The Academy continues to thrive. The Education Committee under the able leadership of Dr. Jeff Myers has scheduled 59 short courses, 16 evening specialty conferences and 22 companion meetings. This year we welcome a new companion society, the International Society of Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. A record 2207 abstracts were submitted (a 10% increase over last year) showing that pathology as a specialty is at the forefront of clinical and translational research; of note 407 of the abstracts were submitted for the Stowell-Orbison competition (a 35% increase from last year's all time high), indicating the interest of our junior members in furthering knowledge in our discipline. Abstracts were submitted from over 400 medical institutions throughout the world (250 from the US and Canada). As proof that our organization is technologically modern, 98% of the abstracts were submitted on line!

The Long Course will cover Pathology of the Gonads and is being co directed by Drs. Robert H. Young and Thomas M. Ulbright; the directors have invited an outstanding faculty and this course promises to bring all of us up to date in this area of pathology.

Two special courses, Introductory Molecular Pathology (directed by Drs. Julia Bridge and Margie Scott) and Advanced Molecular Pathology (directed by Drs. Fred Barr and Matt van der Rijn), have been well received in past years and we hope this year's attendees will profit greatly in knowledge at the leading edge of diagnostics and basic understanding of disease.

Our Nathan Kaufman Timely Topics Lecture will be delivered by Dr. David Walker of the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston; the topic will be of concern and interest to all Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases: A Critical Opportunity for Pathology in the Era of Bioterriorism and Emerging Infections.

The Maude Abbott lecture, The Complex of Spotty Pigmentation, Myxomas, Endocrine Overactivity and Schwannomas (Carney Complex): Discovery to Gene - will be given by Dr. Aidan Carney of the Mayo Clinic.

The Academy will present awards to several individuals who have served the Academy and whose careers have put them at the forefront of academic pathology: The Mostofi award for service to the Academy will be given to Dr. Donald Antonioli; the Distinguished Pathologist award will honor two outstanding pathologists, Drs. Daria Haust and Kalman Kovacs. The President's Award will go to Dr. David Hardwick for his generous and continual service to the Academy (he has served as head of the Education Committee, on Council and as President); he is the all-around "go to" guy whenever the Academy needs his wisdom, advice and plain common sense. He has developed the program "Sustaining the Academy" to ensure the future of our organization.

The USCAP staff in the Augusta office continues to perform unbelievable amounts of work, organizing the annual meeting and the summer Diagnostic Pathology course, maintaining and updating the website (which received almost 1 million hits in September!) and taking care of myriads of details throughout the year. Special and heartfelt thanks go to Mr. Jim Crimmins, Ms. Jo Ann Johnson, Ms. Carolyn Lane and Ms. Linda Haygood. Of course special kudos go to Fred Silva whose boundless energy and enthusiasm keep everything going and everyone busy.

The Diagnostic Pathology course is very well received; it is scheduled in great places (Banff this year) , conducive to working family vacations. With its small number of participants, it offers one-on-one interactions with the renowned faculty; it comes with a 910 page handout and a CD with 3000 images.

In October 2003, several members of the Executive Committee and Council attended the International Academy of Pathology meeting in Amsterdam. This was an excellent meeting and a very successful one.

Our website has been extremely successful; it is loaded with educational materialsall 16 evening specialty conferences, all of the companion meetings, several short courses and all the abstracts. The last of these can be searched in multiple ways, including topic, disease, author and technology.

Membership is increasing (we now number 9020) and thanks to the efforts of Fred and the Ambassadors Program (begun by the Elaine Jaffe and the Ad Hoc Membership Committee) we now have 1670 junior members (compare this number to 500 junior members in 1999).

Another exciting event occurred this year: our journals have undergone some major changes. Both will now be published by Nature Publishing Group. A change in editors for Laboratory Investigation also took place: Jon Morrow, Jordan Pober and Jose Costa who led the journal admirably for 8 years transferred editorship to Dr. James Crawford of the University of Florida, Gainesville. Dr. Crawford and his senior editorial advisory board will take journal to even greater heights. We acknowledge the work done by the following individuals to make the transition to our new publishers a smooth one; Jim Crimmins, Fred Silva, Dr. Morna Conway, our Publications Consultant, and the members of the Publications Committee under the leadership of Dick Zarbo.

This year, the USCAP began planning for its future by setting up committees to devise longterm plans under the guidance of Drs. David Hardwick and Jeffrey Myers.

On a sad note, the Academy has lost several outstanding members this past year including Drs. Murray Abell, David Dahlin, Horatio (Ted) Enterline, Raphael Lattes, Kenneth McClatchey, Henry Rappaport and Robert More. A true giant in his contributions to the Academy was also lost: Dr. Kash Mostofi. He served the USCAP for over half a century in many and varied capacities; in recognition for these contributions, the current meeting is dedicated to him.

I am truly honored to have served as President of USCAP this year. I have attended the annual meeting for many years since I was in residency training. The Academy has been largely responsible for my continuing education in medicine and pathology, for intellectual stimulation and for opportunities to meet with and share ideas with so many colleagues and friends.

