BY: PAMELA SCHAEFFER, Ph.D.
Here at Health Progress as the new year approaches, we are thinking about newness in a variety of forms. For us, as we suspect for most of our readers, new things have entered our lives in the recent past — a Christmas gift or two at the very least, but perhaps also new family members or friends, new ventures, personal or business, or — as the articles in this issue portend — new learnings from the recession that dug itself in some 15 months ago and has resisted letting go. The articles in this issue serve, too, as harbingers of CHA's June Assembly theme, "Forging Our Future: Strengthening the Ministry through Turbulent Times."
Be sure not to miss our special report on emergency contraception and the debate over the role of levonorgestrel (also known as Plan B), widely agreed within the scientific community to be the most effective emergency contraceptive agent available.
Although Christmas may have passed by the time this issue reaches you, I write in the midst of Advent and can say that despite the stressful economic times, we have, in the interest of better serving the Catholic health ministry, pressed forward with expectation and hope.
The first change that will be obvious to at least some of you: a magazine redesign, the first in more than 20 years. For much of the past year, Ed Giganti, vice president for communications and marketing, the editors and our intrepid graphic designer, Les Stock, have worked with Pegie Stark Adam, a magazine designer whose resume is replete with impressive newspaper and magazine credits. Under her expert direction, and with an eye to bringing you something fresh, yet in keeping with the magazine's distinguished 90-year history, the Health Progress staff has chosen new fonts for text and headlines, fresh layouts, a new color palette, a new approach to covers and art, and more. We might, in fact, trade on the slogan for CHA's Vision 2020 process in thinking about the result: Steeped in Tradition, Focused on the Future.
Also new at Health Progress is managing editor Lilah Lohr. We are lucky to have her. She comes with deep experience as an editor for such outlets as the AP/Dow Jones News Service, the Wall Street Journal and most recently the Chicago Tribune, where she worked from 1997 to 2009 as business editor, news editor at the Washington D.C. bureau and deputy Tempo editor, supervising writers and graphics for the daily features section. Harry Potter fans will be interested to know that she created and wrote PotterWatch, a column leading up to publication of the final book in J.K. Rowling's series. Lilah returned to St. Louis, where she grew up and where most of her family still lives, when in the pervasive downsizing happening at U.S. newspapers and magazines around the country, she along with 52 other Tribune editorial staffers were laid off.
Last but not least, we wish you a new year filled with blessings of every kind.