Letter from Ann Price, MD
Dear Vanderbilt Medical Alumni:
While 2020 was a very difficult year for our entire country, I am eager to see what the new year will bring. Hopefully, the vaccine rollout will proceed smoothly, and all of you will have access by the time this edition of Vanderbilt Medicine arrives at your homes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our traditional Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association (VMAA) events were canceled in 2020 — including our fall VUSM Reunion, all of our regional events, and our national conference events. We certainly look forward to the time it will be safe to gather once again. We are especially excited to contemplate hosting our 2020 Reunion anniversary classes (classes ending in 0, 4, 5 and 9 along with the Quinq classes of 1970 and 1971) at our next reunion. As soon as a VU Reunion 2021 date decision is made, we will notify all of our anniversary class graduates. For updates, please continue to check our VMAA Facebook page and website at www.facebook.com/VUSMVMAA and www. medschool.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/.
Since we could not host a reunion this past fall, we decided to re-think our traditional reunion gift and class list booklets that are traditionally distributed at our biennial reunions. We decided that a custom logo Vanderbilt University School of Medicine mask could be our non-reunion/reunion gift and quickly went to work ordering masks and printing the class list booklets. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our VMAA team, over 2,000 booklets and masks were sent to our anniversary class graduates. In this mailing, we asked our med alums to send “masked selfies” for use at our next reunion. We want to thank all who “Masked Up and Anchored Down” for this effort. We’ve included a few of our masked med alums, below, as a preview of our larger project. I think you will agree that our VUSM masks are worn by the very best med alums anywhere. Thank you for showing your Vanderbilt Medical School spirit from coast to coast.
I also send a very special thank you to all of you who have worked so steadfastly to care for patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. You have been courageous leaders for your communities, your academic centers and your patients and have carried Vanderbilt University Medical School’s reputation with you each day as you have worked. You may never know the breadth and depth of your impact through these hard months of the pandemic — but, there are patients who know and are silently thanking you for taking the long path that led you to become a Vanderbilt physician. We all thank you and ask that you care for yourself as you care for others.
I send my very best wishes for the health and safety of you and yours.