Thank you, ULI Arizona members, for your support, inspiration and encouragement during the past two years, but especially during the last 15 months. My term as chair of ULI Arizona has been so many things, but most definitely not what I expected. What I anticipated was hard work, dedication and the collegiality I’ve come to enjoy from its membership and staff. What I didn’t expect was the depth and breadth of the love and support you all have shown to each other and to the community during what was an incredibly dark and terrible time. You have shown just how unique and special this organization is with your generosity of time, treasure and spirit. I am humbled and so very grateful to have been a part of this story. Of course, we would not be successful without the hard work and dedication of our remarkable ULI Arizona staff. I’ve worked with many member leaders in various District Councils, and I can attest that our staff is the BEST ULI has to offer. I am immeasurably grateful to Deb, Gerri and Kristen for their leadership, expertise, patience, creativity, resilience, problem-solving and cat-herding skills. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Our Advisory Board and Management Committee members are unsung heroes of the organization. Advisory Board members provide guidance and thought leadership and include iconic leaders from the community. This board is vital to establishing and advancing the focus of ULI Arizona, and provide touchstones to the greater Arizona community. Our Management Committee is comprised of committee and affiliate group chairs and share goals and direction for our plan of work. All give generously of their time and expertise. Thank you for your dedication to ULI Arizona and the greater community, I am so grateful for your service.

Here are just a few highlights of the amazing work ULI Arizona has accomplished in the last two years:

• Our 15^th Annual Trends Day on February 26, 2020 was our largest and most successful Trends Day ever (and likely the last time many of us met in person), but our 2021 Virtual Trends Day was off the charts! ULI Arizona continues to hold the record for the largest ULI District Council event GLOBALLY! That is remarkable, thanks to all of you and especially the hard-working Trends committee for consistently outperforming expectations in delivery and content. Special thanks to Chairs Amy Malloy (2020) and Manjula Vaz (2021).
• In 2019, ULI Arizona was awarded a grant from global ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with additional funding generously provided by Vitalyst Health Foundation to convene a local task force to study the intersection of health, equity, and workforce housing in Arizona. The task force completed its work in the fall of 2020. This tremendous effort was the work of more than a dozen ULI Arizona members led by co-chairs Silvia Urrutia and C.J. Hager. You can read the report here. Many thanks to members of the task force, participants in the Housing Solutions Roundtable, and especially to Elizabeth Van Horn for her outstanding thesis research and Kristen Busby for her tireless work staffing the task force and drafting the final report.
• In the aftermath of ongoing and brutal violence committed against the Black community in our country, ULI Arizona committed to take actions that are deliberate and support positive change in creating an inclusive organization and community. As part of that plan of action, we established a new standing committee dedicated to increasing Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in ULI Arizona and the broader development industry. This committee is chaired by Sara Yehia, with vice chairs Karyn MacVean and Nathan Pryor. Huge thanks to this committee for inspiring change in all we do.
• With the success of ULI Arizona’s first local product council (Community and Residential Development, or CaRD), we are in the process of establishing three new local product councils, which will focus on Capital Markets; Adaptive Reuse/Infill/Revitalization; and Multi-Family/Affordable and Workforce Housing/Senior Housing. Applications are available on the website for all four product councils, which will offer yet another opportunity for member engagement and robust discussion.
• There are so many other points of light but not nearly enough time or space to list them all (ULI2D! AzTAP panels! UrbanPlan at Corona del Sol! I could go on and on!). The scope and breadth of the good work ULI Arizona does is really awe inspiring!

Finally, ULI Arizona is in great hands with incoming Chair Mark Winkleman, Vice Chair Heather Personne and Treasurer Steve Lindley. Congratulations to this leadership team – you’re amazing and you’ll do great work! And I’ll be in the wings cheering you on!