Pride Ortho Newsletter: APR 2023 : simplebooklet.com

Message from the President

As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Pride Ortho, we reflect on the significant strides we have made and the impact we have had on the orthopaedic community. With over 150 members, we have successfully integrated the representation of the LGBTQ+ community into orthopaedic conferences and literature. Our meet-ups at AAOS, POSNA, AAHKS, and OTA have provided a platform for the LGBTQ+ community to connect and engage with one another. Additionally, we have launched ten scholarships for LGBTQ+ medical students to pursue orthopaedic rotations, with two scholarships being offered at Columbia and NYU, providing not only financial support but also guaranteed spots for the recipients.

In March, we had our second luncheon at AAOS, where we were honored to have Dr. Kevin John Bozic, President of AAOS, in attendance. His personal story of witnessing the struggles of his closeted best friend during residency deeply touched us all. The event provided a safe and supportive space for the LGBTQ+ community, including LGBTQ+ members of the Orthopaedic industry who have struggled to come out to clients. Pride Ortho has made it possible for them to feel accepted and supported in their workplace. The overwhelming support from allies further reinforces the need for safe and inclusive spaces for everyone, including those who are not yet comfortable with labeling themselves.

Moving forward, we plan to continue providing online educational programming and expand our offerings to include ally training and bystander training. Our new board, composed of 12 dedicated individuals, is ready to drive forward our mission to create an inclusive and safe environment for the LGBTQ+ community within orthopaedics. We also look forward to hosting our first in-person meeting during the AAOS meeting in San Francisco, where we plan to include a fun and inclusive event such as a drag brunch.

However, we acknowledge the current political climate that has resulted in harmful laws targeting the transgender community and women's reproductive rights. It can be discouraging, but we remain steadfast in our commitment to fight for the rights and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community. We have always faced adversity, but our resilience and perseverance will continue to push us forward. We are proud to be queer, and we will always be here to stay.

Best,

Q Hammouri

President, Pride Ortho

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Message from the Vice President

We continue to grow and that is very encouraging! The highlight for me recently was the AAOS Pride Ortho Luncheon in Vegas. This was the second luncheon sponsored by the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board. It was well attended by our members including the AAOS presidential line. But what was most inspiring to me was what presidential elect, Dr. Kevin Bozic said. He shared a personal story about his best friend in residency who was gay and in the closet. He was moved to tears when he described his friend who felt he had to keep his professional and personal life separate. This genuine story gave me hope in our future leaders and for our community.

Additionally, I am happy to say that we are graduating from luncheon to annual meeting! We will have our first official meeting at the AAOS annual meeting in San Francisco in 2024. What a great location that has such a deep history for the LGBTQ+ community. We need and hope everyone will be there!

In courage,

Jaime Bellamy

Vice President, Pride Ortho

Thank You For Your Service

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Forums

If you are a 4th year medical student, consider using the forum to share your away rotation experiences with other Pride Ortho members.

Feedback on Away

Rotation, Residency &

Fellowship Experiences:

Attendance:

Pride Ortho Socials

& Ortho Conferences:

Created 2 new Forums to serve as safe spaces for members to share conference attendance & program experiences Achievements In the past 4 months, Pride Ortho Has: This forum is to serve as a safe space for residency and fellowship applicants to discuss interview, away rotation, and alumni experiences at specific programs.
This forum is to serve as a safe space where members can share their attendance at future pride ortho socials and/or orthopaedic conferences.

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The David Roye Jr. ScholarshipDeadline: April 17th

Pride Ortho has teamed up with NYP/Columbia Orthopedic Surgery residency program to sponsor a medical student rotation in New York City! The selected student will get a guaranteed away rotation at Columbia, a $2,500 stipend, mentorship, and letter of recommendation from the Pride Ortho team. Students MUST also apply to Columbia through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunity (VSLO) system, and meet all requirements for visiting students required by Columbia University orthopedics.

The scholarship is named after Dr. David Roye Jr. who is a distinguished senior LGBTQ Pediatric Orthopaedic surgeon who spent much of his career at Columbia.

Use the link below to apply.

https://form.jotform.com/221396165838162

The Gary and Linda Friedlaender Scholarships and Julie Samora Away Rotation ScholarshipsDeadline: May 15th

Thanks to the generosity of Pride Ortho's founding President Dr. Qusai Hammouri, founding member Dr. Julie Samora, and the Friedlaenders, we will also be offering scholarships to medical students completing orthopedic away-rotations at other institutions. Just tell us where you are going and why in the application below! All away rotations must be set up and approved through the program where you will be rotating. Mentorship and a letter of recommendation will be provided to all scholarship recipients.

Dr. Gary Friedlaedner is chair emeritus of Orthopaedics at Yale. For the past 25 years, Gary and Linda have held a safe space in their home for diversity in orthopedics through their monthly book club. This scholarship is named in appreciation to their DEI work.

Use the link below to apply.

https://form.jotform.com/221345680103244

NYU Langone- Pride Ortho ScholarshipDeadline: May 15th

Pride Ortho and NYU Langone Orthopedics are joining forces to offer a medical student rotation at NYU! The selected student will get a guaranteed away rotation at NYU, a $2,500 stipend, mentorship, and a letter of recommendation from the Pride Ortho team. NYU does not participate in the VLSO program, so interested students MUST also apply via the instructions listed on their website:

https://med.nyu.edu/education/md-degree/registration-student-records/information-visiting-md-students

Use the link below to apply.

https://form.jotform.com/221395942474160

Scholarship Opportunities

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Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Program: Womac Army MC/Cape Fear Valley

Location: Fayetteville, NC

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Program: University of Chicago

Location: Chicago, IL

MATCH DAY! Congratulations to our prior Scholarship Recipients on Matching! So proud of your accomplishments!

