In interviews for the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) Oral History Project, a number of early APA presidents identify attention to education as a distinguishing feature of the association from its inception. Robert Haggerty notes, “A big issue for the APA was that it is one of the few places where we talked about education. I don’t remember hardly any SPR or APS meetings talking about education, but educational interventions and educational challenges were always a part of the APA.”1 Evan Charney adds, “The fact that medical education was something that deserved careful attention and had a place in the academic environment was, I believe, something that the APA introduced.”2 During the past 50 years, the “careful attention” and “educational interventions” have resulted in the APA and its members playing a leading role in advancing education in ambulatory and other general pediatrics settings.
