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Dear SACSA family, thank you for trusting me as your 2024-2025 President!
Maya Angelou, who served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest for thirty years, famously said, “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go and not be questioned.” That is the mantra for my work and her words can be the clarion call for SACSA as well. We all have an ache, a yearning, a deep desire for home. We are desperately seeking a place to moor ourselves. I urge all of you to pay attention to that yearning, the ache in your belly that calls you home. SACSA can be that place for you.
I know the word home can be fraught - for some of us here, homes are broken, unsafe, or merely a whisper that you can’t keep hold of. I urge all of us to consider SACSA a home that evokes the deepest and true meaning of home. It is a feeling - of relief, of comfort, of respite, of growth.
Home is also, as Professor Angelou said, the safe place where you can go and not be questioned. SACSA is that place for me and I hope it is, or can be, that place for you. A professional home where you can be embraced, held close, and not be questioned. A place where your thoughts and preconceived notions can be challenged but where you will not be questioned. As your president, I endeavor to nurture that ache and yearning, and to continue creating a professional home where you can go and not be questioned.
I am thrilled to work alongside a superb collection of colleagues on the Executive Council and committee chairs. I’m grateful for their volunteerism and leadership. This year, we have the extraordinary opportunity to honor a milestone moment - our 75th conference in Louisville, Kentucky. For our diamond jubilee, we will celebrate Shining Bright: 75 Years of Brilliance, Reflection, and Strength. Please join us in Louisville from November 1-3, 2025.
It's Always SACSA Time,
Matt Clifford, Ed.D.
president@sacsa.org
