Good Morning, Board of Regents, faculty, staff, parents, family, friends, and the Class of 2007. Congratulations on your graduation, and thank you all for being here today.

It’s great for me to be here today too. As most of you may have heard, I was appointed President of Southern California University just a few short months ago.

It’s been an amazing experience for me. A humbling honor, and a tremendous opportunity. This has been a very productive term at your University. In the last three months, we have completed a broad and vitally necessary strategic plan. Called “The Road Ahead”, our University’s plan sets a course to guide the development of our campus. We have retained a planning firm to help us think through the exciting array of options for a comprehensive health science university where educational programs, student life and a commitment to public service lead the way to a brighter future.

“The Road Ahead” Plan also focuses on our two colleges’ educational master plans for the next decade. The Board of Regents, along with the faculties of Los Angeles Chiropractic College and the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine have taken the first steps of a curriculum review that promises to bring students and faculty closer together as we reshape the university experience for our students.

We believe our curriculum changes will firmly place SCU as the premier institution for student learning in complementary and alternative medicine— not only in the western US, but as national destination campus central to the important developmental research, student learning, and quality programs in chiropractic, acupuncture and other health science disciplines which we intend to fully explore in the near future.

This term we’ve also established a stronger more focused vision for the university. Our vision for SCU “as the premier institution of complementary and alternative medicine in the United States,” is driving a new renaissance in development and growth.

Let me be clear here about our focus as an institution. SCU is a powerful institutional platform enabling our separate colleges to grow and prosper. Of course we are clear that LACC and chiropractic are central to our existence. Our focus remains strong here.

The College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (established in 2000) was a brilliant move positioning us for entry into an emerging CAM marketplace, and has established SCU as a clear leader in preparing student with a dual degree program.

The School of Professional Studies (established in 2007) is an act of intelligent timing, preparing the University for the addition of more Masters’ level programs, certifications, a host of healthcare, CAM and related offerings. And a perfect vehicle for launching a broad based leadership and entrepreneurial program we have aptly named “The Practice of Prosperity Seminars”.

SCU’s role is to continue to build our two colleges, their programs, and their reputations as centers for excellence with stronger national and international reach. LACC, with its nearly 100 year history of leadership in chiropractic education now has alumni across the United States and countries throughout the world. With a brilliant new Alumni Mentor Program, developed jointly with the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, potential students will be able to visit, watch and talk with SCU Alumnus at their offices or clinics across the nation. Graduates, this is part of your role now, to reach out and provide leadership for the profession; encouragement for SCU’s prospective new students; and the opportunity to leverage on a growing group of LACC and CAOM successful professionals across the globe.

Our web based Alumni Mentor Program will enable all of us, to harness the power of generations of excellent graduates to explain the fundamental advantages and opportunities of CAM to a growing population of patients, and potential students, and leaders in government.

In what many medical experts are calling, “the emerging trend of holistic and integrated health care in the United States,” what we are accomplishing here at SCU is in the vanguard of holistic medicine. With a broad focus on linking complementary and alternative health care, our approach to holistic medicine considers a patient’s over-all physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional well-being, and also attempts to prevent illness by placing a greater emphasis on optimizing health.

As other colleges may chose to withdraw into smaller and less relevant roles, Southern California University has chosen to embrace the vital linkages in an integrative approach to health care. We will continue to establish broad scholarly research programs that will increasingly engage faculty and corporate researchers in the future of chiropractic; of acupuncture and oriental medicine; and in tackling the national issues of health and fitness, successful aging, pain management, and extending the quality of life while addressing debilitating disease.

And appropriate to the mission of this University, our programs will help lead the profession as our graduates pursue their role as primary healthcare providers in an increasingly integrated healthcare marketplace.

Along with this historic focus on clinical expertise, is an exciting new university concentration on equipping our students and graduates with the knowledge and skills of leadership and entrepreneurship. Our belief is that our highly talented professionals should also be highly successful practitioners.

Many of you may have heard about our recent initiative—Prosperity Seminars—which we are launching next term beginning in January. We undertook this initiative because we believe that the University has a profound responsibility to help meet our graduates’ challenge of achieving success.

And that's the subject I wish to address today, to direct my remarks to the Opportunity of Success and what Southern California University, and higher education, can do about it.

