Greetings from the Incoming Chair

By Lydia Tolman

Health Watch, January 2025

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Looking back on my last three years as part of the Health Section Council (two elected and one as a special appointee), we have accomplished a lot as a small group of engaged volunteers. As Derek Ray, our prior chair, pointed out in his November 2024 article, we have helped to bring forward a stunning amount of educational content for our members through research, articles, podcasts, webinars and in-person meetings. Under Derek’s leadership, we have also defined the overall goals of the section by creating a new action plan that continues our focus on high-quality content but expands our objectives. We want to do better at engaging with actuarial students, bring greater visibility to the health actuarial community and provide more value to our members.

To accomplish this, we need to grow from a small group of engaged volunteers to a larger alliance that affords both big and small volunteer opportunities. As we move to the Community model (more coming on that soon!), there will be more chances to get involved with the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Health community, specifically. You don’t have to run for a section council to volunteer. This article highlights some of the ways that you can make a difference within your profession and the SOA.

First, get involved with a subgroup in your specific area of practice. The Health section has several subgroups on various topic areas:

  • Dental
  • Disability
  • Health Analytics
  • Health & Financial Reporting
  • Medicaid
  • Medicare
  • Pharmacy
  • Value-Based Care
  • Individual/Small Group
  • Public Health

If you aren’t a member yet, these groups are easy to join by signing up on our Public Listserves page. The most active subgroups have monthly meetings and communicate on hot topics via email. Other groups may share on topics of interest once a quarter. All subgroups could benefit from additional members. Openings to lead or co-lead a subgroup are posted to the SOA’s Volunteer Opportunities page. Once you sign up for a subgroup, if you have interesting information to share on that topic, you can reach out to your subgroup leadership team to volunteer to present or have a discussion on that information in one of the meetings.

If you don’t see your topic of interest in the preceding list, you can create your own subgroup to meet with actuaries practicing within your area of interest! Please reach out to the Health Section Council and Ladelia Berger at the SOA if you are interested in forming a new subgroup.

Second, look at other opportunities within the Volunteer Opportunities database. The SOA is always looking for volunteers to help out—often in bite-sized ways, like attending a career fair for students interested in actuarial work. Volunteering and giving back to this wonderful community doesn’t have to become another job on top of the one you already have.

As someone who has volunteered in both big (Health Section Council Chair) and small (attending university career fairs) ways, I can tell you it is incredibly rewarding. It is a great way to make friends, grow your professional network and improve the broader actuarial community. So don’t wait to get more engaged with the SOA. Check out the Health section subgroups and volunteer opportunities today.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Lydia Tolman, FSA, MAAA, is a senior consulting actuary at Wakely Consulting Group, as well as the 2025 chair of the SOA Health section. Lydia can be reached at lydia.tolman@wakely.com.