Annual Meeting Update
SAHM Annual Meeting Update
On to Chicago!
By Nicholas J. Westers, PsyD, ABPP Director of Programs
When I last wrote in August, we were gearing up to meet in Baltimore for our annual meeting. Given the many uncertainties of the past few years, it may have come as no surprise that plans changed. And what a great change it is! Imagine, if you will, celebrating the end of a great week learning about and promoting adolescent health with friends and colleagues and walking out of your hotel room onto a shamrock green Chicago River! Our annual meeting will be held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk on the same dates as we had planned for Baltimore: Tuesday-Friday, March 7-10, 2023. We hope you enjoy having your weekend free for sightseeing, travel, rest, and family time. Or for sticking around for the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade and its green river-dyeing tradition (reportedly eco-friendly) on Saturday, March 11.
The Program Committee is working hard on planning a broad range of quality activities, networking opportunities, and session content to meet the diverse needs of our membership. Notifications of acceptance for Educational Session proposals (workshops, institutes, special interest groups) have gone out, and notifications for Scientific Research Presentations (posters, poster symposia, platform research) are forthcoming. We will have approximately 30 peer-reviewed workshop and institute presentations in addition to a handful of pre-recorded sessions. We will also be offering a separate Youth Engagement Training Session with CME/CEU. We are committed to continuing the Invited Workshop Series and will announce presenters as we move closer to the meeting.
Plenary Speakers!
We are excited to reveal our 2023 Plenary Speakers! We have sought speakers and topics consistent with this year’s theme of Collaborations in Adolescent Health: Improving Clinical Care through Translational Science. Our Gallagher Lecture will be given by Lin-Fan Wang, MD, MPH, on Clinical Impact of Dobbs on Abortion Services for Youth in the U.S. Jennifer Levy of GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders will give a plenary on Legal and Governmental Actions Affecting Healthcare for Transgender Youth, and Elizabeth Dawson-Hahn, MD, will give a plenary on Clinical and Policy Issues in the Care of Refugee Youth. Our plenaries will also feature youth speakers who will provide valuable insight from the perspective of lived experience. We will announce our youth plenary participants soon.
Hot Topics
Keep an eye out for the Call for Proposals for Hot Topics! One of our most popular sessions at the annual meeting, we hope you choose to submit a proposal to present. We will be looking for a compelling description of the significance of the topic to the field of adolescent health and medicine, and one that synthesizes the latest information on the topic so that meeting attendees can walk away with cutting edge knowledge, tools, and practical guidance.
Registration Opens Soon Registration for SAHM 2023 will open very soon. We hope everyone can attend in person, and we hope you choose to stay through the last day of the conference and participate in our inaugural in-person Closing Ceremony to be held immediately following our final Plenary and Hot Topics sessions on Friday. As we celebrate 55 years of SAHM, there will be a lot to commemorate! We have some fun surprises to announce later as we prepare to see each other in person for the first time in four years! In the meantime, please stay healthy and safe.
Author:
Nicholas J. Westers, PsyD, ABPP
Director of Programs
Children’s Medical Center Dallas & UT Southwestern Medical Center
nicholas.westers@childrens.com
