By Maricela Arias-Cantu, MS, MHA, CAE

Dear SOPHE Community,

Ninety days ago, I had the privilege of stepping into the role of CEO. Starting this new role is meaningful to me because I believe strongly in our mission to advance health education and build healthy and thriving communities. As I reflect on the last few months, I am filled with gratitude and support in serving our SOPHE community.

I have had the opportunity to listen and learn through Board of Trustees’ meetings, committee meetings, conversations with partners and volunteers, staff discussions, and a variety of events. These meaningful interactions have provided valuable insights into what SOPHE does well and shared aspirations for the future.  These valuable interactions are only the beginning. In the coming months, I look forward to meeting individually with our Board of Trustees, partners, and members to continue listening, cultivate relationships, and chart our path forward.

Looking Ahead

We have a few updates to share with you. To better serve our SOPHE members and to look to the future, we are excited to:

• Introduce the SOPHE Plus e-newsletter: We heard loud and clear that our members want to hear more timely updates, member news, and valuable benefits. As a SOPHE national member, you will receive a bi-weekly membership e-newsletter that will let you know about upcoming live webinars, on-demand learning opportunities, awards, chapter events, and resources to help you stay connected and engaged.

• Launch our new Association Management System (AMS): We reached an important milestone recently. We launched our new Association Management System (AMS) to help bring us together, strengthen our engagement, and build a stronger community. We invested in this new AMS to make your experience smoother. It will be a seamless experience to renew your membership through autorenewals and more intuitive to update your profile. The platform will also make registering for our signature events, like the Annual Conference and Advocacy Summit, much easier. We will also be able to personalize our communication and you can access our CORE learning management system (LMS) through a single-sign on (SSO) process, which we are putting the final touches together. Overall, the new technology will improve our member experience and allow us to focus on what really matters – our SOPHE mission and people.

• Build our Roadmap: We have started our work to achieve our goals in the Board-approved 2030 SOPHE Strategic Plan. In this collaborative effort, we have begun this work in our staff team discussions and committee work. Lately, we have been focused on how to create meaningful engagement with our members, advance the profession, raise our voices for advocacy issues that matter, and ensure we are a strong and sustainable organization to last another 78 years plus. As we make progress, we will continue to listen and learn from our members to help shape our shared vision together.

While we have more ground to cover, I am enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead. Together, we will continue to listen and learn from you, shape a meaningful member experience, and advance our strategic priorities. Thank you for trusting me in this new role as we build trust with current and new relationships. I look forward to all that we will accomplish together.