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September 2025

Dean's Message

September, recognized as Women in Medicine Month, invites us to reflect on the journeys of legends from the past, peers of the present, and leaders in the making for the future. In this spirit, we encourage you to read the piece written by two student leaders from the Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS), featured elsewhere in this issue of Progress Notes.

Grounded in the values and goals of VTCSOM, GWIMS embraces an inclusive approach that welcomes individuals of all gender identities. Our programming is designed for students, trainees, and faculty across VTCSOM, FBRI, and Carilion Clinic, with many of the topics and activities emerging directly from ideas submitted by participants. Together, we acknowledge and celebrate the contributions each person brings to our networking events, mentoring relationships, service projects, and career exploration opportunities. In recent years, this spirit of collaboration led us to co-develop the core values of our local GWIMS chapter: leadership, inclusivity, service, mentorship, and advocacy.

Within this framework, medical students hold unique leadership roles alongside resident and faculty advisors. These partnerships create opportunities to explore topics and venues that foster the knowledge, skills, and talents necessary for professional identity formation. Seeing the future of medicine through the passion of our student leaders fills us with hope for a profession that continues to value lifelong adaptive learning, curiosity, compassion for service, collaboration, and inclusion.

As advisors to GWIMS, we cherish the opportunity to support others in multiple capacities—at times as mentors, at times as coaches, and at times as sponsors. We are continually inspired by the genuine enthusiasm of our students, residents, fellows, and faculty peers as they seek growth, service, peer support, and career exploration.

This commitment to supporting one another is not limited to formal GWIMS programming. Each of us in the VTCSOM community has the potential to serve as a mentor, coach, or sponsor. Although these roles differ in approach and focus, they share the common goal of fostering growth and development. As one memorable description explains:

  • A mentor talks with you.
  • A coach talks to you.
  • A sponsor talks about you.

Mentoring provides a longitudinal relationship that guides and encourages holistic development. Coaching helps individuals set goals and create strategies to achieve them. Sponsorship extends beyond advice, as sponsors lend their influence to open doors and create opportunities for career progression. Together, these roles form complementary layers of support—essential to cultivating competent, compassionate, and service-oriented leaders in medicine and science.

Tarin Schmidt-Dalton, M.D. and Rebecca R. Pauly, M.D., GWIMS Faculty Advisors

GWIMS Student Note

Celebrating Women in Medicine month this September means reflecting on the path that led us collectively here. Women are transforming healthcare across the United States (U.S.) through collaboration and ingenuity, continuing the legacy of female physicians in the early 20th century like Dr. Caroline Finley. Dr. Finley led a group of volunteer U.S. female physicians and staff to France in early 1918 to care for the wounded during World War I. Their leadership and service were so impactful that they were awarded French Military Honors and commissioned as lieutenants into the French Army. At that time, approximately 6% of all American physicians were women. Although women would gain suffrage across the U.S. in 1920, the first female physician was not commissioned into the U.S. Army Medical Reserve Corps until 1943.

Over the next 100 years, women continue to gain parity in medicine. Since 2018, women have consistently outnumbered men nationally in terms of applicants and matriculants to medical school. Despite this, just under 40% of practicing physicians are female (expected to rise to 42% by 2028). While women have made progress in the medical field, there is still a significant amount of work to be done. Women are starkly underrepresented in senior leadership roles in both medicine and other scientific fields. As of 2024, women represented 27% of U.S. medical school deans, 45% of senior associate deans, 34% of division chiefs and 25% of department chairs. Although these statistics have risen over the past decade, women continue to experience pay inequities, underscoring the importance for ongoing advocacy to address salary disparities.

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) has made great strides in fostering an environment where women can advance. Beginning with the Class of 2021, we mirrored national statistics with over 50% of women matriculating. At VTCSOM, our Vice Dean and 56% of our Associate Deans are women. We currently have two female department chairs: Tristi Metcalf, MD, Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Sarah Henrickson Parker, PhD, Chair of Health Systems and Implementation Science. Additionally, we are welcoming two new department chairs in 2026, one of whom is female.

To continue the advancement of women in medicine and science, collaborative and intersectional leadership and mentorship are key. VTCSOM Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) was founded in 2010 by Dr. Cynda Johnson (Founding Dean and Dean Emerita) and Dr. Joan Fisher following the matriculation of the charter class. GWIMS is an AAMC accredited affinity group whose mission is to support the inclusion, participation, and advancement of women in medicine and science. The VTCSOM chapter of GWIMS is supported by the generous endowment from Dean Johnson’s mother, Dolores Stolte. The Cecil William Stolte and Dolores Ann Reith Stolte Fund for Women in Medicine and Science has supported programming for hundreds of VTCSOM GWIMS members. We also extend our deepest gratitude to our faculty advisors, Tarin Schmidt-Dalton, Associate Dean for Clinical Science, and Rebecca Pauly, Vice Dean, for their instrumental contributions and support to the GWIMS Chapter of VTCSOM and to the broader advancement of women in medicine.

