On July 1, I will complete my first year of service as APhA’s CEO. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to serve, and I hope the pharmacists reading this see, as I do, that our profession is advancing, albeit not as quickly as we would like, and not without significant challenges. This first year has been an incredible privilege.

The next couple of weeks will be filled with opportunity and meetings. Yesterday, the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) CEOs met to discuss how we can stay together in Health Care Reform Implementation, as we did throughout the debate and passage of the Accountable Care Act. Today I meet with the Joint Chiefs (pharmacist heads of each armed services, VA and Public Health Services) and then head to Chicago for a meeting at the American Medical Association (AMA). The AMA meeting on Wednesday is important as we'll be talking about more ways for medicine and pharmacy to collaborate.

That afternoon and evening, we meet with ACPE (the pharmacy education accrediting body) to evaluate how we're doing and what we can do to improve, both in undergraduate education and in continuing education for pharmacists.

I get back to Washington on Thursday morning and start meetings with the APhA board, beginning with Finance and Strategic Directions committees and then with the whole board. We’ll work through the weekend. Monday, we finish with the APhA Board and begin two days of meetings with the APhA Foundation Board. In the middle of that we celebrate the Pinnacle Awards and recognize the successes of some of our profession's most innovative practitioners.

The morning after the Foundation Board meetings end, I get on a flight to the Florida Pharmacy Association meeting in Marco Island. I come back to APhA on the Fourth of July for a staff celebration at our great headquarters on the National Mall.

Somewhere in there, I hope to get a little sleep once in a while.

Meanwhile I will do everything I know to help the organization succeed, and I’m always willing to listen if you have ideas.

I look forward to hearing from you!