President's Letter
Thank you for your interest in the Association of Asthma Educators. I know that when you join and become an active member of this organization, you will be very excited about the extent of inter-professional spirit and cooperation existing within the AAE. That was what impressed me as I became interested and involved only a few years ago.
Volunteerism is at the heart of the AAE. The AAE has five main committees: operations, public relations and advocacy, education, finance, and strategic planning. Within each of these committees are subcommittees that work to accomplish the mission of the AAE. Please review the committees, subcommittees and their chairs under the “What We Do” tab.
A major accomplishment for AAE was the creation of the Journal of Asthma and Allergy Educators. Spearheaded by Past President Karen Gregory, our journal is now a reality. This is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed journal, so for those of you who are working towards tenure or promotion, the JAAE is another outlet for your scholarly activity. If you have prepared a research-based abstract for the AAE’s conference, please consider completing the work and submitting it to the JAAE.
As to our work for this year, the ethics committee will be asked to present a code of ethics. While we have an ethics policy, we have never had an actual code to follow.
AAE is also continuing with several programs:
- Offer Becoming an Asthma Educator and Care Manager and the National Asthma Educator Certification and Recertification course at sites in addition to the annual conference.
- Launch online CEU programs.
- Have a community service project in conjunction with our annual conference.
- Represent the AAE at conferences of other organizations who have an asthma education agenda.
- Revisit our strategic plan to continue to build upon our successes and plan for the future.
We look forward to having you as a new or continuing member. Please feel free to contact us for your asthma education needs.
Sincerely,
Tim Op’t Holt, EdD, RRT, AE-C, FAARC
AAE President