Over the last 15 years, GWIMS programming has grown to include all students, residents and faculty across VTCSOM, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (FBRI), and Carilion Clinic (CC) campuses. Presently, there are approximately 230 active members of VTCSOM GWIMS representing a wide variety of fields, specialties, and research interests at all timepoints in members’ careers.

The breadth of membership and experience within GWIMS creates a unique opportunity to engage with intentional mentorship by pairing medical students, residents, and attendings in a variety of fields to foster networking and relationship building. These formal and informal mentorship opportunities support the advancement of women in medicine and science by providing avenues for professional development and career exploration. Recent GWIMS programming highlights include a panel on navigating implicit bias, a training on trauma informed care with an associated donation drive, a panel on navigating surgical specialties, a self-defense workshop, and non-clinical career opportunities. Additionally, GWIMS hosted its annual Welcome Social in August of 2025, bringing together over 50 members of the VTCSOM GWIMS chapter from VTCSOM, FBRI, and CC.

As we step into the 2025–2026 academic year, we encourage all students, residents, faculty, and members of the community to celebrate, support, and sustain the women who lead and elevate within medicine and science. Whether you’re mentoring the next generation, serving on a leadership committee, or showing up for your peers, your role matters.

Warmest regards,

Alexandra Kaiser & Julianna Barbaro, Class of 2028
On behalf of VTCSOM’s chapter of GWIMS

For more information, please refer to the following sources:

Social Media

Events

Humanism Note

POETRY AND MEDICINE
Tara P. Menon, BS, Class of 2028

Phase I, Arms Crossed
Tara P. Menon, BS

You sit in the chair
like it's church.
Vinyl seat, quiet prayers.
The IV pole gleams like a candleholder.

This isn't the drug that will save you.
They told you that.
This is the one that might
help someone later,
if your body behaves.

You whisper your sins
to the nurse:
I missed a dose once.
I drank red wine last week.
I want to believe this is doing something.

She nods.
Taps the port.
Smiles like she didn't hear
the part about belief.

You watch the bag drip.
Clear. Odorless. Almost holy.

You are measured in milliliters
and micromoles.
You stop being a person.
You start being a data point.
And yet,
you've never felt more like yourself.

They take your blood every four hours.
You joke about vampires.
You don't mention
how it reminds you of your daughter's birth-
that same smell of antiseptic and maybe.

You wear the wristband
like a charm.
You hold still.
You hope the trial doesn't know
how much you want to be chosen.

Publishing

Spotlight on Giving

This month, our Donor Spotlight section shines on the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation for its generous support of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Thanks to the gift, given in 2013, VTCSOM hosts the Delta Dental Oral Health Endowed Lecture. This event features a distinguished keynote speaker who is an expert in the field of oral health. VTCSOM is one of the few medical schools nationwide that has integrated oral health into its curriculum.

Beyond the lecture series, the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation's gift enables the school to offer clinical training, a specialized elective on oral health, and a variety of lectures covering general oral health, oral cancer, common pathologies, and the oral manifestations of systemic diseases. The Foundation's commitment to advancing oral health education at VTCSOM is helping to prepare a new generation of physicians with a more comprehensive understanding of the vital link between oral and overall health.

Join us for the 15th Delta Dental Oral Health Endowed Lecture taking place Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at VTCSOM.  There will be a reception beginning at 5:30 p.m. followed by the lecture at 7 p.m.  A Zoom option is available.  This event is free and open to the public.

Registration Required:  https://aimsbbis.vt.edu/deltadental92025

Alumni Update

VTCSOM will be hosting a tent at the annual Virginia Tech Homecoming Tailgate!

Saturday, October 4

*4 hours prior to kick-off
Tickets to the VT vs. Wake Forest Game sold separately

Holtzman Alumni Center
901 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

For $15 in advance or $20 at the door, you can enjoy lawn games, music, family-friendly activities, inflatables, music, and more!  Your ticket includes food, three adult drink tickets, and a gift to support student scholarships.

VTCSOM will offer swag (while supplies last) and some fun stuff for the kids!

REGISTER using the link below:

https://alumni.vt.edu/events/2025/10/homecoming-tailgate.html

Take Note

It’s a new school year, but not just for us at VTCSOM! Dean Lee Learman joined members of the community in welcoming students to Lincoln Terrace Elementary School on the first day of classes. 

Last Note

Members of Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine's Class of 2029 received their white coats during the annual White Coat Ceremony, symbolizing their entrance into the practice of medicine.

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