So, as is tradition, we're just going to briefly go through the foundation, mission, and vision. Some of the young people may not be familiar with the foundation and its mission, and we actively advance the AOFAS mission by promoting and funding education, research, social impact, and humanitarian endeavors within the society. Our vision statement is to ensure that we have long-term financial stability to allow success of the AOFAS mission. We do have core values, and these are five in number, national and international presence, humanitarianism, diversity and inclusion, fiscal responsibility, and social responsibility. We have 12 funds that allow us to carry out our mission. I'm not going to go through all of them here, but some of the ones you may be familiar with, like education and research, are very central, humanitarian service as well. But we also have women's leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and also the pillars of the society. And these funds are separate from the AOFAS budget. In order for us to do this, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, and I certainly don't do it alone, and I really owe a huge amount of credit to the foundation board. President-elect is Pete Mangone, Secretary Sheldon Lin, and Treasurer Dave Thorderson, and the members at large are just equally as important. Eric Aronow, Brian Den Hartog, Christy Giovanni, Mack Hogan, and Joe Park. We've had a number of accomplishments in 2022 that I want to summarize here for you. We have resident scholarships provided at the 2022 winter meeting, which was new, and by all accounts was a huge success. We had our first resident skills course in Ohio, and that involved not 20, but actually 24 residents. And we had establishment of a new AOFAS EFIS Traveling Fellowship Exchange Program, which you're going to hear a little bit about in a few minutes. And we had DePue Synthes funding our AOFAS Fellowship Scholarship Program, and Stryker generously continued funding our Fellowship Scholarship Program, and we're going to hear from both of these companies in a minute as well. We had a restructuring of the Pillar Award, which I'm going to tell you about at the end of the presentation, which I think was very important for us. And we launched the 2022 Pillar Founders Fund. In 2022, we had 16 mission partners, and I'm not going to go through all of these, but these companies helped us raise, they raised $1.2 million for all the events that go on with our educational mission and meetings such as this. So I'm just going to take just a couple seconds to let you look through. And the funding from our industry partners goes to research and education. There was a big concentration on the Women's Leadership Initiative, scholarships, and humanitarian outreach. As I said, the Pillars of Society is a program that started in 2018. And it's to honor those who have served as passionate advocates for our specialty, esteemed educators, and strong leaders who have shaped and advanced our specialty. Selections for the Pillars are based on exemplary career and contributions to the AOFAS in education, research, leadership, and or philanthropy. We did, as I mentioned, have a restructuring of the Pillars. We are going to continue to recognize contributions from our AOFAS members to the profession and the society. The eligibility criteria will remain an individual's transcendent contributions to the AOFAS as educators, philanthropists, humanitarian, researching, researchers, and or leadership. The Pillar nominations will continue to be considered on an annual basis. But we've removed the fundraising requirement for recognition because we thought that that may have some negative connotations. But we are going to continue to encourage gifts in honor of or in memory of the Pillars. Our contemporary Pillars to date are Bill Hamilton and John Gould who were inducted in 2018. And in 2019, Sig Hansen. And in 2021, Jim Brodsky. In 2022, we've got a new class of Pillars for the AOFAS. And here to tell you about it is Ron Smith, Judy Baumhauer, Kristi Giovanni, Armin Kalikian, and Lu Xiong. Come on out, guys. So all of us up here represent some connections to our initial founders and Dr. Blumen, first of all, thank you truly for a privilege of Making some comments with regard to our original pillars our Seven founders of the AOFS at that time and now AOFAS You've probably heard the story that Mel Joss sent out about eight invitations in January of 1969 to have the major educators of foot and ankle meet in his apartment for a dinner and These were all educators who were trying to find a way of getting more education foot and ankle to members who were the Academy the Orthopedist but there weren't enough Opportunities in content on the programs then and there weren't many questions on the orthopedic board exams So they developed an organization where they could really start putting forth education to their members they did it in close collaboration with the AAOS and in 1969 we had the founding of the Foot and ankle Society at that time. It was AOFS and in 1983 it became AOFAS adding the ankle Robert Joplin was the first president He was an educator of medical students and orthopedic residents for almost 40 years at Harvard and is still known For in terms of history of