Message from the CEO: ABA Member Updates | August 2026
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Being a member of the American Burn Association means different things at different points in our careers.
Sometimes, it means gaining access to education that helps us provide better care.
Sometimes, it means finding a colleague who has faced the same challenge we are facing. It can mean presenting research, developing professionally, finding a mentor, serving on a committee, or stepping forward to lead.
And sometimes, the value of membership is simply knowing that you are part of a community that understands the work you do and shares your commitment to improving the lives of people affected by burn injury.
As I look at what is happening across the ABA this August, I see those different dimensions of membership coming together: opportunity, education, connection, leadership, science, and a voice in the future of burn care.
Just as importantly, I see our members helping bring ABA’s strategic plan to life. A strategic plan only matters when people engage with it and when an organization turns its priorities into opportunities and outcomes that matter to its members.
Investing in ABA Members
I am especially pleased to recognize the inaugural recipients of the ABA–BCEN Nursing Advancement Scholarship:
Caden Bizer, BSN, RN, CBRN
Burn ICU Registered Nurse, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, CA
Mark Davis, BSN, RN, CBRN
Nurse Educator, St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
Karolina Howell, BSN, CCRN, CBRN
Burn Trauma ICU RN, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL
Rachel Kidd, BLS, BN, RN, CBRN
Registered Nurse, University of Calgary & Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Benjamin Kimelman, BSN, RN, CBRN, PHN
Clinical Nurse 3, UCSF Hyde Bothin Burn Center, San Francisco, CA
Grace Oehlertz, BSN, RN, CBRN, WCC
Clinic Charge Nurse, Memorial Hermann Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center, Houston, TX
Sarah Scoins, MSN, APRN, ACNPC-AG, CCRN, CBRN
Outreach and Injury Prevention Educator Parkland Health, Dallas, TX
Through the generosity of the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN®), these seven ABA members are each receiving a $5,000 scholarship to support their continued education and professional development.
This is more than a scholarship program. It reflects something we want to do more of at ABA: create tangible opportunities that help our members grow and strengthen the burn care workforce.
When our members advance, burn care advances. We are grateful to BCEN for sharing that vision and investing directly in our community members.
Learning Together: August 28 Masterclass
On August 28, our next ABA Virtual Masterclass, Translating Science to Practice, will bring the interdisciplinary burn team together for a focused discussion on how emerging evidence and innovation can be applied in day-to-day burn care. The session will address disaster preparedness, resuscitation, surgical innovation, rehabilitation and team-based care, use of BCQP and other data resources, and hypermetabolism management.
This is exactly the kind of year-round education ABA is working to expand, bringing together physicians, nurses, rehabilitation specialists, pharmacists, dietitians, researchers, and other burn professionals to learn across disciplines and translate new knowledge into better care. The August 28 session runs from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. CT, is CE-eligible, and includes access to the recording afterward.
Our goal with the Masterclass Series is not simply to provide information. It is to connect expertise across the burn care continuum, create practical dialogue around evolving science and clinical challenges, and help members take what they learn back to their patients, teams, and burn centers.
I hope you will join us on August 28 and encourage members of your interdisciplinary team to participate as well.
Burn Surgeon Forum: Connection Has Value, Too
For our surgeon members, the 2026 Burn Surgeon Forum, September 23–25 in San Antonio, offers a different kind of member value: dedicated time with colleagues who understand both the clinical complexity and the professional realities of burn surgery.
The Forum creates space for practical, peer-to-peer discussion around operative decision-making, reconstruction, research, quality, leadership, coding, financial stewardship, mentorship, and workforce sustainability. Just as importantly, ABA Industry Partners are an important part of the Forum, bringing expertise, technologies, emerging solutions, and perspectives that contribute to conversations about how burn care is evolving.
The interaction among burn surgeons, ABA leadership, and industry partners helps create a more complete dialogue about the future of the field, where clinical needs, innovation, research, product development, and real-world burn center challenges can be discussed together in a thoughtful, collaborative setting.
Those relationships and conversations are difficult to replicate elsewhere. They strengthen professional connections, encourage shared problem-solving, and help build the partnerships needed to sustain and advance burn surgery.
If you are planning to attend, please remember that the ABA hotel block closes August 26.
The Burn Surgeon Forum is more than a meeting. It brings surgeons, leaders, and industry partners together to address the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of burn care.
