WPS Members and News Highlights-June 2024

June 2024

From WPS Chair Elisa Choi, MD

Hello to the wonderful WPS members of the AMA! I’m so pleased and excited to start the 2024-2025 term as your newly elected chair of the WPS, and I really look forward to working closely with our incoming governing council members:

• Dr. Tiffani Bell Washington, vice chair
• Dr. Nicole Plenty, delegate
• Dr. Rachel Solnick, alternate delegate
• Adrienne Nguyen, Medical Student Section representative
• Dr. Holly Grace, Resident & Fellow Section representative
• Dr. Avani Patel, Young Physicians Section representative
• Dr. Gloria Wu, member at-large representative

I am a passionate supporter of gender and health equity issues and women’s health. In this chair's corner, I wanted to reflect on this “new beginning” by reviewing the aim of the WPS, which represents more than 100,000 physician and medical student members.

The WPS seeks to influence and contribute to AMA policy and program development on issues of importance to women physicians, and to increase the number and influence of women physicians in leadership roles.

WPS members & news highlights

Check the list of additional monthly issues of WPS member news for details on the section's advocacy efforts, leadership opportunities, education, member profiles and more.

Learn More

There are some upcoming deadlines and opportunities to engage with the WPS over the summer.

July 15, 2024

Joan F. Giambalvo Fund

The Joan F. Giambalvo Fund for the Advancement of Women provides scholarships of up to $10,000 to support research advancing the study of women in the medical profession and strengthening the AMA's ability to identify and address the issues affecting women physicians and medical students.

The first award was granted in 2006. The scholarship was established by the WPS in conjunction with the AMA Foundation. To date, 34 research awards have been granted.

July 31, 2024

AMA Inspiration Award

The AMA WPS Inspiration Award honors and acknowledges physicians who have offered their time, wisdom and support throughout the professional careers of fellow physicians, residents and students.

These individuals may have steered others into a specialty they love, help them find work/life balance or guided them through a professional society or served as an important role model.

Aug. 15, 2024

Submit a resolution for the 2024 Interim Meeting

WPS representatives may submit resolutions for consideration at the Annual and Interim Meetings of the WPS assembly. The WPS has considered various topics such as gender equity, maternal discrimination, infertility and maternal mortality.

• WPS resolution template (DOCX)
• Submit a topic for consideration using the resolution idea tool (DOCX)

New to the policymaking process? Access our education module, How AMA Policy is Made, to learn how WPS members influence the AMA’s policymaking efforts.

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As we start a new year with the WPS Governing Council, I became curious about the WPS “origin story." I love learning about history, and the famous quote by Soren Kierkegaard—“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”—teaches an important lesson, to look back retrospectively to help us live prospectively.

With that in mind, I wanted to share the beginnings of the WPS (information courtesy of WPS staff Harley Grant and Wilda Knox):

“In 1979, the AMA founded the ad hoc Committee on Women Physicians to encourage the membership and participation of women physicians throughout organized medicine. In 1997, the AMA created the Women Physicians Congress (WPC) as an advocacy and networking forum dedicated to women in medicine. In 2013, the AMA House of Delegates established the Women Physicians Section (WPS) which currently represents more than 100,000 women physicians and medical students.”

Our WPS has benefitted immensely from so many AMAzing women leaders, and I wanted to acknowledge these prior WPS GC members: 

2023-2024: Dr. Aleesha Shaik (chair), Dr. Siri Holton (vice chair), Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Anna Brown, Dr. Tiffani L. Bell Washington, Dr. Elisa Choi, Dr. Gloria Wu, Minali Prasad.

2022-2023: Dr. Aleesha Shaik (chair), Dr. Susan Thompson Hingle (vice chair), Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Anna Laucis, Dr. Roberta Gebhard, Dr. Siri Holton, Mirna Kaafarani (med student), Dr. Gloria Wu.

2021-2022: Dr. Anita Ravi (chair), Dr. Joanna T. Bisgrove (vice chair), Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Anna Laucis, Dr. Roberta Gebhard, Dr. Susan Thompson Hingle, Dr. Aleesha Shaik, Sarah Swiezy (med student).

2020-2021: Dr. Niva Lubin-Johnson, Dr. Anita Ravi, Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Joanna T. Bisgrove, Dr. Roberta Gebhard, Dr. Aleesha Shaik, Isabelle Wijangco (med student).

2019-2020: Dr. Niva Lubin-Johnson (chair), Dr. Anita Ravi (vice chair), Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Joanna T. Bisgrove, Dr. Roberta Gebhard, Dr. Anna Laucis, Amanda Whitehouse (med student).

2018-2019: Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal (chair), Dr. Niva Lubin-Johnson (vice chair), Dr. Joanna T. Bisgrove, Lauren Engel (med student), Dr. Anna Laucis, Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Nicole Lee Plenty, Dr. Anita Ravi. 

2017-2018: Dr. Lynda G. Kabbash (chair), Dr. Kusum Punjabi (vice chair), Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Ami A. Shah, Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal, Dr. Niva Lubin-Johnson, Dr. Christina Talerico, Trishna Narula (med student).

2016-2017: Dr. Lynda G. Kabbash (chair), Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal (vice chair), Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Ami A. Shah, Dr. Alice A Tolbert Coombs, Dr. Kusum Punjabi, Dr. Christina Talerico, Poornima Oruganti (med student).

2015-2016: Dr. Jana Janco, Dr. Lynda G. Kabbash, Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal, Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Ami A. Shah, Kinnari R. Patel (med student), Dr. Christina Talerico, Dr. Alice A Tolbert Coombs.

2014-2015: Dr. Jana Janco, Dr. Lynda G. Kabbash, Dr. Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Ami A. Shah, Rachel E. Solnick (med student), Dr. Christina Talerico, Dr. Kimberly J. Templeton.

2013-2014: Dr. Shannon Pryor (chair), Dr. Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, (vice chair), Dr. Josephine C. Nguyen, Dr. Pooja Oza, Carolyn Payne (med student), Dr. Kusum A. Punjabi, MD, Dr. Claudia L. Reardon, Dr. Kimberly J. Templeton, Dr. Ami A. Shah, Dr. Jennifer Shu.

Thank you to all of these former leaders of the WPS for service and commitment to our section!

My personal goals for our WPS for this upcoming year are the 3 Cs: 

• Collaborations
• Connections
• Community

This section is rich with so many wonderful women physicians and so much wisdom, insight and intellect. I am committed to supporting ways for our WPS to harness all the talents, skills, and energy within our section, to advance our WPS aims and goals.

Stay connected to the WPS throughout the year via the GroupMe chat.

Please reach out and contact the WPS with your inquiries, feedback, comments and communications.