Society
CEO Announcement
Catherine Underwood, MBA CAE, has led the American Pain Society for the past 18 years. During her tenure, Cathy has worked tirelessly to raise the visibility of basic and translational science in multidisciplinary pain care to the forefront. This has been a time of increasing challenges for individuals with pain because new solutions have revolutionized the care and treatment of patients with acute and chronic pain, they also have created unprecedented risk.
Cathy’s role and voice in advocating on behalf of the multidisciplinary scientists and clinicians that APS serves created opportunities for collaboration to affect national initiatives providing training, educational resources, and tools that bring basic science research to clinical practice. Her notable achievements include: serving on the Service Delivery and Payment Work Group of the National Pain Strategy, completing the Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: A Media and Policy Initiative, participating as an executive member of CO*RE, and being a member of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee.
Key strategic pillars of the American Pain Society include: research, education, treatment, and advocacy. Creating goals and objectives within each of these pillars will continue to increase the visibility and multidisciplinary focus of the American Pain Society. The Journal of Pain, founded at the beginning of Cathy's tenure, continues to be an essential resource for multidisciplinary pain scientists and clinicians with an impact score of 4.519, demonstrating relevance, an objective voice, and a strict adherence to scientific rigor.
As Cathy prepares for retirement in December 2017, an interim CEO has been named. Susan Farrell Stock has joined APS and will work to advance strategic priorities of the Society. Sue brings 25 years of association management experience, including in executive leadership roles. Sue currently leads a foundation, the American Society for Consulting Pharmacists Foundation, and oversees Association Management Center’s consulting practice. Sue is looking forward to working closely with Carly Reisner, COO of the American Pain Society.
APS thanks Cathy for all her work and dedication to the Society and those in the pain field and wishes her all the best in the next chapter of her life.
New APS Shared Interest Group: Headache SIG
Created by Gregory Dussor, PhD, of The University of Texas at Dallas, the Headache SIG aims to unite members of those interested in headache. It will encompass interest in any disorder falling under the umbrella term headache including by not limited to migraine, cluster headache, tension-type headache, chronic daily headache, medication-overuse headache etc. Learn more about the Headache SIG; if you would like to join the listserv, please contact Meghan McLaughlin.