The Association of American Medical Colleges recently gave the Georgetown University Medical Center with an award for its leadership among women faculty.
The Medical Center’s Society for Medical Women Faculty was awarded the 2003 Association of American Medical Colleges’ Women in Leadership Development Award.
The award recognizes an organization for outstanding contributions to the development of women leaders in academic medicine.
Georgetown’s Society for Medical Women Faculty was granted the award in recognition of its efforts to improve leadership opportunities and professional environment for the medical women faculty at Georgetown University, according to a university press release.
The Society for Medical Women Faculty was one of the few organizations to receive this prestigious award, as the award is usually given to individuals.
After attending last year’s AAMC conference, Rhonda Freidman, Ph.D., the incoming president of the Society for Medical Women Faculty and a colleague of Friedman, decided to apply for the award.
“We competed for this award against medical centers that have a designated dean and administrative support for women’s affairs, which makes our achievements and contributions that much more profound,” Friedman said in the press release. “What’s beautiful about this group is that the issues we deal with are so important to all of us; we’ve formed personal bonds that go past the standard distinctions that tend to divide – clinical versus basic researcher, Ph.D. versus .D.”
The Georgetown organization operates only on a small budget and volunteer labor, and they competed for the award against medical centers with large amounts of administrative and monetary support.
The Georgetown Society for Medical Women Faculty works to promote women as faculty at the Georgetown Medical Center through the establishment of policies and a working environment that promote equality and diversity in hiring, promotion and compensation.
The society also works with women faculty to enhance leadership skills, strengthen communication networks and encourage the involvement of women in Medical Center growth.