During my presidency I had several goals that I felt the Academy needed to focus on. First there was the need to continue the work of my predecessors to do what I could to facilitate the transition of our profession to a Doctoring profession. It was during my presidency that the first Au.D. programs in professional schools begin accepting distance-learning students as well as be a part of an accredited institution offering a four-year professional degree in audiology. In addition, hundreds of practitioners returned to school to earn the Au.D degree from several colleges and universities that were able to offer this education through the extensive use of the Internet.

Another goal that I set out to accomplish was to improve relations with the American Academy of Audiology. Our two academies had several disputes in recent years but it was in the best interest of all audiologists to see to it that we worked together to accomplish our mutual goals with greater efficiency and with a single voice. It was and is my clear belief that these two academies need to work closely together to the benefit of all audiologists’ as well as the patients we serve. To his end we have had several projects that we have worked together on. We have developed a relationship with the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). HCFA is now aware that Audiology is transitioning to a doctoring profession. We have seen to it that there is no need for physician supervision on anything that we do within our scope of practice. We also continue improve HCFA's understanding of our scope of practice. We have worked together to achieve direct access to audiologist for all federal employees. We have presented a single voice for the profession and we have said that we speak for ourselves.

As with previous administrations I wanted to continue the excellent reputation of our annual conference. We consistently get high grades for the type of practical education that we provide the membership. I wanted however to expand the offerings to include more of the latest in diagnostic procedures. Our last long-range plan was a mandate to become the home of the practitioner. As such we needed to provide continuing education for all practitioners that would meet the needs of all of the membership and that would include programs that covered the full range of our scope of practice. While these goals were accomplished during my "watch" It is important to note that these accomplishments were the direct result of a lot of our colleagues doing a lot of work on our behalf. I will always be grateful to Carol Davis and the management firm for all of their hard work. Our Board of Directors has always in my experience been the most dedicated and hard working group of people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. It was truly my great fortune and it was the highlight of my professional career to serve my profession as the president of the Academy of Dispensing Audiologist’s. I would close by advocating that all of us look for ways to serve our profession and get involved.