Editor’s note: Voting will take place from Sept. 11-25. The winner will serve as AAP president in 2026. For more information and videos about the candidates for president-elect, and district offices, visit https://bit.ly/3s8zHhV. For more AAP News coverage of the election, visit https://bit.ly/AAPElection2024.
Lily J. Lou, M.D., FAAP
Palos Park, Ill.
I have a steadfast and passionate belief that the AAP is the professional home for all pediatricians. There is room under the tent for everyone. We must recognize and value each pathway and provide opportunities for engagement for all.
We have diversity in our membership: subspecialists and generalists; academicians and private practice; researchers and clinicians; rural and urban; Native and non-Native.
I have practiced in most of these settings. I’ve chaired the largest subspecialty section (Section on Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine) and served as Alaska Chapter president. We find synergy in recognizing our different strengths and raising our voices together.
In addition to caring for children hands-on and one at a time, we need to have a clear view of the child health landscape at the 30,000-foot level to understand the specific gaps in access, so we can drive effective strategies to fill them. My experience as a public health leader affords me a health policy lens, and I believe the Academy can foster opportunities for pediatricians to have key seats at the table.
Scholarship and education must be supported so that we continue to learn and improve, and to make sure the calling of pediatrics continues to attract the best and brightest. It’s clear that we must address the untenable payment disparities for pediatricians and incentivize trainees to choose areas of great need that are also good career choices.
I see the AAP as the organization that can lead solutions to such challenges and would be so very honored to have your vote in September.
Andrew D. Racine, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP
Bronx, N.Y.
I have spent my professional career doing three things: practicing pediatrics in northern Manhattan and the Bronx, studying the health economics of children, and organizing the delivery of health care services in one of the nation’s largest academic health systems. This work taught me some important lessons.
First, the American Academy of Pediatrics is the essential resource for the practicing pediatrician. Its education, networking, policy and advocacy sustain pediatricians in indispensable ways.
I have also come to recognize that the Academy’s current approach cannot, by itself, fulfill its mission of optimizing the health of all infants, children, adolescents and young adults since the provision of health care services plays but a minor role in determining the health of a child. Much more important are investments in that child’s education, nutrition, housing, the safety of her neighborhood, and the health status and educational attainment of her caregivers.
Years of chronic underinvestment in these health determinants have left the state of U.S. child health woefully suboptimal. Pediatricians in clinical practice are constantly being asked to rectify this situation with the tools at our disposal — an impossibility.
As the nation’s foremost authoritative organization dedicated to child health, the AAP is, however, ideally suited to marshal the full force of government, industry, labor and the media, so that together, unified behind a comprehensive child health agenda, we can meaningfully transform the health of millions of American children. To contribute to such a transformational agenda is what motivates me to seek the office of president-elect.
