Published: July 28, 2020

WIO Celebrates 10 Years

2020 has certainly been an uncertain and thought-provoking year thus far, with the global pandemic and the recent civil rights movement leading to a great deal of self-reflection concerning the way we “do” medicine and live our day-to-day lives. One constant through all of these ups and downs has been the bright light of the upcoming Women in Otolaryngology (WIO) Section’s 10-year anniversary during the AAO-HNSF 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting & OTO Experience.


Reena Dhanda Patil, MD

2020 has certainly been an uncertain and thought-provoking year thus far, with the global pandemic and the recent civil rights movement leading to a great deal of self-reflection concerning the way we “do” medicine and live our day-to-day lives. One constant through all of these ups and downs has been the bright light of the upcoming Women in Otolaryngology (WIO) Section’s 10-year anniversary during the AAO-HNSF 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting & OTO Experience. Over the past year, a great deal of planning has gone into making this a meaningful and fun-filled event. Our WIO members feel, more than ever, that support from our colleagues is vital to our continued well-being and development. Now that the Annual Meeting has been moved to a virtual format, we are looking forward to seeing each other over video and connecting further with many thanks to the nimble AAO-HNS staff in adjusting our programming to a new format.

The 10-year celebration of WIO will be marked by a number of events. The speaker at our General Assembly will be the renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, PhD. This amazing woman is a professor of biology and director for the Center of Science and Math at the University of Utah and best known for her pioneering work in the Costa Rican rainforest canopies, using mountain climbing equipment to make her ascent. She is an accomplished author as well as the recipient of many awards and fellowships. And to “top” it all off, Dr. Nadkarni is such a role model for women in science that Mattel, Inc., in partnership with National Geographic, recently marketed the Entomologist TreeTop Barbie, inspired by her passion and commitment.

We will then virtually clink our glasses and enter our WIO gala to watch the long-awaited WIO history video premiere. This video will feature stories of women in our specialty, from the early 1970s through today, as well as impressions of more than 20 women and men who collaborated to form the WIO Section. We will celebrate trailblazers’ influence on the careers of contemporary female otolaryngologists and enjoy many images of WIO wearing all their professional hats. Please join us for this fantastic and informative program of events this fall as we enter a new era of connecting and conferencing online.


More from August 2020 – Vol. 39, No. 7