Voices Across ACOI: Annual Convention 2025

Growing into Leadership through Connection and Community

Experiencing Full Circle Moments at the Annual Convention

ACOI 2025, held October 8 through 11, 2025, focused on “The Power of Physician Leadership.” Over the course of the convention, it became clear that leadership is about so much more than simply being in a leadership role. It’s also about everything that goes into developing leadership skills, including the relationships and personal growth acquired along the way.

One moment that highlighted this effect vividly was the Women Physicians Networking Reception. Here’s what Dr. Susan Enright had to share about this experience, and her leadership experience as President of ACOI over the past year: 

Several other members shared how the convention gave them an opportunity to reflect on their positions as physician leaders, how they got to where they are, and especially the people who guided them along their journeys. Many of them were able to not just pass along what they’d learned from their own mentors, but also to work alongside those mentors, demonstrating the degree to which leadership results from strong relationships.

Cassi Jones, DO, FACOI, has been a member of ACOI for over 10 years and has been attending the Annual Convention since she was a resident. This year, Dr. Jones participated in the OMT Bootcamp, an opportunity she accessed thanks in part to her role in the Osteopathic Integration Task Force committee.

“It was a wonderful workshop,” she said. “It was a great refresher for internists who maybe don’t use OMT, as well as those who do use OMT in their practice. Dr. Sabalaske did a great job. It was kind of a full circle moment for me—the person, Dr. Randy Lipman, who actually taught me in medical school, was at the workshop, so I was able to be a table trainer, and I would say teach him, even though he already knew what he was doing. It felt great to be able to get back [to that].”

Dr. Jones’ involvement in the Osteopathic Integration Task Force began with the Annual Convention. Attending made her realize, she said, that “I wanted to get more involved. And I had seen my mentors grow in leadership. And so, I thought, well, I’ll sign up for a committee.” Her decision, she’s found, has ultimately helped both her career growth and her connections with patients. Dr. Jones had wanted to use OMT more frequently in her practice, but having not used it through residency, she thought a refresh would help. She was right: being involved in the committee pushed her to stay up to date in her skills. She’s also found it to be a great way to serve and give back to the ACOI community.  

The convention as a whole regularly gives Dr. Jones this opportunity, too. “It seems like every year I get to meet more and more people. I think consistency is important showing up, making those introductions.” Now, she gets to see the colleagues and friends she’s made from across the country each year and see how they’re growing in their leadership—which Dr. Jones finds helps her grow as well.

Mia Taormina, DO, FACOI, is another ACOI member who experienced a moment of culmination in a similar way to Dr. Jones. An infectious disease specialist, Dr. Taormina is double board-certified in both infectious disease and internal medicine; she practices in the Chicago suburbs, where she is on staff at four area hospitals and serves patients at her own clinic, whose focus is clinical and hospital-based infectious disease cases.  

Dr. Taormina has been an ACOI member since 2004, when she began her internal medicine residency; her first time attending the Annual Convention was the following year, and, she said, “Aside from my senior year of residency, and COVID, I’ve been here every single year.”

What keeps Dr. Taormina coming back? “I know I’m going to see people I trained with, people I network with—key opinion leaders in the osteopathic community that I’m just not going to be able to interact with in any other way,” she said. “You just don’t get that human touch virtually or on a phone call or text message or email...it’s something I look forward to, seeing these colleagues.”

A major moment for Dr. Taormina, she said, was presenting on the panel “Tests I Wish You Never Ordered”—which she did alongside Dr. Jerry Blackburn, who trained her. “October 2005 was my first infectious disease rotation with Dr. Blackburn, and twenty years later, I’m onstage with him,” she said. “I’ve shared the stage with him numerous times. He’s changed the entire trajectory of my life. There’s a legacy, in the ACOI, of mentorship. It is our responsibility to be that mentor to those coming behind us and to instill joy and interact and be onstage with those who trained us. That’s the best part.”

That thread of connection and that sense of legacy is what makes the ACOI Annual Convention such a unique event. ACOI is honored to have had so many of our members join us this year, and more than that, pass along the opportunity to do so to others.  

If you missed the in-person convention, there’s still time to engage with ACOI 2025! Visit https://www.acoi.org/acoi2025 to access on-demand learning and connect with insightful content that will keep you inspired all year long.