The Academy provided a unique learning opportunity – choosing from among 10 different skill-based educational programs to find those addressing specific professional needs. Each session, ranging in length from 1 to 1 ½ days, was an interactive, intense training experience and provided immediate value when returning to the workplace. The course content of all Academy classes was based on the NACDD Competencies for Chronic Disease Practice, and was delivered in five identified areas/ tracks:

1. Build Support: Establish strong working relationships with stakeholders to increase support for chronic disease prevention and control.
2. Design and Evaluate Programs: Develop and implement evidence-based interventions and conduct evaluation to ensure program effectiveness.
3. Influence Policies and Systems Change: Be a catalyst for policy change in health systems to positively impact the health of individuals and specific populations.
4. Lead Strategically: Provide visionary and transformational leadership in chronic disease programs and related issues.
5. Manage Programs and Resources: Learn innovative management tools to build programs and opportunities.

The Janet Reaves Memorial Conference on Quality and Chronic Disease assembled health care leaders who are actively engaged in providing quality health care to the citizens of North Carolina. This conference was offered in loving memory of Janet Reaves, RN, MPH. Janet's dedication to public health and her tireless advocacy on behalf of those with chronic disease had a significant impact on North Carolinians.

This 2½-day conference provided a forum in which to present recent scientific work related to stroke and cerebrovascular disease. More than 900 abstract presentations, lectures and debates were featured.

Special symposia and debates focused on numerous topics including: brain repair after stroke; state-of-the-art surgical and endovascular treatment for intracranial occlusive disease; the economics of stroke (debate); subarachnoid hemorrhage: current protocols and future prospective; new approaches to the decision to anticoagulate; vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer Disease; HIV and cerebrovascular disease; comprehensive stroke centers: the future of stroke care; informed consent: have we gone too far or not far enough?; controversies in the management of cerebral arteriovenous malformations: where we are and can ARUBA help? (debate); and emerging new mechanisms for ionic imbalance and cell death in ischemic brain damage.

Sessions in clinical categories centered on diagnosis, acute management, in-hospital treatment, rehabilitation and recovery, pediatric stroke, prevention, community/risk factors, nursing, emergency medicine, outcomes and vascular cognitive impairment. Sessions in surgical and interventional categories focused on aneurysm, carotid revascularization, intracranial atherosclerotic occlusive disease, ischemic stroke intervention, SAH management and vascular malformations.