Celebrating the Next Generation of Women Leaders in Medicine and Science

The 7^th Annual Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS) Fall Networking event was held November 20 to highlight the advancement of women faculty at the college. Faculty, students and staff came together for an exciting evening of celebration and collaboration.

Taben Hale, PhD, director of WIMS and vice chair of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, shared the importance of the work the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix’s WIMS in advocating for the success of women physicians in her welcome remarks.

“The mission of WIMS is to promote the advancement leadership and success for women faculty in all roles within academic medicine and science,” Dr. Hale said. “We achieve these through providing opportunities for all professional development, advocacy and networking like this event.”

Dr. Hale recognized the outstanding women scientists who have joined the college and celebrated women faculty who were recently promoted.

“We’ve hired outstanding women scientists into the Translational Cardiovascular Research Center and into the department of Translational Neuroscience,” Dr. Hale said. “There’s still work to be done in this regard. We remain below the national average for women faculty at all ranks.”

Fred Wondisford, MD, MS, MBA, dean of the College of Medicine – Phoenix welcomed the attendees and commended Dr. Hale’s strong leadership as director of WIMS before the keynote address. Michael Fallon, MD, FACP, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, served as the keynote speaker.

“Over the years, WIMS has taken the opportunity to highlight some of our outstanding allies at the College of Medicine – Phoenix,” Dr. Hale said. “I’ve seen many new faculty and leaders join the campus and there are a few who mark inflection points in our trajectory as a college. The hiring of Dr. Michael Fallon is one such point.”

In preparing his remarks, Dr. Fallon reflected on the many female mentors who made significant contributions to his career as a physician.

“I remembered these physicians, who happened to be women, as colleagues and friends, but I never fully understood the role they had in my mentorship,” Dr. Fallon said. “Women in medicine and women as mentors has a long and storied tradition. And it’s a pleasure to watch that grow here.”

Dr. Fallon concluded his speech with congratulations to the WIMS team’s growth over the last several years. He also noted the work left that needs to be done.

“I will consider the early phase of this journey complete when the WIMS meetings are purely a way for faculty to come together for collegiality and collaboration and when the recognition of the unique capabilities and needs of our diverse faculty are fully integrated into our structure and function,” Dr. Fallon said.

Several female first-year medical students who attended the WIMS networking event expressed gratitude for the opportunity to network with other female physicians and scientists.

Linda Wu said that events such as the ones WIMS organized are especially helpful to first-year students who are new to the community such as herself.

“As an aspiring medical student who doesn’t know much about the Phoenix community, I really wanted to interact with more Phoenix physicians and researchers and see the kind of research that other people do,” Wu said. “Seeing how other people collaborate at events like this guides us into wanting to potentially be mentors later in our career.”

Anya Ferris echoed this sentiment. “A big reason why I decided to come to this school was because of the community culture, and so it’s kind of fun to see other women in medicine being so collaborative and willing to mentor students,” Ferris said.

Around the event were white boards with survey questions. Those attending the event could provide feedback that will be used for future WIMS programming.