invigorating discussions about transition to adult care, translating research to practice, navigating the unique nature of research focusing on adults with developmental disabilities, and life through the “middle years” for people with CP. We’re always open to expanding our group and if you’re interested in being part of our email list so that you’ll never miss out on upcoming meetings, please reach out to us at AdultAgingSIG@aacpdm.org. Our next virtual meeting is planned for January 12 at 4pm ET – stay tuned for more details! You can register here: https://forms.gle/36pRQ1eznqpWsoyX9

AACPDM 75th Annual Meeting On-Demand Content Available & Registration Open!

If you registered for the AACPDM 75th Annual Meeting, you have access to the on-demand recordings until September 1, 2022 by clicking here.

If you are not already registered for the meeting, but would still like to access the on-demand content, registration is still OPEN online until March 1, 2022! The 75th Annual Meeting offers both live and enduring credits for attendees.

Access to Program Content Includes:
General Sessions including: Presidential Guest Lectures, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Panel, Chambers Family Lifespan Lecture

Award Recipients including: Duncan Wyeth Award, Mentorship Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, Gayle G. Arnold Lectureship

Mini Symposia

Free Paper Sessions:
A. Basic Science/Technology
B. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion/Developmental
C. Orthopaedic
D. Therapy/Tone
E. Complex Care/Early Development
F. Gait
G. Orthopaedic: Hip
H. Technology
I. Early Diagnosis
J. Lifespan
K. Therapy/Upper Extremity

Poster Gallery

Virtual Exhibit Hall

On-Demand Mini Symposia

To register for the virtual meeting, please click the button below

Mac Keith Press Update

Children with Visual Impairment: Assessment, Development, and Management will be released this calendar year and is currently open for pre-orders. It will be a useful resource for developmental/and neurodisability paediatricians and clinicians including clinical, neuro- and educational psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists; paediatric ophthalmologists and eye clinic staff; mobility/ habilitation specialists, educationalists of vision impairment and others; community family support and social care workers.

Additionally, you can access the Mac Keith press newsletter at https://www.mackeith.co.uk/news/. Signing up to their newsletter is a great way to keep up to date with key dates and monthly offers on books and courses. Signing up gives you a one-time 20% off coupon too.

Strategic Planning Update

The AACPDM will be updating our strategic plan in 2022. We will be holding two Town Hall meetings, one in December and the other in early 2022. Information that we gather from the Town Hall events will help us to develop our strategic plan for the next several years. We want to hear from you! Please hold the date for the first meeting, to be held Friday, December 17 at 9:00 am CT. Information to access the event will be shared with all AACPDM members in good standing. Please stay tuned for more information. You can also provide comments in the “Member’s Only” section of the AACPDM website.

Letter from the Editor

Thank you for reading through the latest newsletter of the year, a grand accomplishment and thanks to the AACPDM office staff! Rapid change is often uncomfortable, but the Academy has remained stable and even appears to be thriving during these interesting times. The annual conference in this recorded format allows the benefit of not have to choose between interesting presentations competing for time, an advance which would be expected to improve the dissemination of new information. Now, on to the next year as we continue to Make it Matter. I look forward to being able to see you again if the circumstances allow, and know that we remain together in the spirit. Comments and contributions for this newsletter are always welcome and even encouraged.

Steve Couch
AACPDM Newsletter Editor