GAVEL PASS SVS UNVEILS 2023–24 SLATE OF OFFICERS

By Beth Bales

WITH NEARLY 940 VOTES CAST, Keith Calligaro, MD, was elected vice president of the SVS and Thomas Forbes, MD, its treasurer following the conclusion of the 2023 officer elections. Results were announced during the SVS Annual Business Meeting, held Saturday, June 17, during VAM 2023.

“Each of these newly elected officials is incredibly deserving and I am excited to work with them going forward,” said SVS President Joseph Mills, MD. “They will provide strong voices to the SVS in their roles. Please join me in celebrating their new leadership roles.”

Candidates included Kellie Brown, MD, and Calligaro for vice president, and Forbes and Palma Shaw, MD, for treasurer. Mills thanked

Membership

both Brown and Shaw, calling them “strong leaders within the Society and their respective institutions. I look forward to continuing to work with them within SVS; there’s no doubt we will continue to see great things from them.”

Voting opened in mid-May and closed June 15, during VAM itself. “We left no stone unturned to stress the importance of voting to all voting-eligible members, which resulted in a record turnout with 939 votes [30% of eligible voters],” said Mills. The push resulted in a 50% increase in voting in just one year. In the 2022 election, slightly more than 600 voting-eligible members voted.

In late 2022, Society members approved three revisions to Article X of the SVS bylaws to restructure the Nominating Committee. These revisions resulted in increased committee diversity, adding the chair or vice chair of the SVS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee and of the Young Surgeons Section as full, voting members.

The Nominating Committee, said Mills, “selected outstanding candidates for this year, all of whom are incredible leaders for our specialty.” He added that the SVS will continue to re-examine, review and explore whether the current process could be further optimized to meet the Society’s strategic and governance needs. At the close of the meeting, Immediate Past President Michael Dalsing, MD, passed the presidential gavel on to Mills.

OFFICER CLASS OF 2023–24

Michael Dalsing and

After thanking the crowd as well as outgoing President Dalsing, Mills undertook his first official action. After a motion and a second, he declared the meeting adjourned, asking “all of you to assemble in June 2024 in Chicago!”

The 2023-24 slate of officers are as follows: President Joseph Mills; PresidentElect Matthew Eagleton, MD; Vice President Keith Calligaro; Secretary William Shutze, MD (in the second of a three-year term); Treasurer Thomas Forbes (first of a threeyear term); and outgoing President Michael Dalsing Audra Duncan, MD, Kwame Amankwah, MD, and Kellie Brown, MD, have accepted presidential appointments as liaison members of the Executive Board.