Association of Women Student MD-PhDs
Nationally, women are underrepresented among physician-scientists, MD-PhD
students and MD-PhD applicants. Our program is committed to organizing and
promoting events, activities and resources that support women MD-PhD students
around issues that are often important to women and/or that tend to uniquely
affect women, or affect women differently than men. We also help women students
and applicants connect with female role models among physician-scientist faculty
at Penn.In addition, the program recognizes that “women’s issues” often affect
men as well, and that both men and women are invested in working to change
gender inequality.
The Association of Women Student MD-PhDs (AWSM) is a
student-driven organization that seeks to connect students across different
classes with both social events and educational activities centering on these
goals. All women MSTP students are invited to attend our planning meetings which
are led by student co-chairs (elected annually). If you’re interested in
learning more about AWSM please contact one of us:
Johanna Busch,
Co-Chair (buschi@mail.med.upenn.edu)
Liz Traxler, Co-Chair
(traxler@mail.med.upenn.edu)
Dr. Aimee Payne, Faculty Advisor to AWSM and
MD-PhD Program Associate Director (paynea@mail.med.upenn.edu)
Maggie
Krall, Director of Administration for the MD-PhD Program (krall@mail.med.upenn.edu)
A
few examples of topics that have been covered at past events include:
- Gender differences related to career building skills, such as communication styles, negotiating skills, presentation skills
- Challenges of training and career advancement
- Balancing family/personal life with career
- Overview of the state of women in academic medicine and discussion of the underrepresentation of women
- Coping with and confronting sexism
- Importance of mentorship and how to find it
For more details, check out the AWSM Events or go to: 
Also, if you are interested in taking a look at other helpful resources, check out the Resources page.
