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Chairs' Message

Welcome to the Women Faculty Organization (WFO) of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The WFO brings together Feinberg women faculty interested in fostering a supportive environment, creating opportunities for networking and recognizing significant accomplishments among our women faculty. The mission of WFO is to promote the career development of women faculty at all ranks and to nurture a welcoming, supportive community locally and beyond. In conjunction with our mission we organize a range of networking, mentoring and educational opportunities.

Historically, the WFO initiated and now supports the annual Feinberg Lewis Landsberg Research Day by awarding prizes to the best abstracts in women’s health research. In 2017, we were honored to award the inaugural Paula H. Stern Award for Outstanding Women in Science and Medicine here at Feinberg, established by the generosity of the Department of Pharmacology. We look forward to selecting the next recipients each spring. 

WFO partners with Feinberg medical students in the local chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) by hosting student and faculty Networking Teas, facilitating one-on-one mentoring opportunities for interested faculty and benefitting from having student representation on our monthly Steering Committee meetings. By partnering with and participating in other organizations focused on promoting women and diverse populations at Northwestern — including the Provost’s Advisory Council on Women Faculty, Northwestern University Women’s Center and the Organization of Women Faculty on the Evanston campus — the WFO helps assure that women faculty at Feinberg benefit from all that Northwestern is doing to promote and nurture women faculty.

We welcome all Feinberg women faculty to participate in the WFO and its activities and to attend the Steering Committee meetings, which are held virtually at 4 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month. Please contact WFO leadership for details.

Please browse through the WFO webpages to learn more about us and our activities. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions.

Sincerely,

 

Heather Risser

Heather J Risser, PhD
WFO Chair, 2023-2024

Maria Dizon

Maria L V Dizon, MD
WFO Co-chair, 2023-2024

Ruchi S Gupta, MD
WFO Co-Chair, 2023-2024

Emily Ho

Emily Ho, PhD
WFO Co-chair, 2023-2024