bunion surgery for the Joplin sling Joseph Milgram was in New York he wasn't president, but he was a Perpetual historian who contributed to the history and collection of the history of the initial organization He was very interested in non-operative foot and ankle care and where he had a really an impact on our specialty Was that as director of the orthopedic department at joint diseases? He founded the first division of foot and ankle and he recruited one of his previous residents Paul Lapidus Dr. Lapidus had come from Russia at the age of 33 after medical school in Russia and did his internship did his residency in at joint diseases and then was recruited to be the Head of the division of foot and ankle and to many at that time was considered the father of foot insert foot surgery He was also important because he mentored Melvin Joss Nicholas Jan Estrus was the second foot Society president born in Greece came to the United States at the age of four still maintained significant Connections with Greece because he would go back to Greece every every summer for about two months to teach to teach Scoliosis here. He was known particularly for foot and ankle also some scoliosis He was particularly special to me because in 1975 he was my mentor He provided the first foot and ankle fellowship in the United States formal fellowship Nat Gould Third president started his practice in Boston moved to Burlington Collaborated with the Academy to begin our organization, but also with the shoe industry He was taken aback when his daughter came home with high heels and narrow toes and he wanted to try to do something One of the major contributions of Nat Gould and his wife were their son John Gould who became our 17th president of this society and a contemporary pillar Hemp our colloquium came from Armenia through Lebanon to become one of the major educators in foot and ankle and other aspects of orthopedics in Chicago He was highly decorated for his World War two reconstructive surgery in Europe and in the United States and a major Contribution from him were his lectures his books and his son Armin It Brings us to Mel Joss Mel Joss really was the initiator and The impetus according to Malcolm Brahms who was the young educator at that time and was the eighth Invitation that couldn't make it to dinner that night. By the way, Malcolm Brahms will be celebrating his hundred and third birthday This coming December Dr. Joss was the initiator the editor of foot and ankle journal and I think to everybody that knew him was brilliant eccentric Absolutely lovable and really funny so these men mean a lot to us it's a important to be able to express our appreciation even posthumously to the men who Initiated what we have today the American orthopedic foot and ankle Society Thank you for your attention Think a wonderful addition to our pillar tradition Next, I want to call up Michael Rankin, who's the Vice President for Marketing and Medical Education from Stryker. Stryker has been extremely generous to us, and this year is our diamond mission partner. Come on over, Michael. These guys had major contributions. They contributed $500,000 for Medical Scholarship Fellowship, Resident Scholarship Fellowship for the annual meeting. It was a major grant as well, and also our Foot and Ankle Focus webinar series was sponsored by them, and they've also contributed to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative, so really all-round, top to bottom for the foundation and for the area. Hello. I would like to thank the AOFAS board and membership for everything that they do. I'd like to thank the foundation leadership, the AOFAS executive staff for all of their support, Dr. DiGiovanni and Dr. Blumen for their oversight over the past year, and we look forward to supporting Dr. Den Hartog and Dr. Mangone during their terms. At Stryker, we are grounded by our mission. Together with our customers, we are driven to make health care better. We look forward to our continued partnership with the AOFAS and advancing the key pillars of focus. We hope you all attend the DE&I summit tonight as this was a collaboration between Stryker and the AOFAS and something we are very proud of. Thank you all. Next, I'm going to call up Eric Gottschen and Naomi Shields to do the presentation for the 2022 Pierce-Scranton Humanitarian Service Award. very good friend, fellow traveler, and mission worker, Ruth Thomas. She is modeling an outfit she picked up in Bangladesh. She's made six trips to Vietnam, several to Uganda, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Haiti. She and I were in Haiti week 10 after the earthquake. She's also been to Honduras. She loves to educate. She loves to teach. She entertains everybody, and they ask for Dr. Thomas, Dr. Thomas, when is she coming back to Vietnam? She is very humble. She's very gracious and treats everyone with dignity. It is my pleasure, Ruth. Thank you. On behalf of the Foundation, thank you. Get it? Next, I'm going to bring up Pam Luck to do our awards for Women's Leadership. I'd like to introduce our 2022 Women's Leadership Award winners. For our Career Impact Award, we have Zan Lofgren. Thank you. Yes and also our 2022 Career Development Award winner Dr. Lauren Gainey. Last year we started an initiative called the Young Physicians