Chair’s Corner

Our committees have been hard at work moving us forward! Here’s what we have been up to.

The Special Projects Committee will be submitting 2 section grants for 2020. The first grant, led by Dr. Carol Pak-Teng, is for the production of a gender bias booklet. The booklet will explore several gender bias issues and how they relate to emergency medicine. The second grant will focus on building an anonymous, secure pay database with an in-depth survey and generation of both initial charts and graphs for quick review by users, as well as access to raw data (for a deep dive for interested researchers). This project is led by me. Both grants are due in early February. We are also developing a section grant for 2021 for a research project delving into the effects having a physician parent makes on career choices of children. This project will be led by Dr. Lauren Walters.

The Awards Committee will be nominating 3 great women for ACEP awards. We will nominate Dr. Jan Schonberger for the Judith Tintanelli Award, Dr. Dana King for the ACEP Faculty Teaching award, and Dr. Shannon Findelay for the ACEP Junior Faculty Teaching award. ACEP leadership awards are due March 1^st, and ACEP teaching awards are due April 15^th. The Awards Committee will also open nominations in March 2020 (due April 15^th) for our AAWEP awards: Outstanding ED Director, Outstanding Mentor, Rising Star, and Resident Rocks It! Please consider nominating yourself or others.

The Social Media Committee will have a phone meeting on Feb 7^th at 6pm. We have had success getting AAWEP’s name seen on Facebook by sharing posts on AAWEP’s page to EMdocs, feminEM, PMG, and other medical Facebook groups. We have increased our average view of posts from a few hundred to more than 5,000. We will continue to brainstorm ways to get ourselves seen and heard!

The Resolutions Committee will have a phone meeting February 7^th at 10am to brainstorm possible resolutions for ACEP 2020 council meeting. Current resolution suggestions are recycling/energy waste in the emergency department; social media app awareness; and a ACEP policy specifically in support of paid parental leave, separate from the current Family and Medical Leave Policy.

The Membership Committee aims to increase our membership to over 2,000 members. We will have a phone meeting in late February to brainstorm ways to increase our visibility and membership numbers. In the meantime, we are working hard to retain graduating residents on our roster as well as recruiting new residents. Please watch for an article in EM Resident featuring AAWEP!

If you have interest in working on any of the above committees, please contact me.

By Sarah Hoper, MD, JD