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These Women Have Risen as Leaders of Otolaryngology Associations

by Nikki Kean •

The year 2023 may be remembered as the year of the woman in otolaryngology. There have already been a number of firsts, including the first female physician editor of ENTtoday, Robin Lindsay, MD; the first female president of the American Board of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Kathleen C.Y. Sie, MD; and the first female president of the Association of Academic Departments of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery (AADO), Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD.

This shift to having more women assume leadership roles in otolaryngology has been a slow build. In 1973, the first annual meeting of the newly formed American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) was held in New Orleans, La. “Although women had been placed on the ballot previously to run for president, when they ran against a male candidate, they were unsuccessful,” said Kathleen Yaremchuk, MD, current president of the AAO-HNS.

In 2004, Jenifer Derebery, MD, was elected as the first female president of the AAO-HNS. Two qualified women were on the ballot that year. “Since that time Gayle Woodson, MD [2015], Sujana Chandrasekhar, MD [2016], Carol Bradford, MD [2021], and I [2023] have been elected to serve as president,” said Dr. Yaremchuk, chair of the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit. “Over the last seven years, four women have been elected.”

Dr. Yaremchuk sees the establishment of the Women In Otolaryngology (WIO) section of AAO-HNS in 2011 as a turning point. “The WIO Section gave women in AAO-HNS an outlet for having their voices heard and advocating for gender-specific issues,” she said.

Whether it’s a broken rung on the ladder, a sludgy pipeline, or a glass ceiling, things need to change to welcome women and promote them accordingly within our specialty. —Kathleen Yaremchuk, MD

For Dr. Nathan, who is the Jack Pou Endowed Professor and chair of the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Louisiana State University Health–Shreveport, being elected president of AADO “is a significant honor and responsibility. It is definitely a major advance [for women] although there’s a long way to go in terms of gender equity. When I graduated in 1994, I was the first female otolaryngology resident at the University of California, San Diego. Hopefully, women in otolaryngology are on the way to a critical mass that will propel them forward.”

As an example, Dr. Nathan noted that, for a number of years, there were only four women chairs in U.S. otolaryngology. “However, in the last two to three years we have added seven more chairs—almost doubled—making a total of 11 chairs, or 9% of the 113 programs,” she said.