Surgical skill will always matter, but I tell younger colleagues that the most important abilities today are intellectual honesty and fluency in evidence. Spine care evolves quickly, and techniques and devices come and go; the surgeon who can critically appraise the literature, track their own outcomes honestly, and acknowledge the limits of what we know will serve patients well across an entire career. I would add one more: a willingness to build relationships across institutions and across borders. Nearly everything good in my own career has come from collaboration. Cultivate curiosity and generosity toward your colleagues, and much of the rest will follow.

What first drew me to NASS was its conviction that spine care is a global conversation, and that good ideas should travel freely across borders. I came in through the Society’s international community, encouraged by my friend Dr. Patrick Hsieh, the NASS International Council Director at the time, whose warmth showed me how generous this organization could be. What has kept me engaged are the people, and the friendships that have grown out of a shared scientific purpose. One of the great honors of my career was hosting the NASS International Meeting in Taipei in 2025—welcoming colleagues from around the world to Taiwan and watching scientific exchange turn into lasting friendship. NASS has given me a professional home that reaches far beyond any single country, and I have tried to extend that same sense of welcome to others.

The work I am most proud of is our long-term research program in complex cervical spine surgery, including craniovertebral junction and cervical disc arthroplasty. When we began, motion-preserving surgery still met with considerable skepticism; by following our patients honestly over many years and publishing long-term outcomes, our team helped strengthen the evidence base that has made arthroplasty a trusted option for carefully selected patients. What means the most, though, is not the publications but the patients who returned to full and active lives, and the residents and younger surgeons I have had the privilege to train and then watch surpass me. I am equally proud of our translational research in spinal cord injury, which keeps me grounded in the reason we pursue science at all—to offer patients tomorrow what we cannot yet give them today.