From the President's Desk - December 2018

December 14, 2018

Closing out 2018 and looking ahead to 2019

As one year is closing and another year is on the horizon, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful holiday season! Take that time to reflect, refresh, and relax. As I share with others, life is like a busy pie – we are involved with family, whatever this may be, work in and/or out of the home, education, community work, ACHE, and so much more. So, it is important to take time to enjoy yourselves and those around you during special times.

We have many exciting events coming up next year from our regional conferences this spring, to continued and new partnerships and other initiatives, to our Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, October 14 -16, 2019. With our Denver 2019 theme of Partnerships: Innovation & Collaboration, we have great keynotes already lined up, an exciting program in development, and volunteers to help make this another fabulous event. As Ms. Tina Marie Coolidge shared in her recent Five Minutes article, the Call for Proposals will be coming out in early spring. So, be on the lookout for that, and other opportunities to get involved in the new year not only with your regions, but nationally as well. We will continue the Emerging Leaders Institute again this year with a twist --- and we will be having this event in Denver as well. So, stay tuned for that, an online newsletter, webinars in development, continued outreach, and more.

And with other great news, we will be moving to a new temporary home office for ACHE effective mid-January. It is my honor to share with all of you that Dr. Rick Osborn, Dean at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), will be our new Executive Vice President (EVP) and ETSU will be our new home office.

While not new to ACHE and many of you have the pleasure to know Dr. Osborn, we greatly appreciate his leadership, taking on this role and having such a great institution to be our new home. Many of us have moved through our lives and with moving comes adjustments. I know we will all transition smoothly especially under the leadership of Dr. Osborn as our EVP.

A special thank you to Dr. Belinda Biscoe, Dr. Nina Barbee, Ms. Julie Tate, and so many others at the University of Oklahoma as they served as our home office over the years. Their energy, commitment, and living the mission of ACHE will always be appreciated.

Through my years with ACHE, I have met so many wonderful people, have grown personally and professionally, continue to have that passion for education all while understanding the importance of what we all do. With change comes opportunity.