President's Message May 2021

For those of us who still teach and live by the academic calendar, May brings a finality to a long and sometimes challenging semester. The spring semester always seems more difficult from an energy standpoint, but also because the students are often ready to graduate, get jobs, and begin new lives. This year has been particularly difficult due to the pandemic, various mask mandates, student illness, and the stress of trying to function when life is anything but certain. In the midst of it all, AAHN has also been challenged to offer new and interesting content to members across the globe via Zoom. Since our conference in 2020 was cancelled, we were eager to offer an alternative to some of the scholars who were willing to make history themselves and present virtually. Thanks for Donna Curry, Lisa Held, and Jennifer Riggs for achieving a particularly complicated task. I know it has been difficult to adjust to a new platform, teach the speakers how to use it and allow us to view the Talking History series no matter where we are.  Many thanks as well to our moderators who kept each session moving, providing interesting questions and commentary along the way. These amazing people included Mary Gibson, Winifred Connerton,  Dominique Tobbell, and Barbra Mann Wall. Thanks also to Donna Curry who will moderate the final session on May 21^st.  

Our plans for the virtual fall conference are also well underway.  Various aspects we can share include our keynote speaker, Dominique Tobbell.  Dominique is the Centennial Distinguished Professor of Nursing and Director of the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry at the University of Virginia, School of Nursing.  Her scholarship focuses on American nursing, health care, and health policy between the 1940s and 1980. We are honored she will provide the keynote and look forward to hearing more as we get closer to the conference. The dates for the conference are planned for September 23-25, 2021. As currently envisioned, we will have the business meeting, awards and keynote address on September 23^rd and the conference sessions on September 24-25^th.  The agenda can change but we hope you will save the dates for an international conference where everyone can attend, regardless of where you live. The conference will also be recorded when time zones and distance make it difficult be present in real time.

It was been an unusual year for all of us, but I hope you are all safe, continue to use precautions when warranted, get vaccinated if you are not, and have a wonderful spring. Please let me hear from you with comments and suggestions on how to make AAHN more responsive and transparent.

All the best,

Melissa