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Six School of Medicine Faculty Attend AAMC Mid-Career Women Faculty Leadership Development Seminar

February 4, 2025 by jta6n@virginia.edu

(From left) Margaret Sande, Kathryn Mutter, Melissa Little, Lisa Zuckerwise, Jennifer Burnsed, and Katarine Egressy.

(From left) Margaret Sande, Kathryn Mutter, Melissa Little, Lisa Zuckerwise, Jennifer Burnsed, and Katarine Egressy

Six UVA School of Medicine faculty members participated in the highly-selective AAMC Mid-Career Women Faculty Leadership Development Seminar in December 2024 including: Jennifer Burnsed, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Katarine Egressy, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine; Melissa Little, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences; Kathryn Mutter, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine; Margaret Sande, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine; and Lisa Zuckerwise, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

All of the participants received Leadership Development Travel Awards from the Committee on Women in Medicine and Science (COWIMS) to support their attendance at this valuable seminar, which provides women at the associate professor level the knowledge and skills necessary to support their continued progress along the path to leadership in academic medicine and science. COWIMS is glad to be able to support these faculty members on their career path.

Reflections From Attendees

Dr. Little: “The best part of the conference was hearing how highly successful women in the field of medicine navigated their careers and overcame the challenges they faced along the way. I also loved meeting women faculty from around the country and the UVA School of Medicine (SOM). There ended up being a large contingency of SOM faculty in attendance at the conference this year, and I don’t know that we would have all crossed paths or formed these connections without sharing this experience. I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity, and I would highly recommend it for any mid-career women faculty in SOM.”

With the support of her department chair, Matthew Gurka, PhD, Dr. Little will be presenting about the AAMC seminar at a spring Public Health Sciences Grand Rounds.

Dr. Zuckerwise: “The aspects that I found most inspirational and that I most appreciate include the opportunity to travel and attend a conference with other mid-career woman physicians from UVA and around the country. Getting the opportunity to meet colleagues from my (new) home institution provided a whole new group of peers to lean on, meet with, and stay in touch with for continued career support. Meeting women from other institutions around the country was an invaluable networking and connection opportunity, and I have already been in touch with some of my tablemates from the sessions who helped me hash out my goals and objective for the upcoming years.”

Dr. Zuckerwise has been asked by her department chair, Paola Gehrig, MD, to replicate this communication session for their department faculty and trainees with a focus on communicating about division, department, and institutional goals.

Dr. Mutter: “I am very grateful to both COWIMS and my department, Emergency Medicine, for the opportunity to attend the Mid-WIM Seminar. It was remarkable and inspiring to have several days of thought-provoking content and conversation with women faculty at similar career points. I found the academic medicine finance talk to be extraordinarily helpful.”

Dr. Burnsed: “The AAMC Mid-WIM seminar not only allowed me to network with faculty at a similar career stage but also pushed me to take a step back and think about my career goals and trajectory moving forward.”

Learn More About COWIMS

COWIMS offers a Leadership Development Travel Award to support associate professor faculty members to attend the AAMC Mid-Career Women Faculty Leadership Development Seminar and assistant professor faculty members to attend the AAMC Early Career Women Faculty Leadership Development Seminar.

Contact Kate McManus, MD, the chair of COWIMS, with questions about these seminars or the travel award. To stay informed about COWIMS events, join the mailing list.

Filed Under: Faculty