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We are delighted to share a series featuring our recipients for the Helen P. Batty Awards for Excellence and Achievement in Faculty Development. This article will highlight the Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine: A Leadership Program for Emerging Leaders (AWE-FM) and the team comprised of Dr. Praseedha Janakiram, Dr. Baraa Alghalyini, Jamie Rodas, MPH, Dr. Orawan Tawaytibhongs, Dr. Hathaitip Tumviriyakul, Dr. Meseret Zerihun, and Dr. Thuy-Nga (Tia) Pham (pictured in the photo above, left to right).

The AWE-FM Team are the well-deserving recipients of Category 2: Excellence in Innovation in Program Development and Design.

About the Award

Category 2: Excellence in Innovation in Program Development and Design of the Helen Batty Awards recognizes an outstanding faculty development program within the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto which led to the enhancement of faculty members’ teaching, education, administration, leadership, scholarship, and/or advocacy knowledge, skills, or attitudes.

About the Program

Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine: A Leadership Program for Emerging Leaders (AWE-FM) is a program for current or emerging early to mid-career women leaders in family medicine from around the world. The goal of the program is to strengthen the individual and collective leadership skills of early to mid-career family physician/primary care women leaders, enabling personal, team, organizational and system growth and excellence in leading primary health care. Course participants develop critical skills to support their leadership journey as they advance the discipline of family medicine, while working together to address the challenges unique to emerging women leaders.

About the Team

Advancing Women’s Excellence in Family Medicine: A Leadership Program for Emerging Leaders (AWE-FM) was co-created by an international steering committee comprising of diverse women leaders from various countries including Canada, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. Their collective expertise and cross-cultural perspectives enriched the course content, ensuring it addresses challenges and opportunities for emerging women leaders around the world. The committee’s diversity fosters inclusivity, innovation, and a deeper understanding of leadership, benefitting participants with enhanced leadership skills tailored for an international audience.

Photos of the AWE-FM Team from the 2024 Temerty Medicine Annual Education Achievement Celebration.

The Award’s Impact

“We as the co-chairs and international faculty of AWE-FM are deeply honoured to be recognized for innovation/excellence in program development and design by the prestigious Helen Batty Award.

The AWE-FM program and team, is dedicated to inspiring early to mid-career women in family medicine to lead with all their gifts and skills. Traditionally leadership courses are costly particularly for low income country participants.  This award will allow a few applicants to receive a scholarship moving forward, as interest has been overwhelming, and we are already full and waitlisted for our second leadership cohort launch September 2024. AWE-FM aims to re-ignite joy in family medicine by creating a global network of emerging family physician women leaders and this will also be possible through workshops and oral presentations at international conferences in the coming 12 months. This award is of great significance as we promote the program, support our international steering committee in collective ongoing leadership advancement, and consider the scale of our future offerings in early leadership development.

On a personal note, all seven of us on the course steering committee, are working family physicians, administrators, organizers, educators, leaders, mothers, daughters, friends, with many more formal and informal roles of leadership. Through a passion for this vision and belief in future impact, we have met for close to 2 years biweekly (or more), across 5 different time zones and four different continents, to create a captivating curriculum and beautiful online virtual course platform to empower the next generation of family physicians.  As projections for women in family medicine continue to rise upwards of 47% in Canada, with similar projections in many countries globally, early and mid-career women in family medicine should feel empowered to step forward into leadership. Women in leadership in advancing healthcare, education in family medicine, and improving access to primary care will benefit our communities everywhere. The Helen Batty Award is a very meaningful recognition of the labour of love that this program represents to us as the course designers and faculty.”

– AWE-FM Co- Chairs: Praseedha Janakiram and Tia Pham, Department of Family and Community Medicine

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