The Opening Keynote Address will be delivered by Dr. Julia Rowland, Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute. As the number of cancer survivors continues to grow, social workers face new challenges to help them cope with the long-term impact and side effects caused by cancer and its treatments. Dr. Rowland represents a wealth of survivorship knowledge and understands the important roles social workers play in cancer survivorship. Her Opening Keynote Address will be inspiring and thoughtful, while challenging us to elevate and amplify the voices of cancer survivors.

We are pleased to announce a lunchtime session focused on financial advocacy. Leading this session will be Dr. Reginald Tucker-Seeley, Assistant Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Center for Community Based Research. Dr. Tucker-Seeley will discuss his research into a measurement of financial well-being and how it may influence health outcomes across the cancer continuum. He will present a conceptual model of financial well-being and encourage us to think not only about the experience of financial hardship, but also the psychological response that is financial distress.

Finally, our Closing Keynote Address will be delivered by our own Patrice Al-Shatti, LMSW. I first heard Patrice speak at the AOSW Annual Conference in St. Louis in 2011. I knew then she was special. Over the years, I have been privileged to watch her grow as a practitioner and a mentor through her own periods of trauma. She is an enlightened, engaging speaker who will leave us inspired, motivated and with more insight into caring for ourselves in the course of our work as oncology social workers.

And now, for some late breaking, exciting conference programming news! You asked—we listened. At the 2017 Annual Conference we will offer some Clinical Practice Intensives (CPIs). These sessions, three hours in length, will provide an opportunity to explore some clinical modalities with the goal of teaching you skills to take back and use in your practice immediately. I am so excited to share our line-up of CPI topics and speakers! I know it will be difficult to choose one to attend.

• Motivational Interviewing: Debra Mattison, LMSW, ACSW
• Mindfulness: Tom Pier, LCSW, CMF, OSW-C
• Family Therapy in Oncology Care: Carolyn Fulton, LCSW-R
• Psychodynamic Approaches to End-of-Life and Bereavement Care: Joan Berzoff, MSW,  PhD
• Improving Sexual Health: Unique Needs and Clinical Practice with Sexual Minorities: Sage Bolte, PhD, LCSW, OSW-C, CST; David Latini, PhD, LMSW, and Heather Honoré Goltz, PhD, LMSW, MEd

We are honored to have such a distinguished group of scholars share their expertise with our conference attendees.

This is my last Navigator article as Education Director. Thank you to all AOSW and Board Members for your support and guidance as I’ve worked hard to elevate our educational offerings. It has been my privilege to serve.