Fundraising Challenge and the purpose of this was to encourage a culture of lifetime giving in our young members. We continued it this year and held a summer fundraiser within the young physician section of the society. This year we had 74 donors with 17 repeat donors and the real numbers come down to the percentages of giving in my mind. We had just over 30% of the young physicians giving which may sound like a pretty small percentage but when we compare it to the overall giving for the society which is 12% it's huge. So I think we're building some really good habits and it really bodes well for a society that we've got such contribution from our young members. So I want to thank our young physicians and have Caesar Netto if he's here come out because I want to shake his hand. I don't know if Omgad is here. They did amazing work and I just want you guys to keep it strong, keep going. Caesar also had initiated our first time outreach to international members which is another initiative that I think is going to help us grow. Next I want to introduce Vernon Hartdagen who's the vice president of foot and ankle for DePue Synthes who's our other diamond mission partner. DePue Synthes supported the 2022-2023 AOFAS fellowship scholarship program for a quarter of a million dollars and again we couldn't have our educational efforts without these guys. Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you I'd like to thank the fellowship, the board and the foundation on behalf of DePue Synthes and Johnson & Johnson I'm honored to accept this award and we are very grateful to be a small part of the great work that this organization is doing. Having been around the industry for a number of years it's exciting to see how the industry and the conference and the foundation has grown over the last few decades and I'm excited personally to have been a small part of that and look forward to being a part of it going forward. I would like to thank the foot and ankle surgeons in the room and in the conference. On behalf of the industry we appreciate your unrelentless pursuit to improve patient care and for continuing to push us as industry to come up with better solutions. DePue Synthes has a rich foundation in education innovation and now more than ever we are excited and committed to the future in foot and ankle and providing the best education and innovation in the industry. So again thank you I'd like to say a special congratulations to Dr. Bryn Hartog you guys are in great hands for the upcoming year so again thank you very much. And lastly, I want to thank all of you, because without you guys showing the way and having such great numbers in terms of contributions, our big-time sponsors wouldn't have so much. They're following your lead, let's just say. And you know, your contributions contribute to education, research, and humanitarian service. In each of these, you've done major damage for us. Since 2007 in research, we've had $1.8 million in research grants awarded. The educational funds have sponsored scholarships, fellowships, webinars, and educational programs at our annual meeting and beyond. And in terms of humanitarian service, since we started these programs over 20 years ago, we've had 1,500 pro bono overseas surgeries since 2001. So kudos to you guys, and please keep it coming. I want to say a word about our Legacy Society. These are members who have established a future gift as part of their estate plan to the Foundation. And I want everybody to consider this. Please include the Foundation in your estate planning. And for those of you who have already done that, thank you very much for your gift. As I said, please keep it coming. We started a new effort this year, which is Text to Give. And we want you to try this out for us and make it easier for you to do what you've done in the past. All you need to do is to text GiveAOFAS to 41444, or you can use this code here. If you're not able to do that, please go up and make a gift at the AOFAS Today booth on the top floor and donate any time you pay your AOFAS dues. It's greatly appreciated. Next, I'm going to call up Ken DeFantis for recognition of our 2022 Traveling Fellows. Thank you for the introduction, Dr. Blumen. As the Vice Chair of the International Outreach Committee, I'm excited to be here in representation of Dr. Smith, who could not attend the meeting. The main charge of the International Outreach Committee is to select the Traveling Fellows and organize the fellowship host sites each year. Countless hours of work go into the process, and I'd like to take a moment to thank all the members of the committee for their hard work and dedication. First, I'd like to highlight the AOFAS Traveling Fellowship Program. For those not familiar, the program began in 2005, has hosted over 80 fellows, 29 host sites in the United States and Canada. The fellows are chosen from a wide group of qualified applicants from countries all over the world. They travel to three host sites over an approximate two-week period, which traditionally culminates in the annual meeting. This year, the fellows have already spent time in Toronto with Dr. Lau and Daniels. They will next head to Boston after the meeting to work with Dr. DiGiovanni, Dr. Gus, and Dr. Smith. Finally, they will head to New York City