Gail Vance, MD, FCAP, calls herself “a Pacific Ocean woman.” Raised in Washington and California, she still loves being outdoors, though these days you’re most likely to find her rowing a single or double scull at Eagle Creek in Indianapolis.

Aadil Ahmed, MD, FCAP, grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, a city he describes as “chaotic, and alive.” He suspects some of that energy is still in him. At home, two cats run the household, and his garden is where he slows down.

On Friday, October 2, Dr. Vance will become the CAP Foundation’s Board President, and Dr. Ahmed will become President-Elect. Their paths to this moment are different. What connects them is a belief that an opportunity given to one person can reach much further than anyone first imagines.

Dr. Vance calls her thread generosity. She has supported the Foundation throughout her CAP membership, drawn to its commitment to training, education, and opportunity. For four years, she has chaired the Global Pathology Committee, working alongside committee members and Foundation staff to create opportunities for pathologists around the world.

“We’re a significant force of action when we work together, learn together, create together, accomplish together,” she says.

Dr. Ahmed would be the knot in the Foundation’s friendship bracelet: “not the flashiest thread, but the one holding the pattern together so it doesn’t fall apart.” His connection to the Foundation began when he was a resident and received a CAP Foundation Leadership Development Award.

“Someone I’d never met decided I was worth investing in before I’d proven much of anything,” he says. “That kind of early trust is rare, and I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to be on the receiving end of it.”

Now, both leaders want to help someone else find their way in. Dr. Vance hopes to expand training, exploration, and mentoring for medical students, residents, and young pathologists. Dr. Ahmed wants trainees and early career pathologists, especially those without established connections, to be invited in and given a real voice.

They also know where those threads lead. Dr. Vance has seen what pathologists can accomplish when they share knowledge and opportunity across borders. Dr. Ahmed points to See, Test & Treat® as an example of the Foundation’s work reaching patients in their own communities. To him, there is an invisible thread between a slide under a microscope and the person whose life depends on what a pathologist sees.

Their choices for the Connections playlist capture the spirit each brings to this work. Dr. Vance chose “Imagine,” a song that speaks to her hope for what people can build together. Dr. Ahmed chose Olivia Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” because its warmth reminds him of someone showing up right when they are needed.

Dr. Ahmed knows what that kind of support can set in motion. He began as a resident receiving an opportunity. Now he can help open that door for someone else.

“When you invest in a person,” he says, “it doesn’t stop with them, it keeps moving outward.”

Dr. Vance believes everyone has something to contribute to that effort: “Contribute your time, ideas and of course money.” For her, the Foundation grows stronger when more pathologists take part and work together to understand what the next generation needs.

One opportunity can become a career-changing moment. One person’s generosity can give someone else a place to begin. Those are the threads Dr. Vance and Dr. Ahmed will carry forward as they step into their new roles.

We’re excited to welcome them as Board President and President-Elect, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll make possible together.

 Now Playing: Connected: The Foundation Playlist
As part of this campaign, we’re building a CAP Foundation playlist featuring songs chosen by our staff, board, awardees and donors. As the campaign unfolds, so will the playlist, with new songs added along the way. Listen along and hear the soundtrack behind the threads that hold us together.