Chair of Department of Surgery at Washington University Honored for Support of Women Faculty

The Academic Women’s Network at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has bestowed the inaugural Pillar of Support Award on Timothy Eberlein, chair of the department of surgery. The award was created to honor individuals for their outstanding support of women faculty.

Dr. Eberlein, who also serves as director of the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, became chair of the department of surgery in 1998. At that time there were three women faculty members in the department. Today, there are 37 women among the department’s 141 faculty members.

“Dr. Eberlein has rightly earned the honor of the inaugural AWN Pillar of Support Award through his steadfast endorsement and mentoring of women,” said Susan E. Mackinnon, the Sydney M. Jr. and Robert H. Shoenberg Professor and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. “He not only listens to the concerns of female residents, fellows and attendings, he acts on their concerns. He has provided the resources and support needed to allow new, full-time mothers, both residents and attendings, to be full-time surgeons, mid-career mothers to lead national programs, and grandmothers to be members of the Institute of Medicine.

“While women have reached parity as members of our medical school classes, their advancement to the higher ranks in most medical fields has stalled. With his strong mentorship and sponsorship, Dr. Eberlein has given the women in the department of surgery a leg up and a push forward. Dr. Eberlein has set the AWN Pillar of Support bar at a high level and is most deserving of this important award.”

“It is very important for male leaders in academic medicine to feel comfortable mentoring women and helping them get into leadership positions themselves,” Dr. Eberlein said. “It’s very obvious if you want the very best, then you have to make sure you have a place for women in leadership.”