The evidence is overwhelming that the entire structure and landscape in healthcare in our nation is changing. A more unpromising thought is that many of the traditional paths to success are also changing. This is a time filled with opportunity for SCU’s healthcare practitioners to more fully embrace their role in the health and wellness of America.

Our University Mission, “To educate students as competent, caring and successful healthcare practitioners of integrative medicine,” has an important change from our past missions. Our mission now incorporates the notion that SCU is committed to, and obligated to providing a “success path” for our graduates. The University—with the input of both academies—is now focused on providing this vital link.

This is a crucial issue for an institution like ours, and to be frank, for the entire higher educational sector. A new friend recently gave me a copy of a best selling book—“The Secret”. Many of you have heard of it, my guess is that many have also read it. One central theme that runs throughout this text and other powerful books, is the undeniable truth that, “What you are thinking now. Right Now. Is creating your future.” You create your life with thoughts. And your thoughts lead to actions. It’s a cycle that once understood, leads a few to overwhelming success, and some to despair.

I invite you to consider that your future, your prosperity, and your path as a successful practitioner are more in your power, than with others.

I invite you to consider that there is also power in intention. And that if you chose to educate yourself as a leader, understand the power of and discipline of entrepreneurship, you’ll find yourself living your dream.

Finally Graduates, I invite you to return to SCU in attending any of our entrepreneurial or leadership programs as our guests (this means free!) - As our Ambassadors, and our profiles of “successful healthcare practitioners of integrative medicine”.

We are all so fortunate to be here, to be part of this growing family and SCU community. As you connect with other Alumni who have benefited so much from what Southern California University has provided, I’d ask you to offer to work together in the coming years to ensure that our University continues its leadership and commitment to healing.

My hope for all of you is that as you leave here today, you decide to live “an intentional life”. Be strong. Be confident. And be proud of your accomplishment. Thank you so much class of 2007, and congratulations on your graduation.

A few days ago, I saw a wonderful example of an entrepreneur in action. My family and I went out to our local café “The Spot.” We got up early this last weekend (around 6 am) and headed downtown to The Spot for breakfast before a 10k run. Clearly, the owners had done a bit of homework about their community, about their customers, and about how to seize an opportunity. Normally, the café serves a regular breakfast—granola, coffee, ham and eggs, toast, OJ—you know the menus of these places—but the day of the run they got smart. With limited seating, and a higher volume of customers because of the run they offered something different. In addition to the regular breakfast they had printed up special menus with this heading:

Fitness Special!
This morning we are offering an
Olympic Runner’s Breakfast
for only $4.99.
Whether you are running this morning’s 10k or
cheering from the sideline,
we guarantee you’ll feel like a champion!

“So what’s the big deal?” you ask? Well you see, successful entrepreneurs understand that a marketplace is dynamic. That change, progress, differentiation focused on the customer and from the customers’ perspective is what creates a successful venture.

Here’s the pay-off. The Spot had a line out the door. Nearby restaurants and café’s stood empty because people perceived (correctly) that the Spot represented more value, catered to them personally, and provided a more intimate experience. Did I mention that they also had printed on their special menu a gift certificate for two free lessons at the Yoga Spa next door? And oh, maybe I forgot to include that in addition to the breakfast, they had arranged with a well known nutritional power bar vendor for free bars for everyone who ordered breakfast. So, what did it take for the owner to pull this off? Well, I think we could include planning, a leadership mentality, a zest and passion for their business, and most of all understanding their customer’s perspective. Are there applications to other types of businesses or services? Of course! Being ‘customer-centric’ versus “product-centric’ is a key to a more successful business - any business.

I’ve been a student of leadership for over 20 years now, and what I’ve said to many is that “although titles may be given, leadership is earned.” I also believe leaders must honor, encourage, respect, and mentor those around them. It is important therefore, for you to note that although I have sensed a strong feeling of momentum and change in the university, it will be far more successful if all those who are directly involved in the life and mission of the university are engaged in leadership. “Who are these leaders”, you ask? “Well,” I reply, “the answer is you!”

Leadership is simply influence. It’s the ability of a person to make a difference by affecting the actions, thinking and activities of those around them. It really has nothing to do with position. People will follow a leader no matter where they are in an institution. Let me give you an example.