Help Lead the Future of ABA
Perhaps no opportunity demonstrates the connection between ABA membership and our Strategic Plan more directly than serving in leadership.
Our Call for Nominations for ABA Board leadership is now open, and I want to personally encourage members from across the burn care community to consider participating.
The ABA Board has an important responsibility: to provide governance and strategic leadership for the Association and to ensure that the priorities in our Strategic Plan translate into meaningful action and value for our members, burn centers, patients, survivors, families, and the profession.
That means we need leaders who are prepared not simply to hold a position, but to help shape and advance the future direction of ABA.
We also want the nominations process to reflect the breadth of the burn care community. ABA leadership should benefit from diverse perspectives across professions, career stages, practice settings, institutions, backgrounds, and experiences. Our current Bylaws allow all members to nominate qualified candidates for open Officer and Board positions, with the ABA Nominating Committee reviewing candidates.
Just as importantly, we recognize that not every member has historically seen a clear pathway into association leadership. We want to continue changing that.
If you believe you can help ABA advance its strategic priorities, please consider putting your name forward. If you know a colleague whose judgment, perspective, experience, or leadership would strengthen our Board, encourage them to consider serving as well.
And if you are interested but unsure whether Board service is right for you, please ask us. Questions about qualifications, expectations, time commitment, the nomination and selection process, or what Board service looks like are welcome.
You should not need to understand the inner workings of ABA governance or already think of yourself as an “ABA leader, to explore this opportunity.
Our goal is not simply to fill open positions. It is to identify and develop leaders who will help ABA fulfill its strategic plan, strengthen our association, and position the burn care community for the future.
View the ABA Board Leadership Call for Nominations
I hope members will view this call not as an invitation intended for someone else, but as an opportunity worth considering for themselves.
Your Science. Your Annual Meeting.
Another way members shape the direction of our field and contribute directly to ABA’s mission is through the science and ideas they bring to our Annual Meeting.
Abstract and Case Report submissions are now open for the 2027 ABA Annual Meeting, April 13–16 in Chicago, with submissions due on October 1.
The Annual Meeting should reflect the full breadth of our interdisciplinary community, from established investigators to first-time submitters, and from every profession contributing to burn care.
If your work can help our community learn, question, improve, or see something different, we want to hear from you.
Your work is part of what makes the ABA Annual Meeting valuable to everyone who attends, and part of how our members collectively advance the science and practice of burn care.
Listening to You: The Future of the Burn Care Workforce
Member value also means listening and then acting on what we learn.
Earlier this year, 288 burn professionals from across the interdisciplinary burn team participated in the 2026 ABA Workforce Survey.
You told us about your careers, your teams, the pressures you are experiencing, and your concerns and hopes for the future. We asked because ABA needs more than anecdotes to effectively plan, advocate, educate, build partnerships, and make strategic investments on behalf of the burn care community.
We are now analyzing those results, and we will begin sharing what we have learned in the coming months.
Some findings reinforce things many of us have been discussing for years. Others may challenge us to think differently.
Most importantly, we intend to use the results.
The findings can help us understand where our strategic priorities need to translate into action, informing education, workforce development, research, partnerships, advocacy, leadership development, and decisions about where ABA can provide the greatest value to members and the broader burn care community.
More to come soon.
This Is Your ABA
Scholarships. Education. Scientific exchange. Professional connections. Leadership opportunities. Workforce research.
These may look like separate activities, but they are connected by our strategic direction and by one important question:
How can ABA make being part of this community more valuable to you while advancing the future of burn care?
Membership should be more than a transaction or a list of benefits. It should create opportunities that are difficult to find on your own: to learn from one another, advance professionally, build relationships, contribute your expertise, develop as a leader, and have a voice in where our Association and our profession go next.
And our strategic plan should not sit on a shelf. It should be visible in the opportunities we create, the decisions we make, the leaders we develop, and the value our members experience.
That requires all of us.
So please participate. Ask questions. Submit your science. Apply for opportunities. Consider leadership. Tell us where we can do better. And encourage a colleague who isn’t yet part of ABA to join us.
ABA is strongest when our members see themselves not simply as members of the Association, but as active participants in its future.
Thank you for being part of this community and for helping us turn our shared strategy into action.
Ed Dellert, RN, MBA, CAE, FACEHP
Chief Executive Officer
American Burn Association