b'WELCOME!On behalf of the Board of Directors and the meeting planningcommittee, I welcome you to the 2019 CCAS Annual Meeting.The Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1965 to network and support deans in colleges and schoolsof arts and sciences. Over the past 54 years the Council hasremained true to our mission of connecting deans with each other, providing professional development, serving as a forum for discussing issues in higher education, and advocating for the liberal arts.The 2019 Annual Meeting is being held in Atlanta, adiverse city with a deep history of civil rights activity and the home of several HBCUs. It seems timely,because of the location and current cultural disrup-tions, to have a theme focused on the value of diver-sity and the need to create inclusive cultures in our colleges.The theme is Advancing Inclusive Excellence in Times of Change and Uncertainty and covers topics that include student and faculty mental health, disaster response, dealing with state driven mandates, campus climate, diversity curriculum initiatives, continuity of research funding, and so much more.I want to thank the planning committee for their efforts in putting together this meeting and a special thanks to our plenary speak-ers Beverly Daniel Tatum, Tabbye Chavous, and Rickey Hall.We will have a reception at the National Center for Civil andHuman Rights (pictured at left) and I hope you will have a chance to explore other remarkable cultural opportunities in the great city of Atlanta. I encourage you to connect and reconnect with friends and colleagues so we can all learn from each other as we Advance Inclusive Excellence in Times of Change and Uncertainty.Theresa M. LeeTheresa LeeDean of the College of Arts and SciencesUniversity of Tennessee KnoxvilleCCAS President-ElectRegister at ccas20191'