Lifes Lessons

[Applause]

how did i become the recipient of the

american college of servitude’s lifetime

achievement award

thank goodness it is not given for

scientific achievement or innovation

because i have never made an

earth-shattering discovery

it is given for surge of service to the

college i have indeed given over 50

years of service to the college

but i am told that i was singled out

because i encouraged so many

others to become involved and brought

new ideas and programs to the college

i do not view myself as anybody special

i am a girl from a poor family in rural

new york

who was educated primarily in public

schools

or through the generosity of others i

chose to become a surgeon and remained

at my alma mater

suny upstate medical university my whole

career

i have always known how to be useful i

can in hindsight

see strategies and events that cause me

to follow this path of service

although i did face bias and adversity i

did not let it deter me

the resilience to overcome challenges

and the willingness

to work to eliminate them i believe is

the reason i have been honored on many

occasions

perhaps a little of the story of my life

and the lessons i have learned

throughout can help others although one

cannot change one’s childhood

many of the lessons i learned as a child

can be taught to children

to inspire them to become independent

creative

and to develop a good work ethic

as a young child we moved to rural new

york where both of my parents worked my

siblings were older than

i and my best friend became my father’s

aunt

who lived with us auntie had endless

curiosity

she read voraciously and taught me to do

the same

she valued excellence each morning we

did spelling words

i still get really upset when i get a

red underline

indicating i have spelled something

incorrectly

i learned you could be perfect if you

worked at it she admired eleanor

roosevelt and taught me to do

the same eleanor’s aphorism still guide

me

do what is right because someone will

criticize you anyway

every day do something that frightens

you just a little

no one can take away your

self-confidence without your consent

and so many more of her wise sayings

emulating why successful people

can lead you to push yourself have

heroes

give children inspiration

i had a great deal of alone time i was

responsible for myself

there were rules such as you have to

call if you are going to be late

for supper and when you hear a car

coming down the road you need to get off

your bicycle and stand by the side of

the road

pretty practical advice as only one lane

of our road was paved

i knew the rules but beyond that i was

on my own

i organized my own activities picked out

my own clothes

and earned money as soon as i could

being allowed to make decisions and

having to live with them

made me thoughtful and resilient as some

choices did not work out so well how

many times did i hear

and now what are you going to do usually

after something had not gone well

the admonition that went with it was you

could have done better

having this independence as a child was

important in making me able to handle

bigger challenges

as i aged when i was about 10 my father

had a stroke

and my sister developed multiple

sclerosis living with them

gave me an understanding and acceptance

of those with disabilities i was never

shielded from the less pleasant things

in life

which added to my resilience the

experience

with their physicians made me want to

become a doctor

a choice supported by my family and

teachers

remembering the impact of my family’s

doctors i try and engage children

when they accompany their family or if

they are the patients

i have now lived long enough to see some

of them actually come through medical

school

i observed that whenever our family

faced a challenge the approach was to

figure out

the way forward not to bemoan our tough

circumstances

the ability to problem-solve stuck with

me forever

and i was to face challenges as a child

i never felt gender bias

but that came to an end when i entered

college

the college had become co-ed only three

years earlier

and had far more men than women i was

pre-med

at orientation the pre-med group was

told

that the women should consider an

alternative career

as few women got into medical school

with the help of the only woman on the

science faculty of our college i was

accepted into medical school

after only three years of college that

solidified my already held belief

that no was only a suggestion i still

believe

no is the most empowering word in the

english language

i learned also that academic excellence

could overcome many an obstacle the

first years of medical school were not

my favorite

but were a necessary evil to get to the

prize clinical medicine

a worthwhile lesson you sometimes need

to do

things that are really tough or

unpleasant to get to what you want

and i used to tell my patients when they

were facing challenges

hang tough this too shall pass this too

shall pass was always a family mantra

and still is

during my third year of medical school

my mother became terminally ill

her surgeons they were smart they were

kind and they actually figured out what

was wrong with her

they were very useful which resonated

with me

once again my hero worship guided me

on my decision and i wanted to become a

surgeon

i did not appreciate that none of the

surgeons were women

and when i applied for a surgical

residency my

applications were just returned can you

imagine that

one program actually did give me an

interview and when i arrived

they said oh we don’t take women

surgeons i could not resist saying i’ve

never known a woman

a man named patricia joy i did resist

saying some other things which was a

very wise choice

i was able to negotiate a residency

position with the chair of surgery

who had been my mother’s doctor

following residency

i did not have job offers and by then

my father had also died thank goodness

my parents

had inspired independence as at 26 i was

without them

i created a tapestry of small jobs until

the new chair of surgery asked me to

join the department

i had never contemplated an academic job

but like

teaching and the university environment

so i accepted

then figured out how to be an academic

surgeon

research was not my first love teaching

was

i was told by many that closing my

research lab

would end my academic career i closed my

lab anyway

i focused on becoming an academic

educator by learning psychometrics to

improve

exams if you really want to be

considered an expert you should be one

you can only fake it for just so long

surgical education

has now become a respected academic

activity

