The ACC Early Career Professionals Section plays a pivotal role within the College, comprised of members who have graduated in the last seven years and an Early Career Leadership Council, all of whom are driven by their unending enthusiasm, dedication to hard work, and creativity.

Early Career members have access to activities led by our work groups:

• The Education Work Group, which works in collaboration with other non-clinical sections, hosts early career-focused sessions at ACC Annual Scientific Session and organizes monthly webinars on topics such as practice management and growth, finances, research and funding, and diversity and inclusion. Live webinars are held monthly and on-demand recordings of past webinars are available on the Early Career Webinar Series page on ACC.org.
• The International Work Group, comprised of members from across the world, hosts a quarterly webinar series focused on issues relevant to early career members, such as dealing with tough clinical cases and navigating change.
• The Early Career Social Media Team, selected through a national call for volunteers every year, actively promotes relevant content using the hashtag #ACCEarlyCareer, particularly during national and international meetings.
• The Editorial Team, also selected from a national call for volunteers each year, creates monthly articles on non-clinical early career topics such as career development, financial planning, clinician well-being/work-life balance, and coding and billing.
• The Academic Work Group, comprised of members from both within and outside the Early Career Leadership Council, publishes work on relevant topics such as successful mentor-mentee relationships, grant writing, and challenges facing early career academic cardiologists.
• The State Chapter Initiative Work Group, formed through a Chapter-Section grant in collaboration with the Iowa, Virginia, and Louisiana Chapters, is working to strengthen the early career community within each chapter by creating a "road map" for other chapters to use. This group created a toolkit of reference information, templates and graphics for ACC chapters to support and facilitate their efforts in building their early career membership.
• The Advocacy Work Group, in collaboration with the Fellows in Training Section, launched a series of fireside chats to spark interest in health care policy among early career members. These chats dive into a wide range of topics and include current advocacy leaders. The group also hosts breakout sessions during the annual Legislative Conference to prepare early career professionals for their Capitol Hill visits.

There are several other collaborative activities, such as the monthly cath discussion with the ACC Interventional, Early Career and Fellows in Training Section, along with SCAI, and more!

We encourage your suggestions and feedback to help us improve early career-focused activities within the College. We invite you to reach out to our ACC staff liaison, Kimarie Chang at kchang@acc.org, if you have any questions.

I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and hope to see you at a future ACC meeting!

Poonam Velagapudi, MD, MS, FACC
Chair, ACC Early Career Professionals Section
Interventional and Structural Cardiologist
University of Nebraska Medical Center