Board of Directors February Meeting Highlights

Not pictured: Paneez Khoury, MD, MHSc, FAAAAI

The members of the AAAAI Board of Directors met in person February 25-26, 2026, in Philadelphia, PA during the 2026 AAAAI Annual Meeting, to discuss current and future activities.

The members of the Board of Directors appreciate the work of AAAAI committee members and Chairs as they strive toward the AAAAI mission to advance the knowledge and practice of allergy, asthma and immunology for optimal patient care. Over the course of the meeting, several significant decisions were made. Here are the highlights:

Approvals

New members for both The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) and JACI: In Practice Editorial Boards and funding for the 2026 AAAAI Faculty Development Program to be held in Charleston, SC were approved. The Board also approved funding for a visual redesign of the AAAAI website and a platform upgrade to support artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities as outlined in the Strategic Plan.

Presidential Presentations

Frank S. Virant, MD, FAAAAI, Immediate Past President, gave his final address to the membership at the annual Business Meeting, thanking everyone for their support over his year as AAAAI President. He also highlighted some of his accomplishments from the previous year, including:

Development and execution of the first Practice Management Course at the 2026 AAAAI Annual Meeting;
Creation and distribution of The Value of the Allergy/Immunology Specialist, a downloadable brochure and online resource for primary care physicians and the public to drive improved outcomes, decrease emergency department reliance and support more sustainable healthcare utilization;
Continued work to transition selected Practice Parameters to living documents;
Implementation of an increase in slots for the 2026 Chrysalis Project Program from 60 to 70 participants.

At the Business Meeting AAAAI President Carla M. Davis, MD, FAAAAI, shared her presidential initiatives with the membership for the first time. She shared her ideas centered on advancing access to the allergy/immunology specialty, including plans to:

Develop state-of-the-art accessibility and personalization through AI;
Create the AAAAI Collaborative Translational Mechanistic Research Seed Award to support highly innovative research on new diagnostics, therapeutics or mechanistic understandings of human disease;
Provide a place where providers and Patient Advocacy Organizations can work collaboratively and obtain legislative information and engage in advocacy.

Miscellaneous

A number of other projects and topics were discussed, including the continued success and future plans for Discovery at the AAAAI Annual Meeting. The Board of Directors also celebrated the success of the 2025 AAAAI Foundation giving and award campaigns and heard updates on the status of programs, lectureships and 2026 Annual Meeting events, including the sold out AAAAI Foundation Benefit. In addition, the three divisions of the Board of Directors—Education, Practice & Policy and Research & Training—met individually to discuss committee activities. The Research & Training Division discussed ways to improve the application process for the Chrysalis Project to help students from institutions where there is no A/I presence submit successful applications. They also reported on the outstanding number of domestic and international Fellows-In-Training (FIT), PhD, Medical Student/Resident and High School/Undergraduate members given funding to attend the AAAAI Annual Meeting. In 2026, 548 people were supported with $643,800 in AAAAI funding.

What

The next Board of Directors meeting

When

June 5-7, 2026

Where

Washington, DC