This will be my final missive to you as Executive Director of ASHEcon. It’s been the thrill of my professional lifetime to spend the last 7 years in this role. I have had the honor of working with the best and most supportive board an organization could hope for. It has also been a distinct privilege to work alongside the best presidents imaginable: Frank Sloan, Mark Pauly, Jon Gruber, Loren Baker, and Janet Currie. Thank you SO MUCH for your devotion to the organization. Most of all, I want to thank the outstanding members of ASHEcon! I have met and interacted with so many of you; and you have repeatedly astounded me with the scope, depth, ingenuity, and quality of your research! We have done so much organizationally together. We have together added a fantastic new journal, the American Journal of Health Economics, which has rapidly gained respect and support as an outlet for your research alongside the Journal of Health Economics. Our conferences are now annual! You no longer have to wait two years between opportunities to present your work and see friends and colleagues. Less visible, but no less important is the outstanding back-office support we have from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. They have been a joy to work with and have made so much of what we do possible. And let’s not forget our highly overdue no logo!

Going forward, we are in great hands with Debbie Freund taking over as Executive Director. Unlike—ahem—current management, she has extensive managerial experience, including being a university president! As well as generating tens of millions of dollars on research and fundraising. I know that she will be great in this role because I have first-hand experience with her: she was my dissertation co-adviser and continues to be my “academic mom.” She will be a fabulous, caring, thoughtful, accessible, responsible, responsive Executive Director for ASHEcon.

I say my farewell to you! I also say hello to you, as I will continue to never miss an ASHEcon conference. I look forward to having a bit more time to devote to my research, which I hope to present at future ASHEcon conferences, just like you!

Thank you all so much for your support of ASHEcon!!

– Tony