My first essay for the Lehigh County Medical Society discusses how I became President.  Basically, my good friend and colleague, Dr. Oscar Morffi, talked me into it!  I had been a member of the Society since coming to Allentown in 1992.  It was not until Dr. Morffi asked me to participate on the Board that I became actively involved in a leadership role.

I knew that the greatest challenge facing me in my new role as President was that physicians’ morale has steadily declined over the past decade.  The reasons for the morale problem are many and are discussed in the essay.  A year later, though, we had increased our membership by over 70 new physicians and we had stimulated more younger physicians to get involved.