New President's Message | Joleen Volz

Jul 18, 2018

Greetings Colleagues,

It is a special honor and privilege to begin my term as president and represent the Society of Dermatology PAs. I would like to thank our outgoing president, Jane Mast, for her dedicated ongoing service to the society. She has put in countless hours and effort to advocate for the dermatology profession for many years as a volunteer leader culminating with this last year as she served as president. Jane now moves on to the role of immediate past president where she will graciously continue her advocacy efforts. It has been a challenging year for dermatology PAs in the political arena with continuing attacks on our profession and I am grateful to have Jane’s leadership and counsel as we move forward.

I am optimistic that this will be a better year for the SDPA and dermatology PAs as a whole. Realizing the need to change the conversation about PAs, and dermatology PAs specifically, the SDPA board voted to hire a PR firm that will help guide us through the challenges that may present themselves and threaten our profession as well as to better help us highlight the benefits we provide our patients and the healthcare profession as a whole.

But, there are things we can all do individually. Now is the time that we all need to take strides to protect our profession by supporting local and state legislation. It is important to support our state PA societies as well as the AAPA Political Action Committee (PAC) as we fight in the trenches to pass Optimal Team Practice (OTP). I strongly encourage you to get involved at the local level and to donate to the AAPA PAC -- it truly can make a difference in getting our voices heard in the halls of power.

Coming off of another amazing SDPA conference, I want to thank all those involved who help in allowing the SDPA to provide the best dermatology education available. It was very rewarding to be sitting at the airport lounge on my way back from Seattle and overhearing a conversation from a nearby table about “the best conference I have been to.” We have some of the greatest leaders who make our conferences run seamlessly. A special thanks to the CME committee and all the SDPA leaders -- you may not realize that they are all volunteers; PAs with full-time jobs who go the extra mile on their “off-time” to make all of this possible. I also want to thank our industry partners for their continued support, as well as the SDPA’s staff and our conference management team for their commitment as well. All this would not be possible without each of you. Thank you.

I am looking forward to an exciting year. If you have an interest in getting involved in leadership, the SDPA Board of Directors (BOD) and leaders would like to help you find your fit whether that be helping to develop new benefits and increase our membership, working to develop new CME content, or anything in between. We will be happy to help you find where you and your talent and passion can best help the SDPA. Please reach out to sdpa@dermpa.org for more information.
 

Sincerely,

Joleen M. Volz, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA
SDPA President
SDPA Diplomate