We asked Michael Blaiss, MD, FACAAI, executive medical director, about leadership development opportunities for members in the early stages of their careers.
In your recent Insider column, you said the College’s Leadership Summit is the most important event we hold every year. Why do think it is so important?
The College must train the future leaders for our specialty in order to continue to adhere to our mission of promoting excellence in the subspecialty of allergy and immunology. Without quality leadership, the College can’t move our specialty forward. Not just for the College, but hopefully this training will lead to many of our attendees to take an active role in their institutions to represent the viewpoint of physicians. Training leaders is critical to the future of the College.
What advice would you give to a young member who may have a case of “impostor syndrome” that prevents them from taking an active role on a committee?
We all need to realize that everyone’s voice is important to the College, whether you are a new committee member or someone who has been on different committees for years. If something is important to you, it is probably important to your colleagues. If you feel you have difficulty being active in your committee, please contact your chair, staff, or me. We are all here to help you make your committee experience enjoyable to help move the College forward.
Committees can provide a great pathway for young members to step into positions of leadership. Can you elaborate on that?
Basically, all the leaders of the College start as a member of a committee. By showing your work ethic on a committee, your chair and vice chair will likely suggest you move up as the leadership of the committee. From there it is common that members of the Board of Regents are chosen from committee chairs and vice chairs. For anyone interested in moving up the leadership ladder, starting on a committee is the way to go.
