I am pleased to have the opportunity to serve as AADA’s 2009-10 President.  I feel honored to continue the work of previous AADA members and leaders. As president, my initial goal is to ensure that our clients receive the counseling they deserve, both in terms of access to services and counselor competence. As the organization that focuses on Adult Development, I believe it is our responsibility to continue to provide quality resources to our members, particularly in light of new thinking, challenges, and the graying of the baby boomers. My theme, Changing our Perspective on Aging, speaks to the need for counseling professionals to recognize how aging is experienced for the individual. I am always struck when I hear someone say, “Oh, you work with the geriatric population…”, essentially ignoring all the developmental changes in adulthood, connoting aging to old, and to implying, “You work with people different from me.” I believe as we all grow older we begin to redefine our perspective on aging, and we expect our service providers to meet us where we are, not fit us into stereotypes about what an age means.
AADA can accomplish this responsibility of providing resources through our continued work in the Competencies Task Force, through our conference in Rochester, NY, and by increasing our membership benefits. In addition to the great resources presented in our journal, we are improving our newsletter. The newsletter will now feature a student column, a practitioner column, and a counselor educator column to ensure that we are meeting the individual needs of our members; I encourage you to submit your ideas and techniques to be published in our newsletter. Furthermore, I hope that you will become more involved in AADA leadership. Finally, I hope to see you at the AADA Brunch at the ACA Conference!