President’s Message

Happenings at your ACMS

An updAte from your president, peter ellis, md

It has been quite an eventful year for the ACMS. This brief article is intended to bring all of you up to speed with your organization and to give you an understanding of the vision for serving the physicians of Allegheny County.

As most of you know, Jeremy Bonfini (prior CEO) left our organization for an opportunity with the Medical Association of Georgia in August of last year. His departure was preceded by the departure of Jim Ireland and followed by the departure of several of our more recent hires. The Executive Committee immediately convened a search committee for a new Executive Director and hired a temporary interim Executive Director.

I am happy to report that, after an exhaustive search and interview process, (facilitated by the search firm, Non-Profit Talent), the search committee was able to recruit our new Executive Director, Sara Hussey. Sara has extensive experience with membership organizations, having spent 12 years with the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs working as Vice President of member experience. She brings unparalleled experience, knowledge, enthusiasm, and energy into the ACMS. We are more than delighted to welcome her into the ACMS fold. Hopefully all of you will have the ability to interact with Sara in the coming year. Her start date was mid-March and already we are moving in a positive direction.

ACMS Bulletin / June 2022

I would like to put in a special thanks to longtime ACMS staff member Dottie Hostovich for her support during this transition period. Dottie had retired from the ACMS last year but was willing to come back to help in our time of need. She intends to re-retire in August after she has helped with onboarding new employees at the Society. Best wishes to Dottie for a well-deserved second career in the retired world!

I am pleased to announce that Nadine Popovich (a member of the ACMS team for 26 years) has accepted the position of Vice President of Member and Association Services. In this role, she will continue to supervise our specialty physician associations but will also be the administrative spearhead of Member Services.

In July we will welcome a new employee, Eileen Taylor. Eileen most recently served as the Program Coordinator for the University of Pittsburgh Geriatric Medicine division. She will work with Nadine in Association Management and Member services. We also welcome summer intern Abby Casario, a Penn State University undergrad who is looking to broaden her experience in social media and digital marketing. You can expect to see a more active social media presence over the coming months!

The last several months have seen us preparing our team to be nimble in reacting to the needs of today’s physician. Your Board, at its May meeting, approved guidance to our executive team and administration to develop and put into place programs for our members that will meaningfully enhance their ability to serve the populace of Allegheny County. This will entail extensive volunteer committee work and administrative leadership but will result in a Society that is relevant to today’s physician needs, both employed and independent.

Already, many of you may have seen in the news the ACMS and ACMS Foundation were able to provide desperately needed baby formula to the mothers and infants of Allegheny County. Also, in this month’s Bulletin, you will see efforts underway by the bylaws committee to revamp our by-laws to streamline our operations. We welcome and encourage member feedback on the proposed bylaws changes.

To continue to be a successful organization, we ask you to be engaged in our group efforts. Please consider volunteering for a committee, talking to colleagues, or running for office. You will see summaries of services available to you as well as opportunities to get involved in the coming months. We are excited to serve YOU, our member and customer, as best we can through services, advocacy, and education.

Thank you,

Peter Ellis, MD President of Board ACMS