Arthimedes / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
From working a temp job in the shipping department to organizing teacher training, maintaining an antebellum mansion and learning the ins and outs of professional medical practice, David Haag has had a career in membership societies that has been anything but boring. And as of this March, he finds himself in pursuit of his next great adventure. He recently retired from the ARHP after 17 years as its executive director.
“This is not so much retiring as taking a sabbatical for three to six months to figure out where to go for my next 15 years of a working career,” says Mr. Haag, whose background is in business. “I am probably leaving membership nonprofits and leaning toward philanthropic organizations, community-based nonprofits. … I want to move to where I’m actually touching the community.”
His inspiration for the move, he says, comes from working with passionate rheumatology health professionals for nearly two decades, a sentiment he expressed at the ARHP business meeting during the November 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting.