Foundation: Programs

AWS Foundation Visiting Professor Program

In 1998 the AWS Foundation conducted a strategic planning session and established several key goals. In response to one of those goals, we sponsor the AWS Foundation Visiting Professor Program, which allows women surgeons to share their expertise with medical students.

This program provides medical schools with the opportunity to request top women surgeons as speakers and receive funding from the AWS Foundation. Opportunities to lecture heighten the visibility of women surgeons while encouraging women medical students to pursue similar careers. In addition, the Visiting Professorship Program promotes dialogue between practicing surgeons and the academic community.

Visiting Professor Responsibilities:

  • Applicants must be an AWS member in good standing.
  • Travel to the institution selected by the AWS Foundation and participate in a two-day program. The visits usually involve lectures, discussion groups, patient evaluation, patient rounds and possibly operative procedures.
  • Interact with local women surgical faculty, residents, and medical students.
  • Share information about AWS and AWS Foundation at appropriate opportunities.
  • Make your own travel and accommodation reservations.
  • Submit an expense form with back-up receipts to AWS Foundation within 30 days after your presentation.
  • Submit a report summarizing the visit within 30 days of your visit. Include information about your experience, your thoughts on the process and the overall program.

If you are interested in representing the AWS Foundation as a Visiting Professor, please complete this application and return it to the AWS Foundation Office. Applications must be submitted electronically as one PDF document to Info@WomenSurgeons.org by April 10, 2010.  Selection will be made by May 1, 2010. The application process is open to full members of the Association of Women Surgeons in good standing and in active practice in the United States or Canada.

Host-Site Responsibilities:

  • The Host Department of Surgery will sponsor this program to support a two-day visit.
  • Provide opportunities for interaction between the visiting professor and local women surgical faculty, residents, and students. (Options include: reception, breakfast, luncheon, grand rounds, and surgery.)
  • Arrange the specific details of the visit directly with the Visiting Professor.
  • Arrange appropriate privileges and legalities if operative procedures involving the Visiting Professor are planned.

Host site applications will be available in May.


"Being selected as the AWSF Visiting Professor was clearly a career highlight, and I was extremely excited to find out that Louisiana State University was selected as the host institution. The AWS has always been synonymous with outstanding mentorship in my mind and experience, and the chair at LSU is a mentor from fellowship days. Chip is an enthusiastic supporter of female surgeons, as I knew from experience and had the chance to once again observe firsthand. It was a jam-packed two days, [and] I came away. . .impressed with the residents, faculty, administration, and program at LSU. More than that, I came away energized -- in particular by the one-on-one and small group interactions with the residents and faculty. I clearly gained more than I gave, and once again am indebted to the mentorship opportunities provided by the AWS."

- Karen Brasel, MD, FACS – 2009/10 AWS Foundation Visiting Professor

Past Visiting Professors and Hosts:

  • 2009 - Karen J. Brasel, MD, MPH
    host:  Louisiana State University
  • 2008 - Margaret Dunn, MD, FACS
    host:
    University of Connecticut
  • 2008 - Pamela Lipsett, MD, FACS, FCCM
    host:
    University of California, Davis
  • 2007 - Linda Phillips, MD, FACS
    host: New York Presbyterian Hospital
  • 2006 - Mary McCarthy, MD, FACS
    host:
    University of Texas, Houston
  • 2005 - Nancy Harthun, MD, FACS
    host: The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
  • 2005 - Kathryn Spanknebel, MD
    host: Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston, MA
  • 2004 - Amy Friedman, MD
    host:
    Medical College of Georgia
  • 2004 - Rosemary Duda, MD, MPH
    host:
    University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
  • 2003 - Leslie Kohman, MD
    host -
    University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine
  • 2003 - Myriam Curet, MD, FACS
    host -
    University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • 2002 - Susan Mackinnon, MD, FACS
    host -
    Northwestern University, The Feinberg School of Medicine
  • 2002 - Margaret Kemeny, MD, FACS
    host - Duke University Medical Center
  • 2001 - Julie Ann Freischlag, MD
    host -
    University of Louisville

AWS Foundation Fellowships

Since 1996, the AWSF/Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. Fellowship has supported a number of women surgeons by funding original research in topics of flexible GI endoscopy, laparoscopy, minimal access techniques or related emerging technology.

A $25,000 FELLOWSHIP grant from Genomic Health was established in 2007. The fellowship is awarded for topics in the area of cancer-related research.

Note: The call for 2011 Fellowships will be posted in March 2010.

Click here for a list of past Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. Fellowship recipients.

Click here for a list of past Genomic Health Fellowship recipients.


Mentoring and Networking Programs

Mentoring and Networking Programs are supported by the AWS Foundation to provide forums for young women surgeons to meet with peers, attend educational programs, and enhance their professional and personal lives. A searchable mentor database has been developed for members and AWS supports networking breakfasts throughout the year.