A conference and organization built on community
Thank you to everyone who made this year’s AAMSE Annual Conference such a success. Our opening keynote speaker, Taryn Smith, shared a phrase that stayed with me throughout the week: “Resilience Equals Community.” That idea captures so much of what makes AAMSE special.
Our community is made up of professionals who are equal parts humble servants to the physician community and dynamic, thrifty, gritty, and graceful leaders. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as AAMSE President and especially thankful to our Annual Conference Planning Committee, sponsors, exhibitors, and Executive Director Katie Gruber. I look forward to working with Katie and all of you in the year ahead.
I am deeply appreciative of the Memphis Medical Society staff and Board of Directors for their never-ending support. I was glad to have Cailyn Bautista Lillard, MMS, SHRM-CP, our Senior Director of Development and my first hire, and Matt Timberlake, our Marketing Manager, with me at the conference.
My thanks also go to our friends at the Tennessee Medical Association, especially Russ Miller, Amy Campoli, and Anjanette Eash; to my fellow Tennessee county medical society executives Rebecca Leslie, Kimberly Weaver, PhD, and Rae Bond, FAAMSE; and to the many AAMSE colleagues who have welcomed, mentored, and encouraged me over the years.
Belinda Clare, recently retired from Travis County Medical Society, was one of the first people to make me feel at home in AAMSE. Steven Reames of Ada County Medical Society, Inc. continues to set the standard for what membership in this organization can look like: always sharing, always serving, and always leading. I am also grateful to the AAMSE Presidents who came before me, especially Catherine Johannesen, CAE and Joseph Greaves, whose leadership, counsel, and friendship have helped shape my own AAMSE experience.
Use AAMSE — and give back to it
The common thread among these relationships is generosity. AAMSE members share ideas, resources, encouragement, and experience freely. Whether this was your first conference or your tenth, my advice is to be selfish in your use of that generosity: build your network, expand your resource library, and seek out colleagues at future events and in the AAMSE online community.
Ten years into attending this conference, I am still borrowing good ideas from other members. Last year, Memphis Medical Society learned about the Minnesota Medical Association’s advocacy elective for medical students. This fall, we will launch our own advocacy elective with the University of Tennessee. I am grateful to Juliana (Jules) Salcedo and the MMA team for sharing the program and consulting with us as we adapted it for Memphis.
That spirit of exchange is one of AAMSE’s greatest strengths. I hope each of us will continue to contribute to it.
AAMSE needs you
Like our own organizations, AAMSE has membership and partnership opportunities in front of us. I am asking each member to help strengthen the organization by reaching out to colleagues and contacts who should be part of this community. If you work with business partners who would benefit from supporting AAMSE, please connect them with us.
At the same time, your Board of Directors and I have work to do for you. Joe Greaves has already begun important work to reimagine AAMSE in the event that our current model of operations cannot be sustained indefinitely. We will call on members as that work continues. The bottom line is simple: AAMSE must get in front of its own challenges, and I am confident we are doing the work to better position the organization for the future.
Getting in front of the issues that matter
I also want AAMSE to be out front more frequently on the issues facing our members and the physicians they represent. I was encouraged by our early advocacy on the OMB-2026-0034 notice of proposed rulemaking, which threatens to harm dues revenue for many of our member organizations.
What else should AAMSE be anticipating? Is it artificial intelligence? Non-dues revenue? New approaches to physician engagement? I hope you will spend some time thinking about those questions and sharing your ideas with us.
The question I want us to keep asking throughout the year is: What can you do for AAMSE, and what can AAMSE do for you? I want to hear from you. Please email president@aamse.org with your thoughts, ideas, and opportunities for AAMSE to lead.
Thank you for your support of the Annual Conference, your support of AAMSE, and your support of me as I begin this year of service. I hope to see you in Milwaukee next year — and I hope you bring a colleague with you.
Clint Cummins
AAMSE President 2026
CEO, Memphis County Medical Society