the american college of surgeons gave me

great opportunities

to work on a number of education

projects

just as this offer of an academic

position

many of my best experiences have come

serendipitously

so always look at an offer it may turn

out to be great

the two most improbable offers i

received were to become associate dean

and run the educational aspects of the

dean’s office

when i was only nine years out of my

residency

another was to run for the ama council

on scientific affairs

each ended up being a really terrific

experience and allowed me to do many

things i felt needed doing such things

as improving the early experience in

medical school while associate team

and while on the council of scientific

affairs assuring processes were in place

to see that mammography was of good

quality

i learned how to administer programs and

much about human nature

both fitted into my desire to provide

service

as an administrator i learned to listen

so i could understand and hopefully find

a face-saving

resolution to some seemingly impossible

problems such as a revered professor is

no longer a safe surgeon

now what the most difficult part was to

listen to people

who had a very different view of things

than and a different value system than i

this is still

challenging but you can do it and if you

really listen you can learn

things both of you can work toward a

solution

and you can really have a much better

understanding

of their problem and why they believe

what they believe

you also often realize that there is an

issue that has caused the problem that

they’re dealing with

and that that needs to be addressed your

solution was always better with diverse

input

often during difficult conversations i

would use self-talk

i’ve always found self-talk very helpful

telling yourself that you can be patient

that you will not lose your temper that

you will be happy

that you are not tired that you can

really get that tumor out

and so many more things if you cannot

believe yourself

then who i also learned that it takes no

more work to be happy

than miserable attitude matters

i really realized early that since there

were no women

in surgery or for that matter in

medicine

i needed the support of enlightened men

to this day

it is critical to getting to

to getting support to get things

accomplished you can even

change biased men to accept that women

are capable

learning to change things slowly but

steadily helps

as the saying goes you can even eat an

elephant if you do so one bite at a time

engaging others in your projects is

helpful to their careers as well

you gain support for the things you wish

to do by being trustworthy

conversations are confidential gossip is

detrimental

a good friend who happened to be a

psychiatrist would say

it is their tale to tell betrayal of

someone’s confidence is always

discovered

and remembered the growing awareness of

the lack of women in medicine

and the many disparities they faced

became increasingly upsetting why should

women be the ones who always get the

thankless jobs and get paid less

i then attended the first women in

academia leadership conference

and realized that it was not just women

surgeons but that discrimination toward

women was pervasive

at the end of the conference each of us

promised to do something locally

and nationally to eradicate this bias

problem i did not know any women

surgeons

so i put up an invitation for women

surgeons attending the american college

of surgeons

meeting in 1981 to join me for breakfast

about 20 came i found like-minded women

with problems similar to my own the

association of women surgeons which

resulted is now 40 years old

and has members throughout the world

thus began

my quest for equity and inclusion of

women in surgery

i felt it important for women to align

themselves with mainstream organizations

which helped the american college of

surgeons be more inclusive of women

we held our meeting just before theirs

and had a great program which attracted

women

and they would then stay for the college

meeting and therefore became involved in

the college

becoming involved in education in

low-income countries made me even more

aware of the need for recruitment of

women to surgery

without women surgeons there would never

be

an adequate workforce i have been able

to help women in many countries improve

their circumstances

the american college of surgeons gave me

a great latitude in promoting women’s

issues and recruiting women to surgery

after all once you break the glass

ceiling you should not pull up the

ladder and patch it over

you need to widen the opening and build

permanent stairs

during my work with women i realized the

value of the american college of

surgeons to surgeons throughout the

world

and actively engaged and recruited them

the international members are now the

largest growing segment of the college

i tried to be sure that my advocacy was

always done respectively and inclusively

i learned and taught others how to

change the role and image of women

between the association of women

surgeons and working with the

association for surgical education

i realized that one or a few people can

make a difference

and that if you see something that needs

to be done just do it

do not wait to be asked you will find

support if it is a good

idea always be useful was another mantra

in my family

i think that willingness to look at a

problem and address it without

being asked is why i have been given

amazing recognition

such as the american college of surgeons

lifetime achievement award

always remember to accept recognition

with humility and give thanks

to the many others who have helped in

these efforts

perhaps the most valuable lesson i

learned was to help others attain their

dreams

whether it be by teaching and mentoring

students in residence

inviting someone to join a group or

introducing

people to one another you gain more than

you give

a simple thing like remembering when you

introduce people to mention a bit about

them

may create a connection these

connections have a tremendous

beneficial effect on many people’s

careers

you should always take advantage of the

opportunity to nominate and to recommend

others reveling in the success of others

will bring great rewards and have those

people want to support you

always want those around you to be as

good and confident as you

when you treat people that way they rise

to the task

when given this award they mentioned how

many people my service work has impacted

what better a legacy could anyone want

now nearly 80 i still have much to learn

how does one remain relevant functional

and useful thank you for listening