ACAAI Presidential Initiatives and Key Activities

Presidential Initiatives

CAPE
The ACAAI CAPE Program (Community Allergist Partnership in Education) is a unique way for community allergists to partner with academic institutions to create medical education opportunities in their allergy/immunology practices. The program provides medical students, residents and fellows the opportunity to learn in real-world settings via office-based, clinical elective rotations. https://education.acaai.org/cape

CA2PER
The Community and Academic Allergists Partnership in Education and Research program (CA2PER) is an opportunity to initiate clinical research in your practice. The program brings together academic and community allergists to conduct practice-based translational research. The academic PI and the practice-based PI must be College members. The College allocates $100,000 in grant support per year for the program through 2027. Letters of intent will be solicited in the fall and are due in January. https://college.acaai.org/get-involved/ca2per_program/

P2P (Pathways to Practice)
There are not enough spots in fellowship training programs for all of the residents who wish to train as allergists/immunologists. To help create more training slots, the College has invested $4 million to fund 16 additional Fellow-in-Training spots over five years. Four $250K 2-year grants are awarded to selected A/I programs each year. There is a special focus on FITs who plan to go into community-based practice and on programs with ACGME approved, yet unfunded positions. Applications from US training program directors for 2027 2028-2029 funding will be solicited in the spring of 2027 and will be due in April.

SPARK Program
The SPARK Program is meant to create a “spark” of interest in pursuing the allergy specialty as a career. The College provides Annual Meeting scholarships and mentorship to medical students and residents. 60 SPARK grants will be offered this year— 40 through the HBCU initiative, and 20 additional grants across other institutions. Awardees will be given $1,500 to help cover travel and meeting-related costs to spend three days at the 2026 ACAAI Annual Meeting. They will also be paired with a Fellow-in-Training (FIT) mentor, attend a variety of sessions covering all aspects of allergy/immunology, and participate in a special FIT symposium. Applications are invited each spring.

Other Key Activities

College Learning Connection
The College Learning Connection or CLC is the College’s robust online education portal. The CLC is a popular member benefit and it’s your home for professional development resources and services. Members can easily navigate the portal to access hundreds of free courses. It’s easy to claim credit and track your history of completed courses. The options are listed in the course catalog, ranging from live webinars to self-paced CME and MicroCME modules. Our clinical guidelines, AllergyTalk podcast episodes, slide decks and more can be found on the CLC. Educational resources cover clinical as well as practice management topics.

Advocacy
The College’s Advocacy Council works year-round to support legislation and regulations that benefit allergists and our patients. We work diligently to ensure fair payment through Medicare and private payers. We monitor proposed legislation and regulatory changes, keeping an eye out for barriers to our patients’ access to treatment or safe foods. We also partner with lay organizations that directly support patients, teaming up to relay to Congress the importance and value of allergy specialist care. Each year, our Advocacy Council and Strike Force, along with other member advocates, travel to Capitol Hill to visit congressional offices. We tell the story of why people with allergies and asthma need specialized care, and describe the challenges that they (and we) face regarding treatment approvals and fair payment for services.

AllerPAC
The Advocacy Council’s Political Action Committee (AllerPAC) was recently relaunched as a way for College members to raise money to help elect and support federal legislators who share our commitment to advancing the practice of allergy-immunology, represent the voice of physician practitioners in allergy-immunology, and protect patients’ access to care. Individual (not corporate) contributions are accepted, and are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. The AllerPAC donation page can be found through the Advocacy Council portion of the member website. Per FEC regulations, only ACAAI dues paying members (i.e. Members and Fellows) may be solicited for donations.