Highlight Your Mentor's Impact with AWSF

Submit a Gift & Note of Gratitude this January

A great mentor has the power to shape careers and transform lives. Through their guidance, they provide wisdom, open doors, and foster valuable connections that create lasting opportunities. For women in surgery, mentors play an essential role in driving both educational and professional growth.

This January, in honor of National Mentoring Month, we’re celebrating outstanding mentors who inspire and empower others. Share your gratitude with a special gift and note of recognition, and look out for featured mentors on AWSF social media platforms and in an upcoming email.

Book Review: Take Care of Them Like My Own: Faith, Fortitude, and a Surgeon’s Fight for Health Justice

By Dr. Ala Stanford, M.D.

Review by Sophie Hockran

MENTOR SPOTLIGHT: Stacey Darwish

Ms. Stacey Darwish (MBChB, FRCS) is a Consultant Spine Surgeon based in the National Spine Injuries Unit (NSIU @nsiuresearchgroup), Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, and Mater Private Network in Dublin, Ireland. She was awarded an MBChB from the University of Glasgow and continued her medical training by earning her FRCS in Trauma and Orthopaedics from the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. She then furthered her training and expertise by embarking on fellowships in both paediatric & adult deformity (Scottish National Deformity Service, Edinburgh) and complex adult spine surgery (National Spine Injuries Unit, Dublin), focusing on evolving technologies including navigation and robotics. As both a nationally and internationally renowned researcher, Ms. Darwish is currently interested in research topics revolving around trauma, frailty, and evolving surgical technology. Most recently she was integral in the commencement of mixed reality navigation in Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.

MENTOR SPOTLIGHT: Dr. Hollingworth

Dr. Hollingworth grew up in New York City and pursued her Surgery Residency at Carilion Clinic–Virginia Tech, where she met Dr. Sanfey (on a transplant rotation at the University of Virginia), whose influence led her to join the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) and become a mentor to other women in surgery. She completed her Critical Care Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco–Fresno, working with Dr. Kaups- another inspirational woman in surgery. Now a full-time trauma and critical care surgeon, Dr. Hollingworth has advanced in academic surgery with a Master’s in Medical Education from the University of Cincinnati and in leadership roles as Vice Chief of Staff, Vice Chair of Surgery, and an Associate Professor at Creighton University School of Medicine. She served as Chair of Surgery at Midwestern University and Associate Program Director at HonorHealth General Surgery Program with Dr. Mangram. She also teaches Health Systems Science at the medical school and serves as the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Officer for the Creighton Health Education Alliance.

MENTOR SPOTLIGHT: Dr. Gayle Ackerman DiLalla

Dr. Gayle Ackerman DiLalla, M.D., F.A.C.S., is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Duke University Hospital.

Book Review: What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

By Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha

Reviewer: Rija Awan, MS2

Mentor Spotlight: Dr. Trista Reid

Mentor Bio: Dr. Trista Reid did her undergraduate training at Johns Hopkins University, followed by Medical School, a Master's in Public Health, and General Surgery Residency training at The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC). She completed her Trauma Critical Care Fellowship at Stanford University and returned to UNC as an attending. She is currently the General Surgery Residency Program Director. Her research interests include Health Disparities in race/ethnicity and gender, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), Global Surgery, and Surgical Palliative Care. She has built mentorship programs at UNC and is highly involved in both medical student and resident education.

BOOK REVIEW

The Rules of Medicine: A Medical Professional's Guide for Success

by Dr. Sonya M. Sloan

Reviewer: Denise Nemeth, OMS4 

Book Review: Brave Boundaries by Sasha Shillcutt, M.D.

Reviewed by: Denise Nemeth, OMS III

Mentor Spotlight: Brittney Williams, MD MPH

Mentor Bio: Brittney Williams is from Newark, NJ and attended Howard University for undergraduate education and medical school. She completed her General Surgery residency at UNC Chapel Hill, during which she obtained her MPH in global public health and was an NIH Fogarty Global Health fellow. She is now a Thoracic Surgery fellow at Emory University.