Last week I received an outstanding email of support from a student in the DC program. I’ve met this student before. In fact, I’ve seen him several times during the last couple of months—at student gatherings, at ASB meetings, at club activities, at outreach meetings in the local area and on campus. This student is a leader and he’s building influence. Not for a personal agenda, but for the advancement of the university and the chiropractic profession. This takes time, commitment and what some might term an ‘extra’ effort.

For many of us, our daily activities are sometimes so proscribed that they can become routine. Get up, shower, dress, eat breakfast, drive to campus, teach or learn, listen or speak, lead or follow, change or remain the same.

With these assumptions also comes the realization that life is really in our control. We can rely on others to create our reality, or we can choose to lead our life proactively. It is a remarkable opportunity, this choice of ours. I’d like to invite you to consider that leadership…your personal leadership…is a more fulfilling, robust and dynamic choice.

Daily, you can choose to influence others positively by accepting the mantle of leadership. This can be manifested in many ways—from simply picking up a piece of trash as you pass by, to helping a visitor on campus find a classroom, to stopping to meet someone new, to forming a new club or group, to improving the learning environment in your class or by speaking up and sharing your philosophy on life. In all of these choices, I think you’ll find that people respond to positive leadership. At each turn in our lives’ we build our leadership potential by actively contributing. I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed negative or passive activities that led to any lasting success.

So this week, and the next...and the next…build your influence. Build your leadership network on The Road Ahead. Create positive change and growth in those around you, and email me about your success. I’d love to share in your story.

Tomorrow I will be hosting an All-Campus Meeting and I hope you’ll attend. The focus of it is to share with you the broad strokes of a vision for the future of the university. I call it “The Road Ahead”, and I think you’ll like what you see and hear.

When I assumed the office of President on September 1st, I wanted to spend the majority of my first few weeks getting to know the university structure. How exactly did things work? What needed to be changed? How relevant was our educational philosophy? Were students at the heart of our decision making process? How effective were we with our stated vision and mission? How did faculty, staff and students go about their days? What could be accomplished in the near term and what would take time? Most importantly what should be accomplished? Why? And how?

I started by walking and talking. And I made lists—lots of them! What were the core values that seemed to resonate with people? Where there strengths in the institution? What motivated people? Was this different for faculty? For staff? For administrators? For students? For the Board? For alumni? Who were the natural leaders on and off campus? How did students experience our campus? Our faculty? Our environment? What were the greatest needs of students? In the classroom, and in the clinics? And what were the greatest needs in the profession? At every turn in the university, I met an overwhelming enthusiasm for new leadership!

I identified the weaknesses that I saw and wrote them down as well. Were there barriers that kept people from high performance? What were the key threats to our university? And so on. When I finished I had assembled more than 30 pages of notes. Some entries were nondescript like, “bathrooms could use some updating.” Others were rich in detail like, “starting next Tuesday, I will meet with student’s in the ASB Chambers to discuss and get their take on the 3 things they are most eager to see in terms of academic and/or program learning outcomes.”

As you may have read in my other blog entries, I’ve also met with as many people as possible, and with as broad a cross-section of the university as possible. I’m happy to say, that I believe I’ve been successful in capturing the essence of the university’s present situation and in developing a plan to take us to the next level.

Let me share with you what it’s not…and what it is.

It’s not a strategic plan in the usual sense; it’s a road map.

It’s not simply strategic initiatives to be completed; it’s an icon for the future.

It’s not based on recapturing the past; it focuses on a new future.

It’s not about preserving the status quo; it’s focused on growth and change.

It’s not about management; 'The Road Ahead' is about leadership, vision, and strategic initiative.

The Road Ahead, is about how our university is perhaps the most uniquely suited institution to lead the next generation of health care practitioners into the future of integrative medicine. And I believe most of the groundwork can be accomplished in the next 36 months. This 36 month timeframe, what strategists’ like me call the ‘planning horizon’ is the period for launching strategic initiatives, for restructure, for development and for building momentum. And it’s shaping up to be the most exciting time in the history of the university!

As you’ve probably noted, the date for the university-wide launch is set for November 27th at noon to 1 p.m. in the PAC. I invite you to attend.

