President's Column

Read archives from AAN Past President Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN, who served from May 2021 to April 2023.

February 2023

AAN Membership Builds Lasting Personal Friendships

When I first joined the AAN as a resident, I could not have imagined that an organization would foster such close and treasured friendships as those I have made over the years. During lockdown in New York and after, those relationships persevered on FaceTime and Zoom and helped me through my isolation. Over the past couple of years of pandemic, other bonds helped me endure my father’s illness. I will never forget the friend who facilitated my parents’ COVID vaccines—and drove them to their appointments—to my profound relief, or the time another friend helped move mountains, allowing my mother to stay overnight at the hospital, so my father wouldn’t be frightened. Yet a third friend took a detour to my hometown emergency room mid-road trip, when he heard my dad was there, and I was hours away. All three were members of the AAN whom I have known for decades; our friendships have blossomed beyond AAN walls, part of a treasured group I call my AAN family.

My experience is not unique, but I believe this professional society is. I have heard countless stories from AAN members who have found their closest friends and a strong community from working together on Academy initiatives.

Here below are examples of other enduring connections forged at the American Academy of Neurology.

Orly Avitzur, MD, MBA, FAAN
President, AAN
oavitzur@aan.com
@OrlyA on Twitter

David M. Greer, MD, FAAN
My father, Melvin Greer, had me join the AAN in 1988 (I was only 22 years old at the time!). Little did I know that the AAN would be my academic home for many years to come. Most recently my work with the Academic Neurology Committee has brought me one of the greatest friendships (and mentorships) of all with Dr. Ralph Sacco. Together, we’ve helped prioritize the needs of academic neurology departments, and I’ve benefitted from close friendships with department leaders across the US, including Bay Leslie-Mazwi, Brenda Banwell, and Andy Josephson, just to name a few!

Jennifer L. Hopp, MD, FAAN, FAES
I was hesitant to sign up for an AAN leadership course because I was doing my best to keep control of my time and felt constantly “aggressively overscheduled.” It turned out that the Transforming Leaders Program not only enriched my career with professional coaching and development of new skills, but also quite unexpectedly led to friendships I’m certain I would have never forged in my usual travels in neurology. We reminisce and check in with group texts, invite each other to visit and speak in our departments and are already planning to have a reunion at the 2023 Annual Meeting.

Yasmin Khakoo, MD, FAAN, FAAP
As a child neurologist and ’19 alumna of the AAN Women Leading in Neurology, I am grateful for new friendships. Executive coach Joanne Smikle, who galvanized our 12-woman cohort, and I continue to meet for a meal or a chat. The WLN ‘19 chat group (“The League of Twelve”), checks in with each other on holidays and prior to conferences to create time to meet. Though we use work issues as the excuse to check in, Sarah Hon and I talk travel. Ariane Soldatos and I speak about Pediatric Neurology and our families. Ann Tilton, my official WLN sponsor, was also my son’s “other Mom” while he attended Tulane. And Josh Budhu, initially a Twitter and AAN friend, is now a colleague at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Neil A. Busis, MD, FAAN
The Academy gives us the opportunity to befriend colleagues with similar interests who we would not have met otherwise. Laura Powers, her husband, and others love history. We went on some very nice excursions in our free time during MEM meetings. Lisa Shulman and I explored exquisite sushi at all destinations. Bruce Cohen and I have become close friends. I had a wonderful opportunity to visit him at his workplace and home. There are others, including staff, as well.

Thabele M. Leslie-Mazwi, MD
As the largest community of neurologists in the world, the AAN offers connections of unparalleled range. For me, this means friends from all areas and stages of neurology. Because of the breadth of membership in the AAN, I typically meet colleagues from outside of my own specialty. But the AAN also offers a breadth of different environments for connections. I have made friends from encounters at the Annual and Fall meetings, in AAN committees, in the leadership programs and now (in my role as a department chair) in the chairs’ group, who recently convened at the Ralph L. Sacco Neurology Chair Summit. Establishing such connections between members is a crucial function of the Academy, and one I greatly value.

James C. Stevens, MD, FAAN
I have enjoyed the many opportunities provided during my three decades of working with the AAN. The true “gold” has been the myriad of people I have met along the way and the valued friendships that have resulted. There are too many to recount in my brief contribution to this column, but one that has had meaning to me has been with Dr. Jonathan Hosey. They say that the truest friend is the person who is there in your most challenging moments, willing to lend a hand or an ear when no one else is around. Jonathan has been there for me on more than one such occasion and I will forever be grateful to the AAN as the conduit that has allowed our paths to cross.

Renee M. Pazdan, MD, FAAN
I was part of the inaugural Women Leading in Neurology Leadership Program through the AAN. There I found my “tribe,” a group of intelligent, creative, and inspirational women who challenge themselves and each other to make this world a better place. With their support, I’ve leaped personally and professionally into uncharted waters and this amazing group of women neurologists serve as the proverbial “wind beneath my wings.”

Joohi Jimenez-Shahed, MD
I was fortunate to be selected for the inaugural Women Leading in Neurology program. Alongside the amazing personal journey I took as part of this program, I met 10 other highly accomplished and motivated women at similar career stages―each from varying backgrounds from across the country and dealing with a variety of personal and professional challenges. Our friendship was tentative at first, as we all got to know each other and tried to understand how to become our own brand of authentic leaders, but we have become the fastest of friends, holding reunions each year at the AAN Annual Meeting, traveling together, sharing our struggles and successes, and always supporting each other. I can always count on these fabulous ladies for strength and encouragement, no matter what the circumstance.

Amy Hessler, DO, FAAN
My AAN membership is a vital part of my professional life. The friendship groups that I have forged through the AAN include my classmates as part of the inaugural Women Leading in Neurology class (2017–2018) who have become confidants and good friends in both professional and personal challenges. During COVID, as a neurology clerkship director, the AAN educators particularly through Synapse became invaluable as we shared resources in struggling to educate our students with limited access to patients.

I’m very proud to promote women in neurology and as one of the co-founders of Women Neurologists Group and a member of the AAN’s Sections and Subspecialty Subcommittee, I’ve encouraged many women to become leaders within the AAN. This has been fun to collaborate from a social media group to build up women leaders within the Academy.

I’m proud that the AAN is my primary national organization.