As this is my first presidential message, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the honor and privilege of serving you and the Society. I do not take this responsibility lightly and promise you that I and my fellow officers will do our best to address neurocritical care needs worldwide, both small and large. We are excited for the years to come and feel that the NCS is well-positioned to achieve greatness across the board, whether it be in education, research, clinical care or collaboration.

Annual Meeting Recap

We’re fresh off the heels of the Annual Meeting, and I have to say, it was great to see so much energy and enthusiasm. The positive vibe was palpable throughout the meeting, something truly remarkable during this year when many of us have been facing such adversity.

We expanded our workshops this year, and they had marvelous attendance that exceeded our expectations – by a lot! We know these hands-on experiences are valuable to our members, so we look forward to continuing these opportunities at future meetings.

Our keynotes were truly exceptional this year – Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor gave a riveting and moving speech about her own experience as a neuro ICU patient, and Dr. Altaf Saadi blew us all away with her INCC keynote on disparities of care for immigrants and detained persons.

I found our closing panel to be highly educational – for the leadership. We heard your comments, concerns and suggestions, and will be sure to create action items from the discussion. Our concurrent sessions – practice, quality and science – provided cutting edge insights across a wide breadth of neurocritical care. Finally the social event was a blast, from the jazz band to the circus performers. All in all, a great meeting! Next year, it’s Seattle, October 20-23, 2026!

Strategic Plan Updates

We were proud to unveil our “preliminary” strategic plan, centered around the pillars of education, research, member engagement and community, strategic partnerships and positioning and organizational excellence. We will incorporate your feedback, hone our metrics and timelines, and then it’s all about execution.

Our Society is in a strong financial position, thanks to years of prudent stewardship, allowing us the ability to strategically reinvest in our membership to meet the needs of the neurocritical care community, wherever it is practiced. We proudly remain a “big tent” multidisciplinary Society, and want all members to feel not just welcomed, but seen and heard. 

The HEARD Foundation

Speaking of HEARD, the HEARD Foundation, under the leadership of Dr. Tommy Thomas and Dr. Aimee Aysenne, sponsored four international scholars at the Annual Meeting, and has many great initiatives lined up this year, so stay tuned.

The Neurocritical Care Foundation

Likewise, the Neurocritical Care Foundation is on a roll, with great momentum and enthusiasm as the fundraising arm for the Society, and I very much look forward to partnering with Dr. Ahmed Hassan and the Foundation leadership this year! We are joined at the hip, and I get the sense that this will be a banner year for fundraising across the board, helping to further neurocritical care research during a year when extramural funding has become harder and harder to come by. 

Here to Serve You

Finally, a little about my leadership philosophy. I’m a firm believer in servant leadership – we are here to serve you, our members. I will judge myself by how well we execute this year and promise to work closely with the officers, executive committee and board of directors to meet the needs of our members – all members. I will affectionately call our leadership the “make it happen” group, bringing a fresh spark to everything we do. This will be a year for prudent and organized efforts, setting in motion initiatives that will accomplish both our short- and long-term goals. What we do in neurocritical care is truly special, and I hope this year to further our important missions and serve our members well. Thank you for reading, and once again, for your trust in us!