Dear Fellow SCVP Members,

Happy Holidays!

I wanted to bring you up to date on developments since our last meeting.

As I conclude my Presidency, I want to thank you all for your participation in many different activities throughout the last year. I will highlight a few of those.

Drs. Maleszewski, Mackey-Bojack, Lin and Duncanson presented a SCVP sponsored workshop at the National Association of Medical Examiners meeting in September. The room was full with 100-150 attendees for the hands on session! Thanks to this team for an outstanding job and spreading our Society further into the medical examiner community.

SCVP will be a Guest Society at the ASIP 2017 Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Stone will be chairing the session entitled New Roles for Inflammation in the Heart. And Dr. Eisenstat is working on a joint symposium with the Society for Pediatric Pathology..

Dr. Kelly has been collaborating with Dr. Gulino, continuing the work of the consensus committee with regard to sudden death and the SDY registry.

The USCAP invited a delegate from SCVP to attend the "USCAP Companion Society Experience" in Palm Springs on Saturday January 28, 2017. Dr. Maleszewski will be representing us. The USCAP is educating the Companion Societies about the possibilities available at this learning center.

I want to commend Dr. Buja for his continued outstanding leadership of our journal Cardiovascular Pathology, especially in this 25th Anniversary year! Personally I am very much enjoying the combination of new science and historical perspective!

Finally, I would like to describe a new committee that we will vote upon at the next business meeting. To ensure the future of SCVP, the current leadership suggests creating a Long Range Planning Committee that will serve as an advisory committee to the President and Executive Council. It will determine approaches for maintaining and enhancing the sustainability, visibility and other strategic goals of the Society. Its activities should focus on consideration of ongoing strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, financial position and other resources, communications, programming, benefits, and offerings to membership and beyond, and potential strategic partnerships with key professional sectors and organizations, including, but not limited to, professional societies, corporate entities and academic institutions. This Committee would be chaired by the immediate Past-President and should include the Treasurer, the Vice President (who is also the President Elect) and the chairs of the following committees: Program, Membership, Finance, and Publications. Others with specific expertise and interests may be invited to participate in deliberations as appropriate. The President will serve as ex-officio. This proposal will be open for discussion in San Antonio. If you would like to send me specific comments, please feel free to do so.

I am looking forward to seeing you all soon. Our companion meeting on Saturday March 4 is entitled SCVP Open Mic(roscope) Night and Presentation of Young Investigator Abstracts! I am very happy that we are partnering with the Binford-Dammin Society for Infectious Disease Pathologists for our Sunday morning session entitled Cardiovascular Infections: Contemporary Approaches to Recognition and Diagnosis. Dr. Jay Fallon will speak as the recipient of the Cardiovascular Pathology Distinguished Achievement Award Please join us for a celebration of Dr. Fallon's outstanding career at our Annual Banquet at Biga on the Banks. Details are available here.

I wish you all the best for a very happy and healthy 2017. Until San Antonio (and the Alamo!)

Sincerely,

Barbara Sampson, MD, PhD

President, Society for Cardiovascular Pathology