President’s Corner: Community & Connection

The ACR Board of Directors for 2023–24 and 2024–25. (Click to enlarge.)

Welcome to the first edition of the President’s Corner! I am grateful to Bharat Kumar, MD, MME, FACP, FAAAAI, RhMSUS, and the editors of The Rheumatologist for their support and encouragement in allowing me to have this opportunity each month to come together with rheumatologists and rheumatology health professionals.

So why the President’s Corner? In two words—community and connection. In developing my three presidential priorities of education, research and enhancing connections, shining a light on the ways in which the ACR represents and serves all of us as a rheumatology community became an encompassing theme. This was brought through to me even more clearly by the goals of our immediate past president, Deborah Dyett Desir, MD, to whom I wish to express my sincere thanks for her leadership and guidance.

Although we have seen the rapid expansion of electronic connectivity over recent years, what has not grown proportionately has been our ability to have a meaningful sense of connection within our community and with the ACR as our professional organization. It is my hope that the President’s Corner becomes a place where rheumatology specialists can learn more about what the ACR is doing to support them, with a goal of strengthening those connections.

An Auspicious Beginning

My first introduction to the ACR was in 1991, when I was a fellow attending the annual meeting being held at the John B. Hynes Memorial Convention Center in Boston. I was taken aback by the newest discoveries and education, and what struck me the most was the incredible sense of community that was being brought together by the ACR.

I attended a Meet the Professor session on scleroderma, where I hoped to learn some strategies for a very sick patient, and met a clinician in private practice sitting next to me who was there for the exact same reason. I heard lectures from experts whose names I had seen at the top of a scientific paper and got to meet them.

In the poster hall, I saw the latest science being discussed, including by fellows just like me who were presenting their work to an ACR Master. Through the ACR, I felt a true sense of belonging, and from that point on, I knew that this was an organization that I wanted to be a part of.

Volunteers & Staff

The ACR/ARP Committee Chairs for 2023–24 and 2024–25. (Click to enlarge.)

In 2024, we remain very much a community brought together by our mutual interests in rheumatology and our shared commitment to improving the lives of those with rheumatic disease. Whether you are a clinician in practice, a clinical, translational or basic science investigator, a clinician educator, a fellow, a Master, or a rheumatology health professional, you are an essential part of that rheumatology community, one who is respected and represented within the ACR. Through the President’s Corner, it is my goal over the next year to enhance our connections so that every member not only recognizes the value of ACR membership, but also sees their individual priorities reflected in the ACR’s commitment to its mission.

The mission of the ACR is to empower rheumatology professionals to excel in their specialty. This mission is advanced by the tremendous efforts made by our dedicated volunteers and staff to develop innovative programs in education, research, advocacy and practice support that seek to promote the success of each and every individual.

The ACR is served by its Executive Committee, Board of Directors and committees. Within the Executive Committee we welcome Angus Worthing, MD, FACP, FACR, as secretary, who will join Anne R. Bass, MD, in her second year as treasurer, and William F. Harvey, MD, MSc, FACR, who becomes ACR president elect.

Click to enlarge.

In November, we saw the transition of a number of volunteer leaders in the Board of Directors and Committees. I wish to thank those who have completed their terms and welcome our new volunteers (see table). The ACR’s mission is further extended through its important partnerships with the Rheumatology Research Foundation and the ARP, and I look forward to working with Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH, and Adam P. Goode, DPT, PhD (see article) as their organizations continue to make amazing contributions to rheumatology.

Importantly, none of the ACR’s work would be possible without our professional staff. Executive Vice President Steven Echard and the entire staff team exemplify the meaning of the ACR mission with their unwavering commitment to advancing rheumatology through the support of our members.

Mission in Action

In looking ahead, I enter this year with that same sense of excitement and optimism for the ACR and for rheumatology that I had as a fellow attending my very first ACR annual meeting. I would not learn about the ACR mission statement until many years later, but at the time of that first meeting, the words were unnecessary because I saw them in action, just as I have every year since.

It is my hope that the President’s Corner will provide you with a similar means of seeing that mission in action and that this will become an opportunity each month to engage with the ACR and enhance connections throughout our strong and thriving rheumatology community.

Carol A. Langford, MD, MHS, is the director of the Center for Vasculitis Care and Research in the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases at Cleveland Clinic, where she is professor of medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and holds the Harold C. Schott endowed chair in rheumatic and immunologic diseases.

Editor’s note: Get to know Dr. Langford by reading our Q&A with her.