A note from the WPS chair
August 2024
From WPS Chair Elisa Choi, MD
Creating community, building connections, fostering collaborations
Happy August! Our WPS Governing Council (GC) participated in an AMA Section Leadership Retreat earlier this month, where we fully enjoyed opportunities to advance the goals of the “3 Cs” I had previously outlined in prior chair’s corner updates, as we create community, build connections, and foster collaborations―within our own governing council and with other section leadership, section staff, AMA elected leaders and AMA Board of Trustees.
The AMA Section Leadership Retreat was an energizing meeting experience, which provided our governing council with education about governance roles and responsibilities, and which catalyzed our strategic planning for the year.
The WPS is a very large section that intersects and spans across all the other AMA sections. Our WPS Governing Council (GC) is excited to work with other AMA section leaders to focus on engaging and supporting our WPS members, and we welcome opportunities for ongoing communications with other sections.
At this year’s retreat, for the first time, a full group picture was captured.
Member of the month profile
Last month I introduced everyone to the members of the WPS Standing Committee―GRROWL (Growing the Reach and Representation of Women Leaders). This month I wanted to profile the chair of the GRROWL Committee, Deborah Fuller, MD.
Dr. Fuller is a highly respected and accomplished OB/GYN both locally and nationally. Dr. Fuller is a born and raised Texan. She graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry. While at SMU, she was honored to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon matriculation from SMU, Dr. Fuller attended the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, Texas, where she earned her Doctor of Medicine degree along with the prestigious Hanbrock McGanity Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Fuller completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Fuller has been practicing obstetrics and gynecology in Dallas in private practice since 1988. In addition to her private practice duties, she is a member of the residency teaching staff as an attending in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas. She also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for the Texas A&M Medical School, teaching second- and third-year medical students rotating in Dallas at Baylor University Medical Center.
Dr. Fuller’s passion for medicine extends beyond her medical practice with her lifelong service to organized medicine, having served on many current or past council and committee and board memberships with the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, Dallas County Medical Society, Texas Medical Association, TMA Foundation and the American Medical Association. She currently serves as the president of the Dallas County Medical Society, the second largest medical society in the United States. Her primary focus areas in organized medicine have been the role of women physicians in medicine and state and national medical legislative issues. She is also active in numerous other non-profit and civic organizations.
Dr. Fuller’s proudest accomplishment is being the mother to three creative and successful adult daughters.
Our WPS is particularly grateful to Dr. Fuller for taking on the leadership role of our section’s standing committee, and we look forward to forthcoming initiatives and activities from GRROWL!
For subsequent chair’s corners updates, I will be profiling additional notable members from our WPS. Please email our section at [email protected] with suggestions for WPS members to profile.
WPS policymaking update
Our WPS Policymaking Committee has worked very hard over the past several weeks and has been drafting numerous resolutions that will advocate for issues of relevance to our section members. Once these WPS resolutions have completed drafts, there will be an opportunity for WPS members to weigh in with your opinions about the resolutions via our WPS resolution online forum.
Keep an eye out for emails coming from the WPS, as this online forum will open at the end of August/first week in September for a short period of time, soliciting WPS members’ input.
If you do not receive any email providing you with access to the online forum within the first few days of September, please reach out to the WPS at [email protected].
Here are some members of our WPS Policymaking Committee, hard at work drafting resolutions, but also having fun! Visit the WPS policymaking page to learn more.
Upcoming deadlines and dates
End of August/Early September 2024
WPS resolutions online forum opens
Please participate and provide your input on our section’s proposed resolutions. Additional details can be found in the “WPS Policymaking update” section on this page.
Sept. 26, 2024, noon-1 p.m. Central
Women in Medicine month webinar: Women in Medicine: Our Journeys
September is Women in Medicine Month and this year's theme is Empowering HERstory. In keeping with this theme, the WPS Governing Council has planned a virtual webinar, “Women in Medicine: Our Journeys.” This will be a panel discussion with invited speakers from our section who will discuss their journeys as women in medicine. Register now.
Please mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details to come in a future chair’s corner update.
Oct. 14, 2024
Volunteer for WPS Handbook Review Committee
Sign up by Oct. 14 to participate as a volunteer for the WPS Handbook Review Committee, a critical component of the WPS policymaking process. This is your chance, as a WPS member, to help influence our section’s stance on the resolutions that will be discussed at the AMA House of Delegates meeting, so consider participating in this opportunity to engage in WPS policy and advocacy.
There will be a Handbook Review Committee for each I-24 reference committee, and Handbook Review Committee members will be reviewing all the resolutions (not just WPS resolutions) for their specific reference committee and providing input on behalf of the WPS. This is truly policymaking in action!
For questions or related inquiries, contact the WPS at [email protected].
Visit the WPS policymaking page to learn more.
Nov. 8, 2024
WPS Business and Assembly Meeting
The WPS business and assembly meeting is Nov. 8, 2024. Please stay tuned for more details about the time, but please save the date. We look forward to seeing you at the 2024 Interim Meeting!
Closing thoughts
My objectives and goals for this year―the 3 Cs: 1) collaborations, 2) connections, 3) community―will continue to guide the work of the WPS Governing Council in 2024-25. Each of our WPS Governing Council members can serve as a point of contact for our respective representative role (AMWA representative, YPS representative, RFS representative, MSS representative, at-large representative for other sections and societies), so please reach out to us and help our WPS succeed with our “3 Cs” this year.
Our WPS looks forward to representing the interests of our WPS members.
Contact and connect with the WPS
Please consider staying connected to the WPS throughout the year via the GroupMe chat. Email the WPS to request to join the WPS GroupMe chat. There are online conversations about advocacy, books/podcasts/articles/current events, announcements and updates, and “social” conversations. Sneak preview: there may be an informal WPS social event being planned for I-24, so consider getting connected on the GroupMe chat so you do not miss out!
You can reach out and contact the WPS with your inquiries, feedback, comments and communications at the WPS general email: [email protected].
We look forward to hear from you. Have a wonderful rest of August!
