Association of Women Surgeons

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.

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