President’s Letter from Dr. C. Buddy Creech – Goals For PIDS; Goals With PIDS

As we head into summer, I’m asking each of us to think about our goals for PIDS this year. My hope is that by intentionally crafting both a shared vision for PIDS and individual goals for how we engage with PIDS, we will be able to capitalize on all that our Society can offer.

For example, one of my goals for PIDS is to continue to grow our staff. If we are to be as successful as we want to be in executing our strategic plan, we will need additional staff to help with fundraising, committee support, and overall governance. We hope to share exciting news on this front soon. One of my individual goals for engaging with PIDS is to learn as much as I can about effective board leadership and executive staff mentorship in order to strengthen our team and accomplish our strategic plan.

As you do this thought experiment (which I hope you all will), some prompts to consider in creating your goals:

1. Member Engagement: Where do you most engage with PIDS? Conferences, webinars, committee work? Think about how your specific skillset and interests can be used to support the mission of PIDS.
2. Mentorship: Are you mentoring students, residents, fellows, or junior faculty? Are there ways to engraft them into the life and work of PIDS?
3. Financial Support: Do you have ideas for how we might build our philanthropic efforts and funding for fellowships? Are there ways we can reduce the financial risks (both professionally and personally) for trainees going into Pediatric ID?
4. Research Contributions: Are there papers that could potentially go to other journals that you want to preferentially send to JPIDS? This might include clinical trials, laboratory science, and other original science contributions.
5. Conference Support: As schedules are set for the next academic year, has your division thought intentionally about what meetings you will support? IDWeek, PIDS/St. Jude, PAS, the ASP Conference, ESPID, and others are mission critical as we build alliances, share research, and mentor young people.

These are just some of the prompts that could be useful in crafting your own goals for this upcoming academic year. To have the type of impact we desire, we need each of you.

We are a strong Society, made stronger by the pandemic and the challenges of the last two years. We look forward to the new academic year and to the continued growth and development of PIDS.

Onward and upward, Buddy