President's Corner

Dear Women in Thyroidology Colleagues,

A year has gone by fast as in the blink of an eye. The Women in Thyroidology (WIT) group of the ATA will be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year, marking a specialized effort that began in 2002 to increase participation of women in the ATA through recognition and involvement. This effort continues to bear fruit and we see a significant rise in women membership, an increase in women as ATA research grant recipients, and ATA leadership.

The WIT taskforce has since its inception formalized governance to include a president and 6-7 erstwhile member colleagues representing the plethora of the membership, to lead and sustain the mission and vision of the WIT. We request and encourage our members to become involved with our leadership and taskforce efforts in the upcoming years. These positions are voluntary and it remains up to you, to participate and drive the efforts of the taskforce to best serve your needs.

A continued effort to improve communication amongst our members has resulted in the start of a bi-annual newsletter (you are reading the fall 2017 issue, hopefully you all received and read the spring 2017 issue), which I hope will continue to be a source of connectivity for our women colleagues. We have also updated the WIT website to connect mentees with mentors as well as help with finding roommates for the annual meeting. 


A significant milestone for WIT is the institution of the WIT Woman of the year award to recognize those of our women colleagues who strive to selflessly fulfill the mission of WIT and also play an integral role in mentoring of women trainees. Since its inception in 2012, we have recognized 5 of our phenomenal colleagues at our annual "Women in Thyroidology" Networking Meeting. This year for the 6^th WIT woman of the Year, we recognize Dr. Julie Ann Sosa, an outstanding member of WIT. Dr. Sosa is Professor of Surgery and Medicine (Oncology) at Duke University, where she serves as Chief of Endocrine Surgery and Director of the Surgical Center for Outcomes Research, as well as Leader of the Endocrine Neoplasia Diseases Group and Co-Leader of the Solid Tumor Therapeutics Program at the Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Sosa has been a member of the ATA since 2006 and currently is Treasurer-elect of the ATA, serves on the Board of Directors/Executive Committee of the ATA, International Thyroid Oncology Group, and Society for Surgical Oncology, as well as practice guidelines committees for the ATA and the NCCN. She has mentored close to 50 students and serves as an inspiration to her colleagues.

Our networking session this year will be held on Thursday, October 19^th at 7:00am during the 87^th Annual Meeting of the ATA in Victoria, BC, Canada. We welcome one and all to participate. In addition to our WIT award, we have a distinguished guest speaker, Dr. David Cooper, MD, MACP, Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who will speak on the topic "Women and the future of Endocrinology". Dr. Cooper is also a past president of the ATA and the former Chair of the ABIM subspecialty Board for Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. Dr. Cooper is the 2016 recipient of The Outstanding Scholarly Physician Award, sponsored by the Endocrine Society, which is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the practice of clinical endocrinology in an academic setting. A good primer to Dr. Cooper's presentation is the Presidential Address by Dr. Caprice Greenberg, as president of the Association for Academic Surgery (https://youtu.be/KHo1x2sk0gw). The address starts at 12 minutes and 50 seconds.

I come to the end of my term as President of WIT and handover the baton to the incoming president, Dr. Whitney Goldner and her new team! Dr. Goldner is Associate Professor of Medicine, division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She has been a member of WIT since 2004, is currently the chair of the Trainee and Career Advancement Committee for the ATA and has a clinical interest in thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. As a member of the WIT taskforce since 2011, I have seen it grow and flourish. It has given me the opportunity to work with great women and understand the needs of our women colleagues within the ATA. This past year as the president has been a privilege, an honor and a humbling experience. I realize that together we can achieve a lot. We have done our best to take it forward and add our mark to the WIT efforts. I continue to remain an active "woman" (scientist, mentor, colleague, friend – as needed), within the ATA. Look forward to crossing paths in Victoria.

Honey Reddi, PhD, FACMG
President, Women in Thyroidology (2016-2017)