| Dear colleagues,
On the heels of a highly stimulating ANA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, I wanted to take a moment to thank once again the Local Arrangements Subcommittee, the Scientific Program Advisory Committee, and the administrative staff who made it all happen, apparently effortlessly. I encourage each of you to set aside the dates for the next meeting in Los Angeles: October 4–6, 2020. One of the most important differentiators of our annual meeting from larger neurology/neuroscience meetings is the ability of participants to interact and network. Through the professional development sessions, the SIGs, and the Career Fair, senior academic leaders, junior faculty, and trainees are able to meet, socialize, and discuss science and careers. This informal mentorship, happening almost organically, is a wonderful element of our Annual Meeting and the ANA. Mentoring is sometimes portrayed as a unidirectional process, or as a duty for successful senior academics to “pay it forward.” I think that the ANA has shown how successful mentoring is actually a bidirectional process, which can benefit and enrich both mentor and mentee. Information flows in both directions, along with new ideas, concepts, and connections. In my own experience in the ANA working to help strengthen our professional development process, I feel that I have learned much more than I have taught, and gained much more than I have given. As we celebrate Thanksgiving and the holiday season, let us keep in mind that academic neurology is a relatively small community, and that an important role for the ANA is to strengthen the bonds between us. Mentoring is an essential ingredient in creating a resilient community, and I encourage all of you to continue this critical role. Warm regards, Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH President, American Neurological Association John W. Griffin Professor of Neurology and Director, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Medicine |