In a few weeks, we’ll announce the location and dates of our family and professional conference. In the meantime, we’re excited to announce the event chair for next year’s family conference: meet Erin Williamson, who has bravely volunteered to help organize this event!

We asked Erin to share why she’s giving back to our community by giving months of time and effort to make the conference a success:

I am absolutely honored to be the chairperson for the 2022 Pediatric  Epilepsy Surgery Conference and Family Reunion. My husband, Jay, and I have been involved with this amazing community since 2011, when our daughter, Kinley, had her hemispherectomy at 8 months old. We attended our first conference in 2014 and have been hooked ever since,

Admittedly, it took us 2 years to get the courage to attend our first conference, as we feared it would seem overwhelming to be surrounded by so many families who have faced this crazy epilepsy journey. We were afraid that we would be the only one family who wasn’t already connected to others, that there would be chaos all around us, and that we simply wouldn’t feel welcomed. Boy were we wrong! By the end of the conference, we’d made lifelong friends and felt more supportive, comfortable, understood and loved than we had since our daughter was born.

This year I decided to get more involved. There are always a million reasons why volunteering can seem stressful, but I felt a pull to help make this year’s event the best it can be. I want to give back to a group that has done so much for our family, and have a little fun while doing it! This past year was unimaginable and it’s time for us all to have much needed fun and fellowship!

Our community has so many daily struggles, all while trying to keep up with our special kiddos, which means we have a thousand reasons to let someone else get involved instead. However, I know that many of us are blessed with special gifts of organization, hospitality, logistics, technology – the list goes on and on! If you have a gift you’d like to share to make this conference unforgettable, please reach out and volunteer. There are opportunities both big and small, so we can help find a role that brings out the best in you.

I hope that you share my enthusiasm for our 2022 Conference and more importantly, I hope to see you there!

As you interested in helping us make this event a success? Check out our volunteer opportunities and sign up below.