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Dear ANA members: Greetings! We hope that you all are enjoying the return to warmer weather. We have numerous professional development opportunities to share with you this month, and we are excited to be able to give you a preview of this year’s annual meeting. ANA Award Nominations for 2022 Nominations are now open for a number of ANA awards for 2022. Those awards whose winners will be chosen by the Awards Committee are the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, the Distinguished Neurology Teacher Award, the Grass Foundation—ANA Award in Neuroscience, the Wolfe Neuropathy Research Prize, and the ANA Awards for Excellence. The 2022 Audrey S. Penn Lectureship Award is also open to nominations. The lectureship recipients, chosen by the ANA IDEAS Task Force Awards and Scholarships Workgroup, will be expected to submit an abstract for presentation during the ANA Annual Meeting. Charlene Gamaldo, MD, FANA, FAAN, FAASM, Professor of Neurology, Vice Chair of Faculty Development in Neurology, Medical Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness and Nicte Mejia, MD, MPH, FAAN, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director of MGH Neurology Community Health, Diversity and Inclusion Director of MGH Departmental Community Health Improvement, were the 2021 recipients of the award. |
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“I want to thank the ANA for the honor of being awarded the Audrey S. Penn Lectureship Award,” Gamaldo said. “I am humbled every day to stand on the shoulders of inspirational leaders like Dr. Penn and lend my part to advancing the vision of Dr. Penn and Dr. Marian Wright Edelman (the founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund, who famously said, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’). My hope is that we can extend their vision to not only allow our pipeline to see what can be but help inspire them in seeing beyond.” With the pandemic restrictions receding, at least in part, into our rearview, as it is increasingly possible to return to international travel, I want to remind everybody that we also have an award for international outreach, whereby an ANA member can travel abroad to complete a program. Although the application period is closed at this time, you can review the projects that recipients of this award have completed in past years. |
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Annual Meeting (October 22–25, 2022) Overview and Updates ANA Futures Program As usual, the Annual Meeting will include professional development opportunities around junior and early career stages. After two years of hosting a successful virtual networking session with overwhelmingly positive feedback, the Junior and Early Career Membership Committee (JECM) has been working on its return to an in-person format, which will include many ANA board members and leaders. This year, the committee will also be launching the ANA Futures Program, a longitudinal career development program geared toward medical students and residents. The program, which will take place over the course of several months, will focus on a small cohort, fostering small group discussion and camaraderie building, and it will culminate in a final session at the annual meeting, thereby ensuring that all participants have the chance to experience this “crown jewel” of ANA offerings.
Emerging Scholars Session Another of the Junior and Early Career Membership Committee’s initiatives is the Emerging Scholars Session, which was created in 2020 to showcase the innovative and cutting-edge research of junior and early career neurologists and neuroscientists. In accordance with its efforts to showcase junior and early-career researchers, candidates are selected once all abstracts are reviewed and scored. Abstracts submitted by those in the eligible career categories (student, resident, trainee, postdoc fellow, assistant professor, and instructor) are sent to the chairs of the Scientific Program Advisory Committee and the Emerging Scholars Session Planning Task Force for review. Eight (8) abstract submissions will be selected to present over the course of four (4) of the plenary sessions of the ANA 2022 Annual Meeting. The recipients of the award prize are determined by selected judges and based on the scores of each presentation. The three presenters with the highest scores will be granted an Emerging Scholar Award in the amount of $250. If the author of the abstract cannot attend and present at the Annual Meeting, the co-author is permitted to present as long as they are a student, resident, trainee, postdoc fellow, undergrad, assistant professor, or instructor.
Research Careers Reimagined Course We will have a new one-day course on Friday afternoon into Saturday for those who are interested in pursuing translational careers that involve research translation into clinical implementation. The Research Careers Reimagined Course Subcommittee, chaired by Laura J. Balcer, MD, MSCE Professor of Neurology, Population Health and Ophthalmology, is offering a Research Careers Reimagined Course (RCR), which is taking the place of the prior Translational and Clinical Research Course (TCRC). We wanted to “rebrand” this, because we feel there are so many expanding opportunities in this space that can be supported by less traditional forms of funding. And this will be explored during the day-long course. We’re very excited to kick this off, as it really is more reflective of the experience of academic neurologists in 2022. “The RCR Course 2022 is an update to what has already been an outstanding and historically meaningful ANA program,” Balcer said. “As course directors for the TCRC, we, along with ANA leadership, recognize that promoting flexibility and creativity with regard to sources of funding for investigation and academic pursuits in neurology will not only advance our field but will represent an acknowledgement of the diverse talents and interests of our next generation of leaders. We are honored and grateful for the opportunity to offer this unique program.” Please remember that the deadline to submit abstracts for ANA2022 is April 19 and there is a reduced fee for members. A press release with a brief overview of our ANA annual meeting can be found here. Our offerings this year will explore a number of cutting-edge areas in neuroscience and neurology that we think will interest the full range of attendees, from trainee to experienced clinicians and researchers. Please remember to renew your membership, as in addition to reduced registration fees, members have access to educational materials.
Regards, |
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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 |