I want to thank the chapter's Board of Directors and committee members for their support, collaboration, and collegiality. Our chapter has 900 members, orchestrates about 2 large events a month, has 12 school and university relationships, and benefits from the support of 20 generous sponsors. It takes a strong team to keep the organization moving forward, and we are fortunate to have a team of such dedicated and thoughtful leaders. They give their time, expertise and wisdom - all on a volunteer basis, and all on top of other demanding professional responsibilities. I am especially proud of the new initiatives this group has completed over the past two years, including developing the Lynn Nicholas, FACHE Early Careerist Educational Travel Scholarship, creating an annual Volunteer Recognition Reception and focusing on our overall membership engagement, and articulating a strategic plan to strengthen the organization in the coming years. We will always have work to do to create indispensable member value, but we have made continued progress towards that goal.

I also want to thank our staff Administrator, Donna Powell. Many of you have met Donna at our conferences; she's the friendly face and the engine behind our organization and provides important continuity for all our ongoing events and other activities.

As I transition to Immediate Past President, John Fogarty, FACHE, President of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital - Needham, will take over as President. Ironically, John was my mentor through the ACHE Mentorship Program many years ago; he's been a strong supporter of the ideals of ACHE throughout his career and will do an outstanding job leading and representing the chapter over the next two years.

In closing, I will say that I think it takes a very special person to work in healthcare leadership. You need to be resilient, empathic, and a pseudo-master of many trades (HR, finance, law, strategy, marketing, architecture, policy/politics and more). You need to be patient, and at the same time, an impatient agent for constant improvement and change. It's about as complex an industry as you can find; you could certainly find many easier occupations on which to dedicate your professional pursuits. And yet, you have seen through all this and still chosen to dedicate yourself to this profession. You are special and unique because of it. And while our differences provide strengths, I'd say that we all have much more in common than not. We have all chosen to tackle these challenges, believing deeply that our neighbors, friends, and family deserve to trust that there are experts who will care for them when they need that help. We share that common set of values and beliefs, and the more we can do to connect with one another...to learn from and mentor one another...to support and advance each other - the stronger our field and our underlying values become.