Serving as APSNA's 26th President for the past 2 years has been a great privilege. While preparing for this message, I took the opportunity to reread past "Messages From the President" beginning with JPSN's first issue in 2014. This look-back gave me a renewed appreciation for the many organizational accomplishments and significant contributions of our talented member volunteers. Their transformative impact on APSNA, term by term, has been nothing short of amazing. It is with great respect that I acknowledge the many strong leaders who have preceded me.

While president from 2013 to 2014 (and my first year as Treasurer), Neil Ead changed APSNA forever by bringing in professional association management services for conference, Web site development, and customer service. This was the first step toward freeing board members' time to focus on governance and is an initiative for which I am continually grateful. During Neil's term as well, JPSN was proposed to the board and, within a year, this vision became a reality. Today, it is hard to believe that JPSN is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

Christine McKenna's term followed in 2014-2015, and her messages reminded us that APSNA has come a long way since the first gathering she attended in 1991 where organizational development was formally discussed and plans were made to move forward under the guidance of founders Diane Jakobowski and Gail Garvin. It was during Chris's term that steps were taken to downsize to our current eight-member board and institute a new presidential term of 2 years. This is now our board profile, and coupled with increased outsourcing of administrative work, it is clear that this has been the right direction for APSNA.

From 2015 to 2016, Raquel Pasaron challenged us to effectively market APSNA by rethinking the way we articulate our value. She shared a new and powerful strategic plan modeled on the 2010 Institute of Medicine's report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change and gave the history of the development of APSNA's Competency Based Transition to Pediatric Surgical Nursing Practice subsequently published in 2017. Raquel's messages of unity stressed the need to engage in respectful collaboration as a prerequisite for building an organization that could achieve its full potential.

During the 2016-2017 term, Janice Dudley shared her perspective that, first and foremost as healthcare leaders, we must put the patients and their family's needs first by understanding, through their eyes, what matters most. A simple message but one we know is easier said than done. She acknowledged that APSNA's success is not only the result of the board leadership but is equally dependent on the commitment and contributions of APSNA members, without whom we would not be.

Please join me in celebrating these stewards and influencers and those who have preceded them. They each devoted their time, energy, and unique ideas to leave a lasting legacy.