to complete their experience with Dr. Ellis and Dr. Greisberg. We would like to thank ANOVUS, formerly DJO, for their generous sponsorship of this program and making things possible. Welcome and congratulations to the five Traveling Fellows of this year, announced to no particular... First, we have Dr. Jane Maidley from the United Kingdom, Dr. Cesar Cesarnetto from the United States, Dr. Young-Koo Lee from South Korea, Dr. Paul Toulousan from the United States, and we also have Dr. Nassif M. Nassif Adel Latif from Egypt. Unfortunately, he was unable to join us at the meeting this year, but will be joining his co-fellows in Boston next week for the second leg of their journey. The committee would like to thank all the host sites for their hard work and dedication to make this year special for the fellows. Again, please join me in congratulating the 2022 AOS Traveling Fellows. Finally, I'm excited to introduce a new program, the EFAS-AOFAS Exchange, which you may have heard rumors about. This is a new opportunity for collaboration between the AOFAS and the European Foot and Ankle Society. Each year, three fellows will be chosen by their respective societies for a three-week immersive experience abroad, which will culminate in each society's respective annual meeting. It is important to note that this program is not meant to replace or supplant the current AOFAS Traveling Fellowship, but to provide an additional unique opportunity for collaboration between two great societies. The committee would especially like to thank Inovus for their generous full sponsorship of the first year of the EFAS-AOFAS Exchange, of which we would not be able to have this program. I'd also like to thank Dr. Gigi Avani for his hard work organizing this program. Applications for AOFAS members are currently live on the website, and anyone who's interested, we would love for you to apply. I encourage anybody that's interested or just has questions to approach any committee member. We'd like to get, you know, obviously your feedback, and we're hoping for a good turnout this year. Happy to answer any questions, and we look forward to a great inaugural year. Thanks. Thank you. And lastly, I'm gonna call up Catherine Williams, who's going to recognize our 2022 resident scholars. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. So I have the privilege of recognizing our 2022 resident scholars. And as a program director at the University of Wisconsin, this is near and dear to my heart because we have sent quite a few residents through this program who are now out in practice or just finished fellowship. So if, for those of you that don't know, the resident scholarship program was founded in 2010, and what it is is an opportunity for residents to apply and receive financial support to attend now the winter meeting, but also the annual meeting as we are here. It's a specific resident program that we provide on usually the pre-meeting course day that includes talks and presentation by the Young Physicians Committee, and then a resident case conference by the Post-Grad Education Committee, which a lot of you participated in, and I appreciate that. There's also a chance to have a resident mentoring. So you, a society member, can hook up with a resident and act as a mentor for them, kind of networking throughout the meeting. And then there's a social hour as well. So it's a good opportunity, again, to network with these residents and with the society members. In the 13th year where we are now, we had 13 resident scholars at the winter meeting and 59 that are here at this meeting. And like anything, you know, a lot of things we do, this would not be possible without the generous grants from our industry supporters, so we want to thank them. And again, we had 72 total residents this year from almost 60 orthopedic programs across the country, and usually this is aimed at the junior residents. We're trying to capture the residents as they're trying to think about what subspecialty they may go into if they do a fellowship. And we, as the Post-Grad Education Committee, we have the privilege of reading through all of these applications, and I can tell you that this is a very talented group. There are strong letters of support that come from our society members, and we appreciate that encouragement and that support from the members. And these residents usually have a genuine interest in Foot & Ankle, and we want to both foster that and continue that through this program. So these are the residents that attended the winter meeting this year, and if they're here, please stand so we can recognize you if they're here for another reason. But what I'd really like to do is have the resident scholarship award recipients that are here, if anyone's here, please stand. I'm not gonna name everybody's names, but let's all just, if they're not here, thank you. Yeah, everyone that's here, good. So take a look at these names. I mean, this is the future of our society. So again, thank you for the opportunity and thank you for the support of this program. Thank you. Thank you very much for attending. I think we finished a few minutes early, and we'll next be back with the presidential remarks.

AOFAS

foundation

education

research

humanitarian service

partnerships

EFAS-AOFAS Exchange