Consider for a moment the notion of “critical thinking.” You might ask, “In what context?” Well, that’s the focus of this blog entry, to consider the context of how critical thinking is defined by people across the university.

I started this task, in a very unscientific survey, to see what I could see. I initially asked just a few people— 2 administrators, 3 faculty members and 4 or 5 students—to answer the question, “How do you define critical thinking?” My objective was simply to help gain a clearer perspective about how we might collectively sharpen our focus about our programs. My belief is that with a clearer understanding of how we think about health sciences, we will be better able to lead as the premier institution for the future of complementary and alternative medicine and help create a model for the future of health and wellness and integrative medicine higher education.

I asked the same question, the same way ten times. I received many answers but one result was the same every time. People listened to my question, and then asked some version of, “in what context?”

This answer intrigued me. Where they saying, “Of course I understand this concept, but what do you mean by it?” or was it, “I define critical thinking differently depending on the context and the subject matter.”

Exactly what does it mean to you? If it’s a logical process you employ, then perhaps it shapes and informs your perspective and view of chiropractic, acupuncture and oriental medicine. If it’s an abstract concept, then possibly you’ve decided that the process you use for evaluation, for assessment, or for decision making might rest in the realm of intuitive decision making (which by the way, I use at least as a part of my process almost every day). But if you believe that critical thinking plays an important part of your decision-making process then I’d like you to weigh in on this one by taking a (slightly) more defined survey! Here are the open-ended questions:

What does the term "critical thinking" mean to you? Is it important to be able to think critically?

What does the term "higher order thinking" mean to you?

Do you think working in small groups with other students enhances the learning process? Why or why not?

Email me your responses and I’ll post a summary in a couple of weeks.

I spend quite a bit of time traveling by air these days. At 30,000 feet, you get a different perspective - the entire ‘picture’ so to speak. My guess is that this 30,000-foot level view is where a university president should be at least some of the time. Many authors (including me) have used this analogy to point out that sometimes it takes a new perspective to see a better road. In my last blog entry I spoke about our place as the premier institution of higher learning in CAM and presented a perspective about how we are developing and shaping our university’s educational programs for the future. After many meetings with the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members, the Board of Regents has endorsed a comprehensive program focusing on preparing our students with the “tools to build successful and prosperous practices.”

I’d like to share in this entry, an exciting and powerful strategic direction of that development - SCU is launching a campus-wide entrepreneurship and leadership program designed to better prepare students (and alumni) for successful careers as health care professionals!

Designed to provide a broader and more entrepreneurial-leadership perspective, these programs will be a powerful augmentation to our current practice management courses. Topics ranging from “Visioning Your Future”; “Gaining the Entrepreneurial Edge”; “Ten Secrets of Leadership”; and “The Mini-MBA Program”, are examples of the programs offered.

The programs, to be held here on campus in our Performing Arts Center, will begin next term, in January 08! The first of these campus-wide programs will focus on Leadership & Entrepreneurship. Initially scheduled to be held the first Tuesday of each month during the University Hour (Noon to 1PM) our goal is to build a very strong program that may eventually be offered every week.

Appropriately named, “Tuesday Prosperity Seminars” (TPS!), the focus of SCU’s all campus seminars will be to provide a powerful development program for all students, staff, faculty (and the broader university family) in understanding and mastery of the discipline of entrepreneurship and leadership.

Taken together with our existing strength in clinical expertise in chiropractic, and acupuncture and oriental medicine, the Tuesday Prosperity Seminars will provide a strong ‘edge’ to SCU’s students.

There is a reason why our vision statement contains the word “premier.” Our university is known for its complex mixture of people from many walks of life—with diverse cultural and social backgrounds; with differing academic and professional training and experience; and with varying perspectives on health and wellness, integrative medicine, primary care, complementary and alternative medicine, chiropractic, and acupuncture and oriental medicine. It is in just this rich mixture, this rich “intellectual soup”, that premier universities are pushed to the next level.

Most rewarding is that although our university family represents a broad spectrum of world views, there is a visible and visceral core foundational belief in the power and purpose of healing.

We call this “Healing Evolved,” and more than a slogan, our focus on leading the way in higher education is now shaping how health professionals are viewing the future of CAM.

