Your Roving Reporter: Alliance Day 1

Arrived in Denver safely and soundly for the 2022 Alliance conference. It’s a nice, clean airport with a beautiful view of the snowcapped mountains in the distance. The meeting property (yes, a Gaylord as usual) is only a 15-20 minute drive from the airport, which is nice, but it’s in a remote-ish area surrounded by fields and some residential properties. It’s a good 30-40 minute drive to get into downtown Denver.

As I noted earlier this week on our blog, I am going around during this conference asking people one serious and one not-so-serious question per day to get the pulse of the current state of our interview. My fedora is a bit bent, but I can tell that people are taking me for a very serious, hard-hitting journalist by the scared look in their eye as I approach.

Here are today’s two questions:

1. Why are you here?
2. What show are you currently streaming?

Caroline Pardo, PhD, CHCP, FACEHP
Senior Vice President, Educational Strategy
Clinical Educational Alliance

Why are you here?

One, I have missed this community. Two, I want to follow through with the commitments I have made as an instructor – I’m teaching a Basics session. Three, I want to support my community with my attendance and my dollars because this is our professional home and we need to support it.

What show are you currently streaming?

I’m watching “The Top Ten 80s” on Disney Plus. Right now, I’m on fashion.

Jennifer Thompson, MS, FACEHP
Director of Education
American Academy of Dermatology

Why are you here?

Because I always come to this conference every year and didn’t want to miss this opportunity to network with my colleague. (note from Scott: Jennifer later admitted with a laugh that she wanted time away from her kids. Don’t we all!!)

What show are you binge watching right now?

My family is almost done with the Handmaid’s Tale.

Kiersten Smith-Gaston
Conference Planner
Albert Einstein Montefiore Medical Center

Why are you here?

I’m here to reestablish connections with our collaborators and to gain new knowledge about the new accreditation standards.

What show are you currently streaming?

As of last night, Frasier.

Hazel Dennison, DNP
Director of Continuing Professional Development
Healthstream

Why are you here?

So up until 2 years ago, ANCC and ACCME was all I knew. But then I learned about the Alliance and found about about the CHCP certification. My employer wants us to get as many certifications as we can get. Since the Alliance is where you need to go to learn about these things, that’s why I’m here.

What show are you binge watching right now?

Yellowstone