{"id":676,"date":"2022-09-22T20:30:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T20:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsletters.aans.org\/tumor\/?page_id=676"},"modified":"2022-09-23T17:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T17:16:20","slug":"from-the-chair","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/newsletters.aans.org\/tumor\/fall-2022\/from-the-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Isabelle M. Germano, MD, MBA, FAANS, FACS\"\"
\nAugust 2022<\/p>\n

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Dear Colleagues,<\/p>\n

It is truly an honor to serve as chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS)\/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) section on Tumors throughout the 2024 AANS Annual Scientific meeting. A mission rooted in fostering education and research in neurosurgery oncology, over the past four decades, our section has made many global contributions to our community.<\/p>\n

I am very grateful to all previous section chairs for their leadership to initiate and expand our efforts in the education and research of tumors of the nervous system. In particular, I thank my immediate predecessor Jason P. Sheehan, MD, PhD, FAANS, who successfully led the section as chair over the past two years, overcoming the unexpected challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also thank all of you who put your trust in me to lead the section. I believe that we will be able to continue advancing the mission and building on past accomplishments, thanks to the generosity of the executive committee members who agree to commit their time and will join us in this journey over the next two years. Costas Hadjipanayis, MD, PhD, FAANS, will serve as secretary\/treasurer during this period.<\/p>\n

Since I began as section chair at the end of the 2022 AANS meeting, I have appreciated all of you who have reached out. I enjoyed the time spent meeting with you to listen and talk. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to represent the many talented, brilliant and devoted neurosurgical oncologists. United in our common goal to improve the care of our patients with brain and spine tumors, we are driven to pursue technical innovation and improve education for future generations. It became rapidly clear to me, that my top priority as your leader is to serve as catalyst to connect one another. In the human hierarchy of needs, our need to belong, i.e., to be connected, is one of two top priorities together with survival needs. For us neurosurgeons, connectivity is a fundamental and synergistic concept. Each of our complex and amazing neurons is even more powerful when connected with others to form the brain and the spine. Similarly, if we form connections and bonds with one another, our work will have a greater impact on our field.<\/p>\n

I convened an executive committee and advisory board of leaders for the 2022-2024 term to accomplish the goals listed below. The chair and co-chair of EC sub-committees share my vision and ensure that their committee goals also include developing such connections among executive committee members, within the neurosurgical oncology community, and beyond. Our field is a highly sought-after subspecialty, attracting a growing number of talented neurosurgeons with diverse genders, races, ethnicity and backgrounds [PMID 35705107; doi:10.1093\/neuonc\/noac150]. The executive committee leadership I chose is a testament to the current existing diversity of our subspecialty. I trust that with their help, we will continue to advance along this front.<\/p>\n

This newsletter provides an overview of our goals, how we plan to achieve them and what we accomplished over the past few months. My specific goals and deliverables during my two-year term include the following:<\/p>\n