SAAS-AWS RESIDENT RESEARCH TRAVEL AWARD

Congratulations to the 2024 Awardee: Dr. Priyanka V. Chugh

We are thrilled to announce that the recipient of the Society of Asian Academic Surgeons (SAAS) and Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Resident Research Travel Award is Priyanka V. Chugh MD, MS! Dr. Chugh is a general surgery resident at Boston Medical College and completed her research years at Boston Children's Hospital. Congratulations, Dr. Chugh!

Submit Nomination

AWS Starr Research Forum

Calling all students, residents, and fellows with research to share!
Due May 30, 2024

Student, resident and fellow members of AWS may submit up to two abstracts for the AWS Starr Medical Student and Resident Research Forum at the 2024 AWS Annual Conference. Abstracts are limited to 300 words and must have an Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions, and supporting author information. Incomplete abstracts will not be considered. Case reports and literature reviews will not be accepted. The deadline is 11:59PM EST on May 30.

Abstracts presented at other conferences are allowed, except for abstracts that you plan to present at the ACS conference. You cannot send an abstract on a project that is published prior to the conference. If your abstract is accepted, you must register for the 2024 AWS Annual Conference as a Student/Resident and present your work in person during the Scientific Session at the conference. (Please note that this session does not conflict with the medical student or resident activities at the ACS Clinical Congress.)

The Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS) and the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Visiting Professorship

Call for Host Institutions

Application Deadline: August 12, 2024

Description:

Dr. Julie Samora is a pediatric hand surgeon at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH, where she is Associate Chief Quality Officer and director of quality improvement within the department of orthopaedics. She received her orthopaedic training at Ohio State University and completed a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at Harvard.  She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Music at Yale University, and an MD/PhD at West Virginia University, where she concomitantly earned a master of public health and public administration.  Dr. Samora is a founding member of Pride Ortho, has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (past president) and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (member-at-large), and is currently on the BOD of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.  She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is co-editor of the Springer textbook: Quality Improvement and Patient Safety in Orthopaedics.  Dr. Samora has a passion for providing safe, efficient, culturally sensitive, and excellent patient care, focusing on best practices and quality improvement initiatives.

You Are Not Broken

Author: Kelly Capserson, MD
Book Reviewer: Sarah Suhood, OMS III

Author Bio

Dr. Laura DiChiacchio is a current cardiothoracic surgery fellow at the University of Utah Hospital. She will graduate in June and then join Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as an advanced fellow in thoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. She completed her general surgery training at the University of Maryland/R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, MD. She is a graduate of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where she completed a PhD in Biophysics, Structural & Computational Biology before falling in love with surgery at the end of her clinical rotations. During her general surgery training, she spent two years as a post-doctoral research fellow in the cardiac xenotransplantation laboratory of Drs. Muhammad Mohiuddin and Bartley Griffith, cementing her relationship with cardiac surgery and thoracic transplantation. She is a happy wife and proud mother to her son Henry.

National Institute of Health CSR Reviewer Pool

AWS Members Can Apply by January 31 for Quarter 1

The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has requested recommendations for AWS members willing and qualified to serve in the NIH CSR Reviewer Pool. Interested candidates are asked to complete the submission form below.

Nominated scientists should meet the following criteria:
• willing to serve as reviewers
• seen as experts, with integrity, in their field.
• have an active research program, extramural funding, and not currently be a standing member of an NIH study section or advisory council.
• productive scientists from diverse backgrounds and career stages – e.g. assistant, associate, and full professors.

Dr. Meredith Baker MD, pediatric surgeon and attending physician at Maine Medical Center, grew up in the state of New Hampshire. She recounts following her veterinarian father around in childhood and that for as long as she can remember, she wanted to be a “doctor for human children.” However, it was not until medical school that she realized the type of doctor for children she wanted to be was a pediatric surgeon.