Early in one’s urologic career, it becomes clear how important the AUA is for the vibrancy, stability, and future of our specialty. Participation at various levels of the AUA has been vital in the development of my career. It is a true honor to have been selected as a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award primarily for my committee activities fostering the AUA’s education and policy missions.

Education Mission

Much of my career has centered on education, and the AUA has been an extraordinary outlet for these efforts. Among the most rewarding opportunities was participating in the redevelopment of the Core Curriculum; John Mulhall invited me to lead the creation of the pediatric content and sit on the executive committee (2011-2015). I was privileged to recruit several prominent leaders in pediatric urology to contribute to the Core, which is now a primary resource for residents and medical students as they prepare for clinical cases, conference presentation, in-service examinations, and rotations on pediatric urology.

Point-of-service ultrasound in the practice of urology is now a well-accepted tenet, but not at the time that I served as chair of the Pediatric Section for the AUA National Urology Ultrasound Faculty (2007-2013). We were responsible for formally training urologists to perform and interpret urologic ultrasounds thus facilitating patient care and reimbursement. I was charged with developing and codifying standards for urologic ultrasound imaging in children. I served as faculty on the 2009 and 2010 AUA postgraduate course, “Pediatric Ultrasound,” and the 2013 AUA postgraduate course, “Advanced Ultrasound Hands-on Course.”

Pediatric voiding dysfunction has evolved rapidly over the past 20 years or so, and I am very proud to have been course director of the AUA postgraduate course on evaluation and management of pediatric voiding dysfunction (2011-2017 and 2022) that has been attended by hundreds of urologists and advanced practice providers. The faculty featured Paul Austin and Chris Cooper, and the course was named an “AUA Course of Choice” in 2011. We also served as speakers at a plenary session at the 2014 AUA Annual Meeting, discussing “Current Management of Pediatric Bowel and Bladder Dysfunction.”

Public Policy Mission

As a member of the Public Policy Committee, I worked on several crucial issues and advocated on Capitol Hill but was the lead on Intersex Advocacy. I cochaired the SPU (Societies for Pediatric Urology) Task Force on Intersex, closely collaborating with AUA public policy leadership (Chris Gonzalez, Eugene Rhee, and Kathy Shanley) to defeat legislative efforts in 12 states as well as a resolution at the American Medical Association that sought to ban any surgical option in children with intersex or atypia of the genitalia (including hypospadias). Together, we organized and recruited statements of opposition by AUA members, wrote an AUA white paper (in final review at this time), provided updates at the Advocacy Summit, recorded a recent podcast for the AUA, and published an item in AUANews. These efforts have led to the creation of a joint AUA-SPU Task Force on Intersex and Transgenderism that I currently chair.

Other AUA Service

In addition to the above, I have thoroughly enjoyed diverse opportunities to serve the AUA as a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Urology®’s section of Pediatric Urology (2009-2012), as a reviewer for both The Journal of Urology® and Urology Practice®, as a judge of the National Urology Chief Resident Debate (2014-2020), and as a member of the Annual Meeting Planning Committee (2014-2020) and Abstract Review Committee.

New York Section AUA

I recently completed my term as president of the New York Section of the AUA after serving on the Board of Directors since 2013 as a district representative and then as secretary. My time as president-elect and president coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed many challenges to our Section. Fortunately, I was surrounded by the extraordinary support, talent, and energy of our Board of Trustees, a cadre of our younger members, and our executive secretary, Michelle Paoli. We supported innovative virtual programming with our EMPIRE (Educational Multi-Institutional Program for Instructing REsidents) program, and repleted financial losses with an extraordinarily successful Annual Meeting in Scotland and Ireland and selective reorganization efforts.

It has been a privilege to serve the AUA in its mission on many fronts and many projects for over 25 years. This work has been profoundly rewarding personally by allowing me to substantially “give back” to our specialty. I am very appreciative of the recognition by the AUA as a 2024 Distinguished Service Awardee and congratulate my fellow awardee, Jonathan Rubenstein, MD. I am looking forward to continuing to serve the AUA membership in the future.