We are excited to announce our first two grant recipients! Thanks to our generous donors we were able to fund two projects this application cycle. Both projects exemplify the type of work RANGE strives to support as means to improve gender equity. Please read on to learn more about the projects and our recipients
Our First Grant:
Childcare Needs Assessment in Philadelphia Academic Medical Centers
Jeanette Mladenovic, MD, MBA, MACP
Chair, GEMS Alliance Executive Board
“GEMS Alliance has identified four critical gaps that must be bridged in order to achieve equity for women in academic medicine and science. One of these gaps is the need for childcare. The decades of education, training, and time as junior faculty in medicine spans a woman’s childbearing years. Lack of childcare that is flexible, easily accessible for a physician’s/scientist’s unique needs, and affordable for their stage of career contributes to stress and burnout, delays childbearing, and dissuades some from certain career aspirations. Importantly, data suggest this lack of support also impacts an individual’s career trajectory at a time when career establishment is critical, and decisions concerning future careers are often determined. Single institutions are dissuaded from these specific physician programs because of their cost, the risk of childcare that is assumed by an institution, and the need to include all employees in any program they might develop (which often limits access and flexibility). GEMS seeks to develop a new model of support for women in medicine who bear and/or care for children and funding would go towards a needs assessment questionnaire with a group of women faculty leaders in graduate medical education in the Philadelphia area. This survey is meant to be administered to students, residents, and faculty of the five medical schools in Philadelphia, PA in order to better understand the needs and issues of a diverse group of stakeholders in order to create a functional and financially sound model of childcare for graduate students, residents and faculty alike.”
Learn More About The Project Leader:
Dr. Jenny Mladenovic is President/CEO of the Center for Women in Academic Medicine and Science (www.cwams.org) and Chair/Founder of the GEMS ALLIANCE (Gender Equity in academic Medicine and Science, www.gemsalliance.org). Over her 35 years in academic medicine, Dr. Mladenovic acquired a broad understanding of the multitude of issues that shape the trajectory of women’s careers and is passionately committed to advancing opportunities for women to flourish in these environments. Previously she was Executive Vice-President and Provost at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), where she developed creative faculty and science initiatives, a new school of public health, an interprofessional rural campus, and a university-wide partnership in Southeast Asia. Previously she held positions as senior associate dean at two institutions, and as chairman or chief of medicine. The creation of mutually beneficial partnerships between the academic health center and its communities were the hallmark of her efforts.
Dr. Mladenovic is an AOA graduate of the University of Washington, and trained in internal medicine and hematology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Washington. For 18 years, she had an NIH/VA funded laboratory focused on hematopoietic cell differentiation. Nationally, she held leadership roles in the APM, ABIM, ABMS, ASH, ACGME, and SUSME. She holds an MBA from the University of Miami, and is a certified mediator. She and her husband of 44 years have four adult children. Most recently she was President of the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research. She currently also serves as Senior Advisor to the Lasker Foundation.
Our Second Grant:
Reigniting the flame: Combating Burnout in Women in Academic Emergency Medicine
Dr. Kavita Gandhi, Dr. Riham Alwan, and Dr. Kayla Enriquez
UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine’s Women’s Council
The UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine is committed to building a work environment in which gender equity is a priority. The role of the Women’s Council is to address gender disparities in the workplace, promote and foster a nurturing environment for the academic development and mentoring of female faculty, residents and fellows, strengthen pathways to leadership for women in our department, and enhance strategies to recruit and retain female faculty.
The Women’s Council has developed a 5-year plan based on data from an annual provider job satisfaction survey (Net Promoter). Women-identifying faculty relayed ways to increase support in their work community and combat burnout. The plan includes:
- Increasing support for lactating faculty
- Working with schedulers to support women returning from child-bearing leave to ease them back into their clinical workload
- Designing a longitudinal mentoring program to help our junior and mid-career faculty members navigate promotion, get compensation for unpaid work, and focus their energy at work on desired interests in line with career goals
- Hosting quarterly event and an annual retreat for our women faculty to hold space for wellness, promotion and community building
These interventions will be evaluated in a validated job satisfaction survey tool as well as with a statistical analysis of discrepancies in leadership, promotion, compensation, and protected time and amongst our women and men faculty.
Learn More About The Project Leaders:
Dr. Gandhi is an emergency medicine doctor, educator and leader in the department of emergency medicine at UCSF. She specializes in the use of ultrasound for diagnosis in the emergency department and oversees ultrasound education in the UCSF emergency medicine residency program and ultrasound operations at UCSF Parnassus. Dr. Gandhi is committed to equity work and uses ultrasound to lower barriers to care in the patients she serves. She is also passionate about maintaining and supporting a diverse faculty and resident family that is representative of the mission of UCSF. Through this equity work she has co- led the development of the UCSF Department of emergency medicine’s Women’s Council that is specifically tasked with addressing gender equity in the workplace. The most notable accomplishments of this group have been improving child bearing leave, lactation spaces, mentorship and wellness for women identifying faculty.
Dr. Enriquez has been a faculty member in the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) for 7 years. She currently serves as the ZSFG Airway Director, DEM Global Health Fellowship Director, DEM Global Health Section Co-Director, DEM Faculty Development Committee (FDC) Co-Chair and DEM Women’s Council Co-Chair. Dr. Enriquez’s global health work focuses on health systems strengthening in low resourced settings and capacity building. Through her work with the FDC and Women’s Council, Dr. Enriquez focuses on mentorship, sponsorship and empowerment of faculty members. She is devoted to supporting and maintaining a diverse faculty with equity and inclusiveness, specifically for women. The most notable accomplishments in her work have been sponsorship of faculty for emergency medicine award nominations, specifically for women and people of color, improvement in departmental child bearing leave, improvement in lactation spaces in the workplace, and wellness.
Dr. Riham Alwan is a dual board certified emergency and pediatric emergency medicine faculty educator in the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM). She currently serves as a Social Medicine Physician Consultant on the SFGH (San Francisco General Hospital) Social Medicine Team, a multidisciplinary team to address social needs of patients in the ER. As a qualitative and community based participatory researcher, Dr. Alwan’s work explores disparities and improvement opportunities in the care of immigrant patients and families in the urgent and emergent care settings. Dr. Alwan is recent UCSF Population Health Scholar and a current Kaizan Promotions Physician Leadership fellow at San Francisco General Hospital. She has been a fierce advocate for women, people of color, and faculty wellness. She is currently co-leading the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine’s Women’s Council that is specifically tasked with addressing gender equity in the workplace. The most notable accomplishments of this group have been improving child bearing leave, lactation spaces, mentorship, and wellness for women identifying faculty.
