AWS & AWSF News:

• Nominations are now open for 2024 AWS Foundation Awards.
• AWS is thrilled to announce our 2024 AWS Signature Speakers.
• AWS & LSS are pleased to announce their first co-sponsored annual visiting professorship. Must be an AWS member to participate - join now.
• Thank you to our monthly donors for their ongoing support!
  
  

Opportunities and Programs for AWS Members - Join Now to Participate

• April 12: Submissions due for the Pride Month sock design contest. Note: must be a member of AWS or AOSA to qualify.
• April 18: Applications due for Breaking the Glass Ceiling.
• April 22 at 7pm ET: AWS Building an Academic Foundation: Family Planning for Early Career Academic Surgeons (info)
• April 25: Call for AJS abstract reviewers closes.
• May 2: Submit an abstract for the AWS Edition of The American Journal of Surgery. Note: at least one author must be an AWS member.
• May 4: AWS & LSS Visiting Professorship application due. Note: membership in AWS and LSS required.
• May 6 at 6pm ET: AWS Reviewer Academy (invitation only)

Additional Programs & Opportunities:

• April 13 at 2pm ET: AWS High School Outreach Event (info)
• April 25: Institutions are invited to apply to host AWSF Visiting Professor Dr. Plichta.
• April 29: AWS Medical Student Data Mani
• May 8 at 7:30pm ET: AWS Publications Webinar - Using Pens, Not Knives (register)
• May 14 at 8pm ET: AWS Resident & Fellow Committee Meeting (register)
• May 23: AWSF Award nominations due.
• October 18 & 19: 2024 AWS Annual Conference in San Francisco, California (mark your calendar)
• October 20: The 2024 AWS Foundation Annual Dinner & Gala (mark your calendar)

Partner Organization Updates:

• AAS: The Association for Academic Surgery seeks to inspire and develop young academic surgeons. Learn more on their website.
• AWMA: Members of AWS can now get a complimentary affiliate membership in the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA)! Learn more here.
• AOSA: The Association of Out Surgeons & Allies is partnering with AWS to offer a sock design contest for Pride Month! Enter here.
• ASA: Applications for the 2025-2027 American Surgical Association Foundation Fellowship Research Awards are open through June 15.
• LSS: The Latino Surgical Society is hosting a Surgical Symposium on Latino Health on May 17 in Seattle, WA. Register now!
• SAAS: Submit an abstract by April 22 for the 9th Annual SAAS Meeting. 
• SBAS: The mission of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons is to improve health, advance science, and foster careers of African American and other underrepresented minority surgeons. Learn more here.
• WIM: The 2024 Women in Medicine Annual Summit will take place September 13-14 in Chicago. Nominate an #IStandWithHer awardee and/or submit a summit abstract by May 31.

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.

“Become the Boss MD: Success Beyond Residency”

Author: Amy Vertrees

Book Reviewer: Denise Nemeth, OMS III

AWS Invites You to Submit Your Nomination for the Council of the American Board of Surgery

Deadline November 10, 2023

The American Board of Surgery has moved from representational to competency-based composition for its membership. AWS has the opportunity to nominate up to three nominees from their membership to serve on the American Board of Surgery Council.

Dr. Christen Russo is an attending orthopaedic surgeon and associate professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). She specifically focuses on pediatric orthopaedics, and outside of the clinic she has established herself as a prominent leader and mentor within the orthopaedics community. Dr. Russo graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in English Literature & Literary History, after which she earned her M.D. at SUNY Downstate. She completed a general surgery internship at Brown University followed by orthopaedic surgery residency at SUNY Downstate and pediatric orthopaedics fellowship at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/CUIMC. In addition to her clinical and university positions, she currently serves as the President of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society, an organization that aims to support women and minorities in pursuing careers in orthopaedic surgery. 

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

Visiting Professor & Host Institution Announced
University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

The Society of Black Academic Surgeons (SBAS) and the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) are pleased to announce that Chelsea Dorsey, MD, has been selected as the 2023-2024 SBAS & AWS Visiting Professor. Dr. Dorsey will be hosted for two days by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to offer presentations and connect with local women surgical faculty, residents, and students.

About the SBAS & AWS Visiting Professor Program

Description:

AWS Partnership with Panamerican Trauma Society

Apply by September 18

"Breaking the Glass Ceiling”
Winners Announced

The Association of Women Surgeons is pleased to announce the 2023 Breaking the Glass Ceiling Leadership Education Program Awardees!

ASA Surgical Leaders Fellowship Grant 

Deadline to Apply is August 11

The Executive Council of the Association of Women Surgeons is pleased to invite you to submit self-nominations for the American Surgical Association Surgical Leaders Fellowship Grant for 2024.

The Fellowship Grant covers in part a two-week travel period and pays a grant to the Fellow’s institution of $5,000 ($2,500 each from the ASA and the AWS). The Fellowship grant is ideally suited for mid-level or senior academic surgeons with leadership training who seek a future leadership role and are at the stage in their career to benefit from exposure to a leadership shadowing experience.

Behind Her Scalpel: A Practical Guide to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with Stories of Female Surgeons 

Authored and Edited by Cathy Hung, DDS

Dr. Cathy Hung is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon and a solo practice owner in New Jersey. She is a native of Taipei, Taiwan and came to the US alone at age eighteen on a student visa. She earned her BS in psychology with a minor in music from UC Berkeley and DDS from Columbia University. She received her OMFS training from Lincoln Medical and Mental Center in the Bronx, New York. She is an alumna of the American Dental Association’s Institute for Diversity in Leadership program. She is also a speaker, writer, and Certified Life Coach in cultural competency. She is an author, blogger, and selected member of Forbes’ Women Forum and Rebecca Minkoff’s Female Founders Collective.