From the President's Dexk
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 A Message from the President's Desk

May 2007

 

Dear AWN members,

I would like to personally thank the AWN board members, Tamara Doering, Dayna Early, Ingrid Borecki, Leesa Galatz, Lisa Moscoso, Tammy Hershey, and Phyllis Hanson and the friends of AWN who continue to volunteer their time: Abby Hollander, Teresa Deshields, Veronica Luzzi, and Karen O’Malley. Despite being busy physicians and scientists, these women continue to donate their valuable time to the AWN. They are vital to the success of our organization.

Highlighted here are some of the AWN’s activities this past year.
  • The quarterly newsletter “AWNings” was reformatted and re-vitalized.

  • The AWN website was re-formatted and updated. Visit it at http://awn.wustl.edu. Thanks to Dr. Veronica Luzzi and Anna Blanchard for all their efforts.

  • Leah Merrifield, Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Diversity Initiatives and Dr. Diana Gray, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs spoke on diversity at WUSM at the AWN annual Fall dinner held at the King Center.

  • The AWN board held a meeting with Dean Larry Shapiro and discussed the status of women at WUSM. Dr. Shapiro agreed that there is a need for new strategies to increase the number of female faculty and that it is important to identify women for major leadership positions. The WUSM has a long way to go before achieving parity among genders at the higher ranks. This meeting was one step along the path towards this goal.

  • A Brown Bag luncheon seminar was sponsored entitled “How to Succeed in Clinical Research: A Panel Discussion” Panelists included: Dr. Ray Clouse, Gastroenterology, Dr. Vicky Fraser, Infectious Disease, Dr. Anne Goldberg, Endo/Metabolism, and Dr. Janet Rader, Obstetrics & Gynecology.

  • The AWN made a donation to the Irene Karl Memorial Fund for Women in Science and provided suggestions to Dean Shapiro on how the memorial fund could promote the role of women in research at Washington University.

  • The 9th Annual Women’s Health Symposium entitled "The Intersection of Medicine and Psychology in Women" was again organized by the AWN. The symposium was co-chaired by Drs. Abby Hollander, and Teresa Deshields. This symposium focused on the interrelationship of medical and psychological problems over a range of important health concerns including HIV/AIDS, infertility, osteoporosis, diabetes, dementia, and life-threatening illness.

  • The AWN cosponsored a reception for women faculty. The reception was co-hosted by the Chancellor, Mark Wrighton, the Executive Vice Chancellor, Edward S. Macias, the Women and Gender Studies program, and the Association of Women Faculty (AWF).

  • The AWN cosponsored the New Year’s Reception for Women in Science and Medicine with The Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA), The Office of Post Graduate Affairs (OPGA), The Association for Women in Science (AWIS), The Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Diversity Programs Office. Thanks to Dr. Kelle Moley for her inspirational remarks.

  • The AWN formed a “Task force on Women Faculty Promotion and Retention” to address the low percent of women at the WUSM.

  • A seminar on “Women and Negotiation” by Dr. Linda Babcock, James M. Walton Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University and Author of “Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide” was held in March. The seminar was co-sponsored by the AWN and The Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA), The School of Social Work, The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, and Women and Gender Studies

  • A joint meeting was held with the Association of Women Faculty (AWF), AWN’s sister organization from the Danforth campus to discuss common goals and objectives. This meeting resulted in the formation of two task forces to look at issues of childcare and the National Academy of Sciences report. The intention is that these committees would draft letters to Chancellor Wrighton about the needs of Washington University Faculty.

  • The AWN successfully nominated Dr. Laura J. Bierut, MD ’87, for the Washington University Alumni/Faculty Award.

  • Dr. Sandra K. Masur, Professor of Ophthalmology and Associate Dean, Faculty Development at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY presented a lecture entitled ”The XX Files: Improving the visibility of women scientists” at the annual AWN Spring dinner. Dr. Masur’s visit was co-sponsored with the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences.

  • The AWN Pioneering Woman Award was granted to Dr. Margaret Skinner, the AWN Mentor Award was presented to Drs. Scott Hultgren and David Beebe, the AWN Student Leadership Award was given to Moriah Beck, Lola Fayanju, and Carol Lin.

  • A Brown Bag luncheon seminar was sponsored entitled "Demystifying Promotion: a Panel Discussion" Panelists included: Dr. Diana L. Gray, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs Dr. Alan L. Schwartz, Professor of Pediatrics and Dr. Phil D. Stahl, Professor of Cell Biology.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as AWN President.

Sincerely,

Ann M. Gronowski, Ph.D.
AWN President, 2006-2007