CHICAGO — Each September, the American Medical Association (AMA) recognizes influential female physician leaders as part of Women in Medicine Month. To showcase the accomplishments of these leaders, the AMA Women Physicians Section (WPS) and the AMA Foundation today announced the winners of the 2024 Joan F. Giambalvo Fund for the Advancement of Women research grants program.

The Joan F. Giambalvo Fund for the Advancement of Women Award is administered by the AMA Foundation on behalf of the AMA-WPS. The AMA-WPS and AMA Foundation award scholarships of up to $10,000 to health care researchers to identify and address issues that affect women physicians and medical students. The AMA-WPS and AMA Foundation have granted 35 research awards since 2006 on topics such as flexible work options, gender differences in the practice patterns of obstetricians/gynecologists, and the promotion and retention of diversity in medical education. Additional information about the award and Joan F. Giambalvo can be found on the AMA Foundation website. 

“During Women in Medicine Month, the AMA is recognizing this year’s awardees for their excellent work aimed at addressing gender inequities and promoting the advancement of women in medicine,” said AMA President Bruce A. Scott, M.D. “This annual grant program reaffirms the AMA’s commitment to addressing the most important issues facing women in medicine today, advocating for women’s health issues, and increasing the influence of women physicians overall.” 

The winning 2024 project focuses on cultivating allyship in medicine and how it can be used as a strategy to promote gender equity. Given the lack of specific, actionable examples of allyship in medicine currently available, the goal of this project is to use social media to widely provide video stories of how male leaders have served as allies in promoting gender equity to help other potential male allies. The project will be led by Maya Iyer, M.D., MEd, and Jaclyn Caccese, Ph.D., from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. 

“We are so excited and honored to be selected as recipients of the 2024 Joan F. Giambalvo Fund for the Advancement of Women. Women faculty cannot solve the problems of gender inequity alone; we need the involvement and support of the entire community. We believe that this award will be instrumental in doing this work on allyship and will help move the gender equity needle forward. We are grateful for the opportunity to pursue this research in collaboration with our outstanding colleagues at The Ohio State University College of Medicine Women in Medicine and Science organization and Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” said Dr. Iyer and Ms. Caccese. 

The AMA has adopted numerous policies aimed at encouraging medical associations and other relevant organizations to study gender difference in income and advancement trends, by specialty, experience, work hours and other practice characteristics, and develop programs to address disparities where they exist. The AMA will continue to strongly support equity and diversity across medicine and promote professional growth and development for physicians at every stage of their careers. 

The AMA-WPS consists of more than 100,000 members of the AMA and aims to increase the number and influence of women physicians in leadership roles and to advocate for and advance the understanding of women's health issues.