By Richard Scott

The final day of CMSA’s 2010 conference brought forth the annual rite of leadership passage: the gavel-passing. On Friday morning, outgoing president Peggy Leonard took the stage during the conference’s closing main session, and her penultimate act as the CMSA chief underscored the vitality she brought to the organization—with a cue to the sound stage, she kicked up her shoes and performed the Macarena.

Then in her final act as president, she introduced “with complete security and confidence” her 2010-2011 successor: Teri Treiger, a health care veteran who hails from CMSA’s New England Chapter. To a roomful of applause, Treiger took to the podium for the first time as CMSA leader and immediately put forth a question to the audience. “Who do you want to be perceived as?” she asked, setting a tone of blanket optimism—and opportunity—at the start of her tenure.

Treiger remarked about the general lack of awareness of case management among the lay public. She stressed the growing trends of patient-centered care and the medical home model. And she held firm to the belief of the case manager as an inherent embodiment of goodwill. “It’s your face, and sometimes your voice, that is hope,” she said.

(Ed. Note: See page 16 of the Case In Point Leadership Issue for Treiger’s thoughts on the interplay between case managers and medical directors.)