We have to understand and recognize them and try to make sure that we can provide the best care possible. When you mentioned that, does the College reflect its leadership, reflect its membership? Well, it may or may not reflect its membership in terms of the population. We know that it falls short and over the last several years, we’ve started to have those conversations.

In terms of personal actions, I think one of the things that I’m proudest of is always looking at the diversity of any of our members when we look at committees, objectives, task forces, and even the leadership track. And if you look at our committee chairs that I had a hand in nominating and/or confirming there’s a greater diversity of ethnicity, as well as gender, practice settings, and age.

And so when we talk about diversity, it’s incredibly important that we need to start somewhere, but diversity should be diversity. And so when we talk about ethnicity or race, when we talk about gender, let’s also talk about practice backgrounds, where they are in their careers, geography, part-time/full-time, other specialties, and what they may represent, geriatrics, or psych, or critical care.

I think our leadership track is better reflective of our membership, especially when you start to take a look at our committees and sections. Can we do better at the chapter and national level? Yes, but as I said before, this needs to be a commitment that is permanent, that is long-lasting, and so such a journey is going to require just a little bit of time, patience, commitment, and dedication.

I got a notice recently that my dues were going up, and I bet a bunch of people see that and they’re freaking out a little bit. Why are we raising the dues? (Clarification: ACEP dues were raised $60 for regular members; no other membership category dues were increased.)

Dr. Kang: This was a difficult decision that was a subject of discussion for the Board for the last three to four months. This was not done readily or easily, but at times it was identifying how do we continue to best serve our members. And we hope we’ve demonstrated that with a change a little bit in the focus, our strategic plan, and some of the results that members may or may not have seen overtly or subtly.