Pictured: Nimisha Parekh, MD, speaking at the Women’s Leadership Academy Graduation, Mazzo Terrace, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute

The Women’s Leadership Academy (WLA) held its inaugural graduation on March 30, 2022, on the Mazzo Terrace at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute on the UCI campus. The celebration honored 19 faculty members who completed a six-session course, in which various topics were examined and explored, including: gender bias, leadership styles, power and presence, negotiations and allyship.

The sessions were designed to cultivate a professional network, provide access to top UCI leaders, and strengthen the skills and confidence of participants when they develop strategic relationships and actively communicate their value to the organization.The first cohort consisted of 19 women-identified faculty from eighteen different departments in the School of Medicine.

Under the guidance of Khanh-Van Le-Bucklin, MD, and Nimisha Parekh, MD, the Women’s Leadership Academy was founded in 2021 to address the gender disparity in leadership at UCI. The Academy is a unique and experiential professional development program for early and mid-career, women-identified faculty in the School of Medicine.

Participants were nominated by their department chair or department leadership.

2021-2022 cohort:

Amber Leis, MD, Department of Plastic Surgery
Jennifer Soun, MD, Department of Radiological Sciences
Natasha Mesinkovska, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology
Sujin Lee, MD, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Alexis Seegan, MD, Department of Psychiatry
Michelle Paff, MD, Department of Neurosurgery
Ashley Broussard, MD, Department of Anesthesiology
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology
Rachel Perry, MD, MPH, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Yarah Haidar, MD, Department of Otolaryngology
Katy Khalighi, MD, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Geriatrics
Jennifer Woo, MD, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Division of Transfusion Medicine
Kari Kansal, MD, Department of Surgery
Angela Fleischman, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Bobby Sasson, MD, MPH, Department of Medicine
Alisa Wray, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine
Medha Pathak, PhD, Department of Physiology & Biophysics
Dena Moskowitz, MD, Department of Urology
Candice Taylor Lucas, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics  

Through the Women’s Leadership Academy, the School of Medicine hopes to provide development opportunities to the more than 200 assistant and associate rank women-identified faculty, build an internal pipeline for the next group of women leaders, and foster comradery and collaborations across departments. The second cohort has been selected, and the participants will be announced soon.