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Melissa Piercey

Dos 772– Service-Learning Journal

Continuing Education Committee

Being involved in a professional society offers many benefits. It can provide networking
opportunities, continuing education credits, and a space for staying up to date on the latest
treatment planning techniques in radiation oncology. I have been a member of other professional
societies in the past but have never had the chance to take on a volunteer position. For my
professional service project, I decided to volunteer with the American Association of Medical
Dosimetrists (AAMD).

I reached out to the AAMD and asked to take on a roll as a student volunteer. Due to my
experience as a radiation therapist, I was assigned to the continuing education committee. This
committee sounded exciting to me because I loved to learn more about new topics in our
profession as well as get insight into how other radiation oncology departments operate.

This committee meets monthly to go over new content for continuing education (CE) and
leads for the CE center on the AAMD website. Committee members are responsible for reaching
out to potential presenters to develop CE talks. Members also take turns posting on Facebook or
LinkedIn to help promote any new sessions to the whole membership group. Sometimes the
discussion will involve what progress has been made with the different presenters, for example,
is the presentation recorded or do we need the presenter to develop some questions on the topic
for CE credits.

After attending several meetings, I was really impressed with the committee. The chairs
of the committee are very dedicated to the profession. They are welcoming and encourage
participation of all members. The committee listens to the requests of all the members and tries
to develop topics that are progressive and of interest to the group. There are several topics
already in place for the next six months or so, and they are consistently adding more
presentations. I have volunteered to make a post on Facebook for the month of December. This
will involve sharing a graphic created by one of the committee chairs along with a link to the
current presentation offered in the CE center.
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As an almost new graduate in the medical dosimetry field, I am excited to become more
involved in the profession. I am proud to be contributing to the AAMD professional society. Not
only is it a great way to share my knowledge and experience, but it could also open doors to
many different career opportunities.

Figure 1: Snapshot of one of the meeting agendas.