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Dear ANA members: Greetings! With summer approaching, we hope that you are able to get out and enjoy the weather and that you are all doing well. This month, we are featuring some of the excellent educational offerings that we always have available to you. In addition, we are sharing some of scholarships we are proud to be able to offer, and we are pleased to be able to announce some exciting news about Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. And as always, we have further updates for you about this year’s Annual Meeting. Educational Opportunities In recognition of June Alzheimer and Brain Awareness month, we would like to share the past ANA Investigates podcast, "ANA Investigates Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease" which is available online. You can access all 34 episodes of the podcast not just on the MyANA website but also through Apple and Spotify. In addition, you can claim CME for attending “Benefits of a diverse workforce in lab or clinical research group,” the sixth event from the joint NINDS-ANA webinar series “Creating a successful research program: Combining great mentorship with compelling science and building a diverse and inclusive research environment,” through the ANA OnDEC platform. As well as hosting the NINDS-ANA series, the ANA OnDEC platform provides access to over 50 webinars, most of which offer CME. Some of the included offerings are recordings from the 2018-2021 annual meetings; the Advocacy 101 Broadcast Series for ANA Members; and webinars from each of the ANA’s SIGs. Scholarship Offerings The ANA Inclusion Diversity Equity Antiracism Social Justice (IDEAS) Task Force, co-chaired by Lesli E. Skolarus, MD, MS, FANA, Co-Director Vascular Neurology Division, Co-Director Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center, Professor of Neurology, University of Michigan, and Allison Willis, MD, MS, FANA, Associate Professor, Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, Associate Professor, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, has developed the ANA IDEAS Junior Member Scholarship. The scholarship promotes and supports underrepresented minorities in medicine (URiM), and recipients will participate in a two-year program that includes complementary registration and a travel award to attend the ANA Annual meetings in 2022 and 2023. “The ANA IDEAS Junior Member Scholarship program aligns two important ANA goals — accelerating the careers of junior academic neurologists and supporting diversity among academic neurologists. Increasing representation and support for a diverse cohort of academic neurologists is essential to address undue burden of neurological disease and promote health equity,” said Dr. Skolarus. “The ANA IDEAS Junior Member Scholarship program affords junior academic neurologists with a supportive, long-term mentoring experience, in addition to a small stipend for career development. This program is in line with the essential ANA goal to increase diversity in the field of academic neurology.” The deadline to apply for the ANA IDEAS Junior Member Scholarship is June 17, 2022. In addition, the Junior and Early Career Membership (JECM) committee has launched the ANA Futures program, a longitudinal career development program geared toward medical students and residents. “We had over 90 medical students and residents apply for the ANA Futures program and have selected 24 outstanding future neurologists. Over the summer and fall, the JECM committee, ANA members, and mentors will be meeting in small groups with the trainees to showcase academic neurology and the benefits of being part of the ANA. We are looking forward to getting to know them and passing on the outstanding resources we have all benefited from,” said Eric C Landsness, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis. The JECM hopes to develop the program, which offers medical students and residents the opportunity to meet with ANA leaders, into a long-term resource that will benefit the ANA for years to come. “The ANA has prioritized our career development as junior members and has also empowered us to build a program that will allow others to see the rich resource that the ANA can be for trainees. We have recruited a stellar group of medical students and residents to the ANA Futures program,” said Bhooma Aravamuthan, MD, DPhil, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis. “With the dedication of the Junior and Early Career Member Committee, the unwavering support of the ANA Board, and the time donated by multiple senior ANA members as speakers and mentors for this program, we look forward to showing our ANA Futures recruits what we already know: the ANA represents the future of academic neurology and neuroscience.” Journal Developments The Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology (ACTN) has been extremely fortunate to have been shepherded by John A. Kessler, MD, FANA, Ken and Ruth Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology, Professor of Neurology (Comprehensive Neurology) and Pharmacology, Northwestern University. The innovations of Dr. Kessler’s pioneering work as Editor-in-Chief have developed ACTN into a journal that provides incredible value to the neurological community, and we want to thank him in advance for his efforts. “I am grateful to the ANA for giving me the opportunity to help build ACTN,” said Dr. Kessler. “It has been a joy to participate in the emergence of ACTN as an established journal.” Dr. Kessler will continue in the position through the end of this year, at which point Ahmet Hoke MD, PhD, FANA, FRCPC, Professor, Neurology and Neuroscience, Director, Neuromuscular Division Director, Merkin Peripheral Neuropathy and Nerve Regeneration Center, Editor-in-Chief, Experimental Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will succeed him to become the new editor in chief of ACTN. “It’s been an honor working at ACTN as an associate editor since its founding, and I look forward to growing the journal as I take over the editor in chief role. I congratulate Jack Kessler for what he has accomplished with ACTN and I am grateful to the ANA Board for trusting me with the next iteration of the journal,” said Dr. Hoke. Annual Meeting Updates We have been very pleased to receive over 400 abstract submissions for ANA2022. We are grateful to everyone for their work and their submissions, and we are extremely excited to see you all at the meeting. “I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the abstract submissions for the Annual Meeting. There was fantastic translational and clinical science, and I look forward to the final program!” said Scientific Program Advisory Committee member Lauren Sansing, MD, MS, Academic Chief, Division of Stroke and Vascular Neurology, Associate Professor, Departments of Neurology and Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine. Though abstract submissions are closed, you may still submit a late breaking abstract, as the deadline is June 1, 2022. Abstracts that demonstrate new and scientifically important research, key aspects of which have been conducted after April 15, 2022, qualify for late breaking abstract submissions. We have received many quality submissions thus far, and we look forward to reviewing yours. You can get an advance look at the co-chairs of the meeting’s Opening Symposium in the plenary feature in the newsletter below, where Drs. Jack Parent and Sally Temple discuss the insights neuroscientists are gaining about disease through the study of brain-like tissues that have been grown from stem cells to form three-dimensional constructs. As we have mentioned in a previous newsletter, the Research Careers Reimagined Course Planning Subcommittee, chaired by Laura J. Balcer, MD, MSCE, FANA, Professor of Neurology, Population Health and Ophthalmology, New York University, is offering a Research Careers Reimagined (RCR) Course at this year’s meeting. All registrants to the full ANA2022 program will receive complimentary access to the course. If you would like to participate only in the RCR course, the registration fee is $125. You can register for the meeting online. Note that there is a discounted early bird registration fee for those who register by September 16, 2022. It is important that you renew your membership prior to registration for the meeting, as ANA members also receive a discount on the registration fee. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all there.
Regards,
Frances E. Jensen, MD, FANA, FACP Arthur Knight Asbury, MD Professor of Neurology Chair of the Department of Neurology Co-Director Penn Medicine Translational Neuroscience Center Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania |
