Dear NCS Members,

As we step into the second half of the year, I’m excited to share important updates and new opportunities across the Neurocritical Care Society. 

Join Us in Montréal for the NCS Annual Meeting  

The NCS 23rd Annual Meeting is just around the corner. Join us this September in Montréal for an immersive experience designed to spark innovation, collaboration and interdisciplinary learning. Unable to travel to Montréal? Explore the new Virtual Access Pass, which offers livestream access to sessions, ensuring that distance doesn’t keep you from staying connected to the latest advancements in neurocritical care. 

Introducing the HEARD Mentorship Program

I’m proud to announce the official launch of the HEARD Mentorship Program – a meaningful initiative aimed at advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our specialty. This structured, yearlong mentorship program is open to all members and seeks to provide guidance, support and leadership development through inclusive and culturally responsive mentoring relationships. Immersion of selected candidates will begin with a supported trip to the annual meeting where networking within the neurocritical care specialty can begin/be strengthened. Learn more and apply today.

Strategic Planning: Looking Ahead to 2026–2028

The NCS Board of Directors recently convened to begin development of our next strategic plan. Guided by robust feedback from focus groups, member and lapsed member surveys, leadership section requests and environmental scanning, this plan builds on the success of the 2023–2025 strategy and is centered on four strategic pillars: 

1. Education and Research
2. Community Engagement and Empowerment
3. Strategic Partnerships and Positioning
4. Strategic Alignment and Impact/Organizational Excellence

These pillars reflect our commitment to supporting the neurocritical care community through interdisciplinary collaboration, measurable goals and practical implementation strategies. The Board of Directors will continue thoughtful work to refine and propose implementation tactics in the upcoming months. Stay tuned for more information.

Volunteer Engagement Update

The Get Involved campaign has officially closed, and we were thrilled to see strong interest across the membership. Responses from the membership survey highlighted a lack of awareness and perceived transparency around how volunteers are selected for leadership opportunities. To address this concern, I want to share a review of the current selection process.  

Committee chairs are currently reviewing volunteer submissions, along with DEI considerations, committee structures and needs. Based on this review, committee chairs will submit their proposed slate of candidates to our Vice President for official approval.

Our goal is to notify selected volunteers before the Annual Meeting to help foster meaningful connections on-site. As a reminder, we implemented a transition last year to a rotating committee structure and introduced a policy limiting leadership appointments to one committee at a time. This intentional change is designed to broaden access and expand leadership opportunities within our community.

Budget Planning and Feedback Process

Committee and leadership budget requests have been reviewed. While feedback will be provided to chairs soon, final budget decisions won’t be confirmed until December, once the financial outcomes from the Annual Meeting are known. Since NCS operates on a calendar-year budget cycle, this timing ensures we have the clearest picture of our organizational strength. We also acknowledge the need to improve the communication loop around budget decisions and are actively working on a stronger follow-up and feedback process. Thank you to those volunteers that provided this feedback so processes could be reviewed and redesigned to better support committees and leadership group planning!

Thank you for being an active and engaged member of the NCS community. This is an exciting and impactful time for our Society, and I look forward to the continued progress we will make together.