PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Read archives from AAN Past President Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, who served from May 2021 to April 2023.
June 2021
Annual Meeting Underscores Changing Times for AAN
As I write this column, the AAN has just held its first-ever virtual Annual Meeting, and what a meeting it was! After having to cancel the 2020 Annual Meeting in Toronto and this year’s event planned for San Francisco, this Annual Meeting was attended by more than 13,000 neurology professionals from around the world, all with a shared love of neurology. This number was nearly double what we had anticipated and ranks among our recent in-person meetings!
In addition to the top-notch educational talks and scientific sessions, my favorite parts of the meeting included a tribute to young researchers in 115 countries across the globe; a film about the life of one of my heroes, neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks; the opportunity to host Past President Jim Stevens in my home in New York and reminisce about the surprising challenges and successes of the past pandemic year, fireside; and the joy in seeing two of my former board colleagues receive presidential recognition of the work they have done as volunteers to this organization over an aggregate of nearly 50 years.
It was also exciting for me to listen to the women who gave plenary talks—19 of them, and the largest number ever—and to the courses and sessions on inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-racism, and social justice. This is not the organization I joined in 1984—which, while not the dystopia of the Orwellian novel by that moniker which depicted contempt for women and deemed them inferior—nevertheless, overwhelmingly male in its leadership and almost exclusively white.
Over the past 37 years since that time, women have grown to comprise 41 percent of this organization; 33 percent of its committee and subcommittee chairs; and 45 percent of the Board of Directors. Moreover, the AAN will have a female president at its helm for at least the next four years. In fact, for the first time in the 73-year history of the AAN, the entire presidential line (president, vice president, and president elect), which meets weekly to discuss the significant topics at hand, is comprised of women! We have more work to do, especially in including more members who are underrepresented in neurology, work that will continue during my term and beyond.
Individually, we all have unique backstories and experiences that have shaped us and our aspirations. But collectively, as we saw during the Annual Meeting, we share a love for our profession: neurology. And that shared love was never better showcased than in the virtual platform where we could network with each other, exchange tips, and even chat during the most exciting educational and scientific sessions that have ever been delivered.
We have no time to rest on our laurels, though. Work is already underway on the 2022 Annual Meeting which Academy leaders and staff hope to see held face-to-face in Seattle. The overwhelming success of our virtual meeting gives us confidence to consider a hybrid meeting next year that would include a virtual component as well as live, on-site activities, if the pandemic recovery continues at the pace we are all working towards. Whichever the platform, know that it will be done with the resolute determination to provide to you the most rewarding experience possible.
As I continue to address you in this column over the next 24 months, I look forward to featuring more about you, why you love neurology, and what this organization means to you. You have been sharing your experiences with me for the past 20 years for my columns for Neurology Today®, and I would like to invite you to continue to do so during my presidential term.
Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN
President, AAN
@OrlyA on Twitter