2007 William McAdams Outstanding Service Award Acceptance

I would like to thank Board and the Academy for honoring me with the 2007 McAdams Award. I am truly honored, and know that this would not have been possible without the teamwork and support of everyone who I have served with on the Part II Panel, the Executive Committee and the Board.

I have really enjoyed serving on the Part II Exam Panel, the Board and the Executive Committee. I would encourage all of you to become involved - and stay involved - in the process.

I was afraid that my involvement with the exam panel was going to be over as soon as it started. My very first year on the Panel, I was expecting our second child, Erik. Joe Bevelaqua sent me two exam questions to grade, which I was planning on doing over Labor Day weekend. Erik had other plans, however, and instead of grading exams, I found myself in the hospital, three weeks ahead of my due date, recuperating from a C-section. I had to call Joe and explain my predicament…a newborn baby, a 2 year old at home and "post-partum brain." He took pity on me and reassigned my essay question, but we agreed that I would grade the multiple choice question anyway. Presumably I was less likely to mess up grading one of those in my condition. Apparently that was not enough to get tossed off the panel, and I went on to grade many more exams; fortunately none under those conditions again.

I would like to thank my family - Dale, Jeffery, Erik and Lindsey - for their constant support in all of my professional activities. I'd also like to thank my mother-in-law, Shirley, for watching our children many times so that Dale and I could come to the meetings.

Finally, I'd like to thank Nancy Johnson - without her steadfast support and assistance, I am convinced that the Academy, the Board, the exam panels and the membership would suffer greatly. Nancy can never retire.