By Charlotte Smith, Gopika SenthilKumar, Paulina Gutkin Fostering a community intended to elevate women medical students is vital not only for increasing representation within surgery, but also build...
Blog
Forget About Perfectionism; Instead, Strive for Excellence
By Fara Bellows, MD As surgeons, we are high-level performers who expect specific results from precise planning and execution. Throughout our education, we developed a keen awareness of the requireme...
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Diversify Ourselves
By Dr. Chantal Reyna How well would you handle not being able to perform surgery anymore? The real question is “How much of your identity is based on being a surgeon?” We tend to define ourselves...
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Creating an Inclusive Surgical Community: Association of Out Surgeons & Allies
When I was asked to write a piece describing who the Association of Out Surgeons & Allies (AOSA https://www.outsurgeons.org/) is for the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) blog, I paused. I hesi...
Blog
5 reasons I pursued an executive MBA and how it has helped me so far.
Heather Yeo, MD, MHS, MBA, MS Having recently (2019) completed an executive masters in business administration (MBA) program, I often get asked about why I pursued one in the first place, if I would ...
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Meet the Blog Team
The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Blog was started in 2013 by some amazing female surgeons. We have appreciated the support and growth of the blog since then. We love sharing the stories of wom...
Blog
You can’t be what you can’t see.
By Sheina Theodore, MD I was born and raised in NYC. The product of two Haitian immigrant parents. I saw my parents sacrifice everything for me, just so that the playing field would be leveled. I was...
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Faculty Recruitment Strategies to Improve Diversity
By Tanya Anand, MD, MPH and Elizabeth Shaughnessy, MD, PhD A diverse faculty is important for an institution’s continued growth and relevance to its community. Significant investment is required ...
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Leadership in Surgery
By Lilah Morris-Wiseman, MD This is a story about leadership in surgery. I was in my third year of post-training, independent private practice and had been dealing with a disastrous complication. W...
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Overcoming Bias
By Joyce Majure, MD, FACS The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) has come a long way since its founding in 1981. Looking back, it is amazing to see not only how our organization has grown, but al...