From Strategic Plan to Action
Dr. Crofford describes division directors as “the lynchpin of the work the ACR is forging to support the academic workforce and ensure a strong future for the rheumatology profession.”
She says putting the ACR’s new strategic plan into practice requires a dedicated focus on data and data collection to understand the needs of academia and be swift to meet these needs. The Division Directors Special Committee has several important goals for the year ahead:
- Collect data about the state of the academic workforce;
- Share resources with division directors, such as the toolkit developed by the ACR;
- Mentor new division directors across the country;
- Plan the Division Directors’ Conference this March; and
- Plan the Joint Program Directors’ and Division Directors’ Forum (in collaboration with the Committee on Training and Workforce) at the ACR/ARP Annual Meeting in Atlanta this fall.
A Personal Note
Balancing her busy schedule at Vanderbilt University and with the ACR, Dr. Crofford takes every opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. She spends much of her time at her family farm in the Ozark foothills of Arkansas, where she helps raise the family’s herd of Black Angus cattle. When she’s not tending the herd, she can be found fly-fishing and hiking around the farm with her two chocolate Labrador retrievers.
Meeting Registration
Be sure to register for the Division Directors Conference and the Program Directors Conference, both of which will be held March 8 and 9 in Chicago.
Carina Stanton is a freelance science journalist based in Denver.
