As some of you might know, I am running for member-at-large in this IEEE SPS election cycle. I am very energized to continue contributing to the signal processing society, which I consider my professional extended family. As the general co-chair of ICASSP2023 and a former regional director-at-large for regions 1-6, I have experience and ideas to help SPS move forward. There are several challenges the society faces in the near future, on which I am eager to work on:

• Providing true scientific and professional value to members, in a world where competing options are vying for our attention.
• Decreasing attendance for many SPS conferences and workshops, including ICIP, while others are flourishing (e.g., ICASSP).
• Increasing importance of industry in our field, which the society needs to embrace and engage successfully.
• Rapidly shifting publication environment, moving to open access, rapidly increasing volume of submissions, and challenges to find responsive and high-quality reviewers.
• Emergence of AI both as a dominant research area and as a tool in all aspects of the society’s activity.
• Global trends against open borders and globalization, challenging all of our functions.

Our community has given me so much, and I am eager to pay it forward for all our members. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me.

Whether you think I am the right person for this position or not, I encourage you to vote by visiting https://eballot4.votenet.com/IEEE. The voting period ends December 4, 4pm ET, so please vote before that. Your voice matters and this is one of the best ways to express it. Please also encourage your colleagues and your students to vote.