Women in Leadership Interest Group

Chair: Rasmeet Miller, MD

HIS(HER)STORY

2016 saw the confluence of female leaders at IAFP and AAFP: Alvia Siddiqi, MD as IAFP’s President and Wanda Filer, MD as AAFP’s President. Javette Orgain, MD as AAFP’s Speaker. Evelyn Lewis&Clark, MD was the AAFP Foundation Board President. To build upon this synergy, IAFP launched a member interest group, Women In Leadership (WIL) whose charge is to:

• Encourage female physicians to participate at all levels of leadership. 
• Offer opportunities for mentoring, personal and professional development through education and other programming. 
• Use the WIL group to plan events, select topics, contribute resources and provide support as possible mentors and active participants.

Through our existing women leaders, partnering with like-minded organizations focused on female leaders and executives, we can create a place for WIL members to leverage their professional development and make true progress. We hope to achieve this by providing and developing leadership, advocacy, education, expertise, mentoring, and strategic alliances. Some examples of other organizations:

American Medical Women's Association
AAMC
Healthcare Businesswoman’s Association

Materials from the event are available online at the WIL Community Forum. This forum will also play host to an online library of resources, articles for professional development, and future topics as learning modules. 

Members of the WIL attend Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's Annual Women's Power Lunch with AAFP FamMedPAC board member Ellen S. Brull, MD (IAFP Past President, top row, third from left) a constituent of Schakowsky's.  

Our Academy policies support women in family medicine:
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) confirms its policies on women in family medicine by encouraging women to: (a) continue to enter the specialty of family medicine; (b) participate actively in all AAFP programs and activities, and (c) participate at all levels of leadership, thus ensuring that the personal and professional development of women family physicians is addressed. The AAFP and its constituent chapters strive for proportionate representation for women in leadership roles in the AAFP.

The AAFP further recommends that academic health centers, and professional societies for physicians, have programs of leadership development both for minority and women physicians, and medical students. These programs should include mentorship opportunities. Current and expanded efforts to increase the training of minorities and women in medical research should be supported.