Member Spotlight: Alyson Welker

Organization: American Alliance of Orthopedic Executives

LinkedIN URL: (41) Alyson Welker | LinkedIn

Email: awelker@aaoe.net

Other than improving your Zoom Meeting skills, what have you learned (or learned to excel in professionally) since COVID-19 began?

Flexibility and adaptability are not just buzz words! For me, learning to adapt to rapidly changing situations and learning to thrive in uncertain environments has been key to my professional development. With the amount of work that can be done virtually, my written communication skills have to be on point. I also feel we have to keep work life balance top of mind, especially setting boundaries in a remote work environment.

Who are you outside of work?

I am a pretty relaxed person. I love spending quality time with friends and family, including my 3 cats. Some say I am a crazy cat lady, but I just roll with it. I’m a foodie, both in my kitchen and trying new restaurants. My interests are varied – genealogy, reading, all things pop culture. My husband and I love going to pop culture conventions!

What is your proudest professional accomplishment to date?

After a particularly difficult transition between CEOs, our association was extremely understaffed. In the transition time, in addition to my regular job duties, I was asked to take on both the meeting planning functions and get our bi-monthly magazine completely put together. Though it was an exhausting few months, I learned so much!

What are some of your favorite things about being an MPI member?

I am excited to learn more about MPI. I am still within my first year and have not devoted as much time to exploring my membership benefits as I should. However, I expect to be able to say more about this soon as I do!

When do you plan to go on your next vacation and where do you want to go?

I have no immediate plans for a true vacation yet. But we’ve talked about Hawaii, New Hampshire and Virginia, so we’ll see! In the meantime, I tend to take shorter vacations – extended weekends if you will and usually end up visiting family.

What is the greatest place you have ever visited?

Though I was young and don’t remember it like I should – Ireland – I need to go back!

Something people don’t know about you:

Most assume that I has always wanted to go into meeting planning, but I found it by accident. I originally thought I wanted to be a newspaper journalist and then a special education teacher.