President’s Letter from Dr. C. Buddy Creech

Well, it’s happening.

Two years ago, I began my term as President-Elect and I have spent the last 24 months learning from Drs. Kris Bryant and Paul Spearman. PIDS has enjoyed tremendous success under their leadership, along with the outstanding work of Dr. Susan Coffin as Secretary-Treasurer, and we owe them all a debt of gratitude for their tireless service these many years. Please revisit Kris’s goodbye letter when you have time as it lays out our framework to promote the health and well-being of children worldwide through the control and prevention of infectious diseases.

Kris will now transition to her role as PIDS Foundation President, overseeing the philanthropic arm of PIDS. Meanwhile, I will work alongside Christy Phillips, our executive director; our PIDS staff (Jess and Alan); our newly elected treasurer, Dr. Deb Palazzi; and your President-Elect, Dr. Bill Steinbach. Our first goal as an Executive Committee will be to finalize the operational aspects of the recently completed PIDS strategic plan.

We also have a great Board of Directors who are deeply invested in the health of our Society and I’m so thankful to get to work with them to execute that plan. We just held our first in-person board meeting in two years at the PIDS offices in Washington, D.C. It was a delight to see each other, and it gave us great anticipation for when we can gather again in person more broadly with the rest of PIDS (tentatively in Memphis in March 2022 for the St. Jude-PIDS Conference).

While we eagerly await that time, we’ll keep providing the services and benefits, such as the newsletter, you’ve come to enjoy as PIDS members. One of our principal goals of this newsletter is to emphasize issues of importance for you. Let me highlight two, in particular:

1. A statement in support of COVID-19 vaccine authorization that the board issued on November 2:
   • “As an organization of pediatric infectious diseases professionals, it is vital for our society to lead on these issues and initiate important conversations regarding children’s health. We must never lose sight of the trust that we have as a specialty and what our work means to providers and parents, alike.” (the full text is available at PIDS.org)
2. Awareness about antibiotic resistance:
   • Don’t miss the opportunity to sign up for PIDS’s WAAW webinar on November 22.

It’s been said that ‘we lose what we don’t celebrate.’ Therefore, I’d encourage you to take some time as we observe Thanksgiving in the U.S. to celebrate – not merely what has been accomplished, but for what has been endured and persevered – by yourselves, your teams, and PIDS during this generation-defining global pandemic.

Over the next few months, we will share with you more on our plans and goals as a Society to use our unique identity in medicine to promote innovation, impact, and inclusion.

Onward and upward,

C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, FPIDS