In speaking with students and faculty about our university’s chiropractic focus (especially as we approach LACC’s 100 year anniversary) I am excited to see a shared commitment to (1) continue our leadership as an institution that values an informed and powerful educational approach to learning, (2) honors and respects the historic underpinnings of chiropractic and (3) most importantly prescribes the road ahead of how chiropractic colleges and health science universities will articulate and translate the benefits of chiropractic to a growing national patient population in the future.

Exactly what does this mean in the near-term for SCU’s chiropractic program? My answer is simple, “SCU’s chiropractic students will clearly emerge as the ‘gold standard’ as leaders and shapers of the profession.”

Whether that’s through the sharing of patient nutritional and lifestyle information; participation in a health and wellness orientation; through a focused chiropractic practice (like sports, pediatric, geriatric or specific technique approaches) or as our dual degree students have seen, through applying the benefits of acupuncture and oriental medicine, an SCU student is a powerful and informed healer—an “evolved healer.”

Over the next 36 months, in a plan we are calling ‘The Road Ahead’, much of SCU’s future orientation and growth will be driven by our ability as an institution to provide a comprehensive and focused learning environment where this rich mixture of intellect, meets the continuity of informed and critical thinking.

Last night after work, I jogged to the sports fields on the south side of our campus. My intent was to get in a quick work out before heading home. I’ve always been an athlete of sorts—in competition as a high school and college wrestler, as a water polo player and swimmer—so the compulsion for me to be active is sometimes overwhelming. The leaders here at the university are well aware that I’d rather “walk and talk”, than sit in my office.

As I jogged around the track, I started thinking about how to integrate more health and fitness into our university life. I recalled talking with a faculty member about this, so after my workout I called Dr. Mike Reed who has had a dream of opening a sports complex here on campus for several years. Dr. Reed will continue as a faculty member, but is now in Colorado Springs as a DC with the United States Olympic Volleyball team. His enthusiasm is contagious! And I’ve decided to start the ball rolling again.

As a destination for health and fitness, our campus is centrally located, convenient to thousands of people, surrounded by colleges and universities and in the vanguard for a focus on biometric research studies, for developmental/clinical research in nutrition and oriental medicine, and as a destination for athletes (young and old) seeking a sense of renewal and strength. And as yet another rallying point for SCU as the premier institution for CAM in the United States, our center would become a vital link for chiropractic sports medicine practitioners throughout the world!

I need your help and input here, so please email me and share your ideas!

Over the past twenty years of practicing and teaching leadership, I have often been asked to share what I believed to be the most important thing a person could do to become a better leader. The answer of course can be a range of actions, but I am convinced that an underlying core of great leadership is a “passionate commitment to painting a vivid picture of a destination, and then creating a clear path to get there.”

Consider this destination question, “what does the health and wellness practitioner of the future look like?” I have thought a lot about this question, and I’d invite you to consider that our dual degree program in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and Doctor of Chiropractic is a one very clear path to get there.

When you seek out a primary care practitioner, shouldn’t they have the ability to use several modalities to treat patients? Shouldn’t they be well-versed in how complementary and alternative medicine is an integrative part of the medical suite in patient treatment? Shouldn’t they be able to be both intellectually trained and intuitively able to treat?

I think the answer is obvious. SCUHS, through our two colleges and professional school, must take the national leadership role in painting a vivid destination for the future of integrative health care. I believe we must, because our institution is the best positioned to lead.

The first 4 weeks of my presidency have been spent in understanding the core strengths of the university and my thinking about how best to lead us into a successful future. Perhaps it started with a DC student’s question to me in a forum. She was asking a question about the future of chiropractic, but began her question like this, “because you have a PHD and you’re not a DC, I’m excited that you’ll to be able to lead us (the university) in a new way…” That new way comment began my thinking about the road that all great institutions of higher learning should follow—a road to a new place; a road to growth; a road to vibrant student life; a road to intellectual excitement, and to professional challenge. Her comment stimulated my thinking about SCU’s “road ahead”, and what that truly meant for our university family. Here’s what I’ve shared with many of you. If our faculty, staff, students and the Board of Regents are on a journey together, doesn’t it make good sense to give it a strong focus? So, in collaboration with many voices across the institution, here are our new university vision and mission statements:

SCU Vision

Southern California University of Health Sciences will be recognized as the premier educational institution for complementary and alternative medicine in the United States.