I wish you all a successful meeting in Vancouver.

Dr. LiVolsi was born and raised in New York City, in the Bronx. After high school and college she attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where she spent four remarkable years learning medicine from outstanding clinicians and scientists.

She attributes her interest in pathology to a carpenters' strike in New York City which delayed the renovations of the microbiology laboratories at the medical school of Columbia University. Because of this delay the second year schedule for the medical students was modified; a three-month intensive block of pathology occupied the majority of the medical school curriculum. Most of Dr. LiVolsi's classmates were unhappy with this situation but she thought "it was wonderful to be able to study a single area so intensively".

And so, by the end of her second year of medical school, although Dr. LiVolsi was convinced she would pursue a career pathology, she promised herself that she would critically evaluate the clinical rotations. Of the various rotations, she was most intrigued by surgery; however, she recognized that rather than being interested in electrolyte balance and wounded dehiscence, she really enjoyed seeing the pathology and attempting to understand surgical disease processes. During the general surgery rotation there was a twice weekly review of surgical pathology. An experience which Dr. LiVolsi thoroughly enjoyed.

Having made the decision to pursue a career in pathology she entered the residency program at Columbia under the leadership of Dr. Donald West King. During her anatomic pathology training which took 5 years including a surgical pathology fellowship she was educated by renowned surgical pathologists such as Drs. Raphael Lattes, Nathan Lane, Marianne Wolff, and most significantly, Karl Perzin. During her training she was fortunate enough to work with experienced and talented clinical surgeons, especially Dr. Carl Feind, and internists/endocrinologists such as Dr. Sidney Werner (of The THYROID textbook fame); these experiences sparked an interest in the thyroid and its disorders. It was Dr. Feind who was influential in her becoming a member of the American Thyroid Association which has been an essential part of her career.

Dr. LiVolsi's first post residency job was at Yale University where her interest in thyroid diseases grew. She met and collaborated with Dr. Mark Hayes a surgeon who cared for a large family with medullary thyroid carcinoma. During her early career, she attended yearly USCAP meetings and eventually gave a course in thyroid pathology for the Academy. She then served the Academy on the Education Committee (1982-1985), on Council (1986-1988) and on its Publications Committee (1987-1994 and 2000-present).

After nine years at Yale she moved to the University of Pennsylvania as Director of Surgical Pathology and during this period she gave additional courses for the Academy. She participated as a faculty member and then as Co-Director of the USCAP Diagnostic Pathology summer course from 1994-2000. She also Co-Directed the Long Course in 1992 on Thyroid and Parathyroid Pathology with Dr. Ronald DeLellis.

Since 1998, she has served on the International Pathology Panel (she is currently its chair) which reviews the pathology of thyroid nodules and tumors occurring in the population exposed to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Dr. LiVolsi has mentored scores of young pathologists. Her enthusiasm and love of pathology have infected an entire generation of trainees and colleagues with her passion for excellence in diagnosis and outstanding patient care. Many of her trainees are currently leaders in many prestigious medical centers throughout the nation. Dr. LiVolsi had also influenced the development of academic pathologists internationally, with trainees from Europe, Russia and Asia.

In addition to her interest in endocrine pathology, gynecologic, breast and head and neck diseases, she has been involved in various aspects of tissue procurement and banking for research. She has served as Principal Investigator of the Eastern Division of the Cooperative Human Tissue Network (funded by NCI) for over 16 years. As part of this work, she has been involved in the difficult issues of informed consent for use of tissues from clinical specimens for the advancement of medical science. The balance of patient confidentiality and human subject protection with medical research, that is the balance between the individual and the public, has been an area of intense interest for over a decade.

She has been the recipient of many awards and honors for her outstanding work in pathology. She has served as President of the following organizations: Arthur Purdy Stout Society of Surgical Pathologists from 1997-1999, the Association of Directors of Anatomical and Surgical Pathology (1996-1998), the Endocrine Pathology Society (1995-1996), and the Pathology Society of Philadelphia (1994-1995). She serves on the editorial boards of over a dozen major pathology and endocrine journals. She has published over 280 peer-reviewed papers, 40 chapters and 7 books, including Surgical Pathology of the Thyroid, and Endocrine Pathology with her Co-Editor Dr. Sylvia Asa.

Dr. LiVolsi's service to the Academy over the years has taken the form of Moderator at Proffered Paper sessions, Moderator and Specialty Conference panelist and the presentation of many short courses. She has served on various committees as noted above and on the Editorial Board of Modern Pathology. Her service continues not only as an officer of the Academy, but also as presenter of two current short courses, one on thyroid with Dr. Zubair Baloch and one on endocrine lesions with Dr. Sylvia Asa. Her service to the USCAP was recognized by her receiving the Mostofi Award in 2001.

Beyond her commitments to academic pathology, Dr. LiVolsi's interests include two cats, Rigel and Pumpkin, Italian opera, needlepoint and traveling.