This month's themed issue, "The Nurse Practitioner Research Agenda" provides a fitting wrap-up to a year of great progress in academic writing for nurse practitioners (NPs). This timing of this issue fits well with all of our other year-end activities, which always include looking back and reflecting on our achievements and looking ahead to a new year full of opportunities.

This month, you will look back at the beginning of the movement to establish research priorities for NPs. You'll then read four reviews of the state of NP research related to policy, workforce, education, and practice. You'll be able to see what each team of investigators found concerning the current state of the science. Finally, you will see recommendations for future research needed in each of these areas to continue providing the data and information needs to describe and support our practice as NPs.

The accomplishment of this effort to revisit and refresh our research priorities is a great achievement. Of equal importance is that it gives us all-clinicians, academicians, and students-an opportunity to address identified and important gaps in knowledge. I hope that many of you will take the opportunity to select one of these priorities for a future study. I'll be working with our editorial board to look for manuscripts that address these areas.

Speaking of our editorial board, I'd like to say a special "thank you" to our board members, who have worked twice as hard this year to get me up to speed as a new editor, and have been involved in a hundred different ways in the leadership and oversight of JAANP:

Janice Agazio

Rod Hicks

Nancy Balkon

Penny Kaye Jensen

Lissa Barker

Patricia Kelley

Judy Berg

Ruth Kleinpell

Eileen Breslin

Patricia Pearce

Geraldine Budd

Mary Ellen Roberts

Mona Counts

Madrean Schober

Felicitas Dela Cruz

Lorna Schumann

Elayne DeSimone

Diane Seibert

Mary Jo Gagan

Leslie-Faith Morritt Taub

Mary Jo Goolsby

Jan Towers

Dixie Harms

Ken Wysocki

Many of us have had a year of significant professional and personal growth and change. I know I have been on a steep learning curve in my new role as journal editor, but it is one of the things I feel most grateful for this year. In our ever-busy lives, it is easy to forget that saying "yes" may make us busier, but it is also what provides us with opportunities: for new skill sets, new colleagues, and new achievements. In this holiday season, I wish you time to reflect on your year of achievements, feel grateful for the opportunities you have enjoyed, and plan ahead for another year of progress for yourself and your fellow NPs.