SCU Mission

Our mission is to educate students as competent, caring and successful healthcare practitioners of integrative medicine.

In this, the University is committed to providing excellence in academics, service and leadership through the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic; the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine; and the School of Professional Studies.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you specifically how we expect to advance our vision and mission and exactly what our “road ahead” look like.

This university recently hosted its Fall Campus Preview Day for prospective students, their parents, spouses and for those just interested in learning more about SCUHS. Perhaps the most well attended Preview Day in several years; I couldn’t help but reflect on the renewed sense of vitality and optimism that seems to pervade the entire campus community. It was clear that the admissions and enrollment staff, the public affairs office and faculty had prepared a wonderful day. From the start, our 100 plus guests were greeted warmly, treated to great food and took in the highlights of the campus.

But there was also something special in the air, a sense of vision about the physical aspects of the SCU campus as a premier institution of higher learning. It wasn’t hard to notice that there are new and growing “islands for thought, meditation and fellowship” cropping up across our campus. The colors of the American flag are now waving high in the front of the University; our new bookstore and café have colorful banners; our student center has been remodeled and repainted; we have a new café outdoor patio area with fantastic landscaping; on the central campus Glen, we are seeing more students talking, reading or relaxing; and the start of the new student recreation center (yet to be named!) is already underway; in short, our campus is coming to life. And along with this goes a sense of optimism about a future of institutional growth, of relevant and exciting programs in chiropractic, acupuncture and oriental medicine, and in our commitment to our ‘road ahead’.

The first words of a blog are, I am told, important for setting context for a reader. So, here’s the bottom line, “I am a visionary leader, and I believe we are on an incredible journey together.”

I have spent most of my personal and professional life around leaders. Some just learning to lead, some at the top of their game, and some truly gifted. I honestly don’t yet fully grasp where I am on this continuum, but what I do know—what I do believe—is that our university will emerge as the premier institution for higher learning in the complementary and alternative health care in the United States in the very near future. As I write these words, I’m reminded that much of my leadership style and beliefs come from great personal mentors. Mentors like Dr. Dan Reiland and Dr. John C. Maxwell, both prodigious authors and international speakers, who poured their time and energy into my life for over a decade, and whose leadership journeys I’ve watched with admiration. So as I begin my leadership at this great university, I’d like to share some of my personal beliefs with you.

I believe in the power of intention. I believe in the strength of resiliency. I believe in defining success and then creating a strong path to achieve it. I believe in growth, challenge, opportunity and accomplishment. I believe in the power of words, but rest my case on the implementation of greatness. I believe in the enthusiasm of shared communication. I believe that good works come from love, but great works come from loving something completely. I believe in lifelong learning, and that a worthwhile ideal is worthy of reflection. Most of all, I believe in the power of leadership to create a future that moves us, shapes us and creates an environment where greatness is commonplace. For me, this place is now SCU.

The first 4 weeks of my presidency have been spent in understanding the core strengths of the university and my thinking about how best to lead us into a successful future. Perhaps it started with a DC student’s question to me in a forum. She was asking about the future of chiropractic, but began her question like this, “because you have a PHD and you’re not a DC, I’m excited that you’ll to be able to lead us (the university) in a new way…” That new way comment began my thinking about the road that all great institutions of higher learning should follow—a road to a new place; a road to growth; a road to vibrant student life; a road to intellectual excitement, and to professional challenge. Her comment stimulated my thinking about SCU’s “road ahead”, and what that meant for our university.

I’ve talked with many of you—faculty, staff, students, and the Board of Regents about this journey together, and your positive responses have been overwhelming. So, in collaboration with many voices across the institution, I’m confident that our university’s new vision and mission statements will move us forward together:

SCU Vision
Southern California University of Health Sciences will be recognized as the premier educational institution for complementary and alternative medicine in the United States.

SCU Mission
Our mission is to educate students as competent, caring and successful healthcare practitioners of integrative medicine. The University is committed to providing excellence in academics, service and leadership through the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic; the College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine; and the School of Professional Studies.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you specifically how we are planning to advance our vision and mission and what I expect our “road ahead” will look like. I’m excited and eager to be on this journey with you.