The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) held their national meeting, “The Women's Health 2009: The 17th Annual Congress”, at the Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, VA, from March 27 through March 29, 2009. Dr. Wendy S. Klein served as the 2009 Congress Chair. Dr. Klein is the Senior Deputy Director Emeritus of the VCU Institute for Women's Health and the Deputy Editor of the Journal of Women's Health. The Congress Co-Chair for 2009 is Dr. Susan G. Kornstein, who is the Executive Director of the VCU Institute for Women's Health and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Women's Health. AMWA Co-Chairs for 2009 are Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH and Laurel A. Waters, MD, FCAP, FASCP.
The 2009 17th Annual Congress was jointly sponsored by Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and BioConferences International, Inc., and was presented by the Journal of Women's Health and VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) Institute for Women's Health. The VCU Institute for Women’s Health is one of only 20 National Centers of Excellence.
The 2009 AMWA National Student Executive Board includes Misty Richards who was sworn in at the Conference as the AMWA National Student President, Elmira Sadeghi, who is the AMWA National Student Secretary, and Ashley Styczynski, who is the AMWA National Student Treasurer. Misty Richards is a third year medical student at Albany Medical College. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2008 and is conducting research in Japan until September 2009. Ms. Richards was honored with the Dr. Anne C. Carter Award for outstanding student leadership at the 2009 AMWA Conference. Dr. Carter's life was a celebration of what women can achieve and contribute to others. For many years, Dr. Carter was Trustee of the Financial Aid Fund of AMWA’s New York Branch 14, served as Chair of the Student Loan and Scholarship Committee and on the AWMA Foundation Board.
At a banquet dinner during the conference on Saturday, March 28, an Engeye video by photographer and videographer Bryan Meltz (http://www.bryanmeltz.com/), who was part of the most recent mission to Uganda in February 2009, was shown to the AMWA membership. The Engeye Board of Directors includes Stephanie Van Dyke, Misty Richards and Anny Su, and they were all present to talk about the February 2009 Engeye mission where partnerships were forged with the Ugandan Ministry of Health, Uganda CARES, FINCA International and RHSP (Rakai Health Services Program). A powerful Engeye presentation that was created by John Leisure, the Engeye Marketing Advisor and a Fulbright scholar, was shown. The presentation profiles the history of the Engeye Health Clinic, which was founded in 2006 by Stephanie Van Dyke and John Kalule, a Ugandan national who lives in Ddegeya Village and runs the day-to-day operations.
The keynote speaker for the AMWA Annual Banquet on Sunday night was Joia Mukherjee, MD, MPH. Dr. Mukherjee discussed her experiences in international health and her role as Medical Director of Partners in Health at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Joia Mukherjee trained in Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mukherjee has been involved in health care access and human rights issues since 1989 in the United States, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. In 1999, she began working with Partners In Health and in 2000 became Partners In Health's Medical Director. PIH is an international medical charity with clinical programs in Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Peru, Mexico, Russia, and inner-city Boston. Currently, Dr. Mukherjee also is the Director of the Institute of Health and Social Justice, the Advocacy arm of Partners In Health. Dr. Mukherjee consults for the World Health Organization on the treatment of HIV and MDR-TB in developing countries and is a member of the Executive Board of Health Action AIDS, a campaign conducted with Physicians for Human Rights to engage the US health professional community in the international advocacy and education effort to stop the global AIDS pandemic.
About American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA)
The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is an organization of women physicians, medical students and other persons dedicated to serving as the unique voice for women's health and the advancement of women in medicine. The organization was founded by Dr. Bertha VanHoosen in 1915 in Chicago, at a time when women physicians were an under-represented minority. As women in medicine increase in numbers, new problems and issues arise that were not anticipated. AMWA has been addressing these issues for 93 years. AMWA functions at the local, national and international level to advance women in medicine and improve women’s health by providing and developing leadership, advocacy, education, expertise, mentoring and through building strategic alliances. The AMWA is located at: 100 North 20th Street, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103. The phone number is: 215-320-3716 and the website is: http://www.amwa-doc.org/
About the Engeye Health Clinic
The Engeye Health Clinic is located in Ddegeya Village in southern Uganda. The main clinic building and two volunteer houses were constructed during the summer of 2006 with funds from an inheritance from the grandmother of Engeye Health Clinic’s co-founder, Dr. Stephanie Van Dyke. Habitat for Humanity builder Gary Arnold, several volunteers, and at least 50 local villagers joined Stephanie for the initial ground-breaking and construction. John Kalule, a native Ugandan, co-founded the Engeye Health Clinic, and manages the daily operations of the Clinic. The word Engeye means "white monkey" in Luganda, an official language of the country, and is John’s family clan name. Dr. Stephanie Van Dyke, Dr. Carlos Elguero, John Leisure, Jay Shah, Misty Richards and Anny Su comprise the board of directors for the 501(c) (3) tax deductible, nonprofit organization. For more information, visit: www.engeye.org.
