By Kerry Irish, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW 
AOSW Education Director 

With the ink not quite dry on our conference schedule, I am SO excited to say that once again, AOSW’s members are coming together to share high-quality education in psychosocial oncology.  This year’s conference, which will launch on Emancipation Day, aka Juneteenth, will kick off with a keynote presentation delivered by Dr. Heather Honore Goltz, and will feature a strong track of presentations that relate to matters of diversity, equity and inclusion in psychosocial oncology.   

Throughout the conference, attendees will have opportunities to learn, network, and interact with leaders in our field.  With nearly 100 submitted proposals, the abstract review and conference committees were truly impressed by the depth and breadth of quality content, and we are anticipating offering: 

• Two pre-conference workshops (one geared to new oncology social workers and the other on financial toxicity) 

• Eleven Clinical Practice Institutes—three-hour workshops designed to provide more immersive skill-building for attendees. 

• Thirty Paper Sessions—one-hour sessions encompassing a wide variety of topics, from research to field instruction to groupwork—-there is something for every interest! 

• Fifteen Learning Institutes: 90-minute intensives, again with a wide variety of topics and geared toward every level of experience 

• Twenty-five poster presentations, which will be featured during our poster reception and annual silent auction 

• At least eight SIG meetings, all with associated presentations 

• A special seminal event at AOSW (more to come on this) 

• Our ACS Quality of Life award winner, Dr. Barbara Jones, will be delivering a lecture during a sponsored luncheon 

• What is certain to be an inspiring closing keynote presentation by Dr. Tara Schapmire 

I’d like to thank all who submitted abstract proposals for this year’s conference and want to offer a special shoutout to our abstract and presentation mentors:  Dr. Heather Goltz, Dr. Carolyn Messner, Dr. Iris Fineberg, Dr. James Zabora, Dr. Chiara Acquati and Dr. Jill Randall.  I’d also like to express my deep gratitude to our conference committee members (Linda Hutkin-Slade [co-chair], Michael Grignon, CaTecia Godbee, and Teresa van Oort), to our Kellen staff/education manager (Kate Monkus) and especially to our phenomenal AOSW President Leora Lowenthal, who has offered counsel, assistance, and support to our committee since launch.  I look forward to seeing many of you in the beautiful city of New Orleans in June!