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Program: University of North Carolina

Location: Chapel Hill, NC

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Program: Henry Ford

Location: Detroit, MI

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IODA & Pride ortho Webinar

Pride ortho & IODA joined forces to discuss strategies to increase the inclusion of LGBTQ+ surgeons in Orthopaedics worldwide. IODA president Jennifer Green and Pride Ortho board member Julie Samora moderated the session. Pride Ortho president Qusai Hammouri, Australian arthroplasty and tumor surgeon Claudia Di Bella, San Diego-based shoulder and elbow surgeon Mark Schultzel, and Columbian-based orthopaedic specialist & bioengineer Tatiana Quiñonez were faculty. They provided their perspectives and insights of successful personal & region-specific strategies.

POSNA-IPOS PRIDE ORTHO SOCIAL

Our 1st annual Pride Ortho Social at IPOS 2022 in Orlando, Florida was a success!. The social welcomed students, residents, and attendings from various stages in their orthopaedic careers to network with one another and celebrate PrideOrtho's mission!

"What an incredible event and pleasantly surprising turn-out. We truly appreciate the support from DePuy Synthes, POSNA, and Dr. Julie Samora for helping us put on the first and hopefully not the last IPOS Pride Ortho social."

-Carla Bridges, MD

Events Recap WATCH HERE

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AOFAS & PRIDE ORTHO: ON THE SAME PAGE Book Club Discussion:

The Remedy: Queer & Trans Voices on Health & Health Care

Everyone in medicine knows that not all heroes wear capes. This campaign was created to highlight our allies who stand fearlessly beside us like the superhero's they are. If you are an ally to PrideOrtho or know of one, please help us honor them by snapping a photo together with your best "power pose"! Send the photos to any of our socials or our email for a chance to be featured on our social media.

EMAIL Upcoming Events

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NEW Programs endorsed by LGBTQ+ resident AND Program Director/Chairperson Congrats to those SIX programs who join our growing list of dually endorsed programs! Resources

Harvard Combined Orthopedic Surgery Residency

University of California, San Francisco

University of Minnesota

University of Washington

Washington University in St. Louis

Yale New Haven Hospital

LGBTQ+ Inclusive Residency Programs Duke UniversityNew York University/Hospital for Joint Disease

NYP/Columbia Medical Center

SUNY Upstate

University of Michigan

University of Toronto

Want to get on the List? Submit letters from a current resident/fellow as well as the program director/chairperson stating their support of the LGBTQ+ community.Email letters to membership@prideorthopaedics.org

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Katherine Woolley, MD

Current Resident

University of California, San Francisco "San Francisco is an incredibly diverse city with a strong LGBTQ+ community. I have been able to easily find a strong support system.... UCSF has created an intentionally supportive hospital environment. There are many signs of allyship and safety for the LGBTQ+ community in all our hospitals. I have always felt very safe and accepted by all of my co-residents, attendings, and other hospital staff." Bones Ball featuring all the current female residents Residency Spotlight "Throughout my tenure at UCSF, the Orthopaedics Department has prioritized increasing diversity, promoting equity and fostering an inclusive culture. These goals are evidenced in our recruitment, in our education and mentorship efforts, and in our community outreach. Women comprise a third of both our faculty and residents." Anthony Ding, MD

Assistant Professor and Former Resident

Check out UCSF here:

UCSF

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And then my first fellowship was in Baltimore. So as a third year resident, my girlfriend at the time was a medical student in Israel in Haifa, at the Rampa Medical Center. And so I wanted to go visit her and spend a month there because we were having a hard time with the long distance. And so you're allowed to do an elective in residency as long as it's something that's not offered in Canada or in Montreal. And so this guy there was using these tailored spatial frames and doing all this deformity stuff. And so I found him based on the fact that I needed to find something that wasn't available in Canada. And I literally spent a month there, and I loved it. It was like my introduction to deformity correction and frames and stuff like that. So that was as a third year resident. And so he said, if you want to do this stuff, you have to go to Baltimore. This is where people train for this stuff. So that's where I ended up for my first fellowship. And then I was pretty much headed doing only paeds. I was going to do paeds ortho and deformity correction, which most people who do deformity and lengthening do paeds. So my second fellowship was in Australia with this guy named David Little. He's pretty famous for all kinds of research, and so I was doing some basic science research at the time, like lengthening little rat legs, so it was a good fit. So I went there, they knew I was doing the Baltimore fellowship and basically they had saved up like 20 or 30 frame cases that they needed help with. I was learning how to do hips and surgical hip dislocations and all this fun stuff. So it was a great fellowship. Both fellowships were really, really great. And then I got hired back at the Shriners in Montreal to do peds ortho and deformity correction.

That was a disaster. It was absolutely the worst experience of my life. The guy who hired me was in his 60s. He was also a deformity surgeon, very old school, was not ready to have a female gay out person as part of his team, and made my life a living hell for two years until I left. Not entirely sure why they hired me, to be honest, because it started from when I arrived, and I was not out in residency, so that might have been one of the reasons. But when I came back, as soon as I left my residency, I was out for fellowship, and I was happy. So when I came back, I was like, I'm not going back in the closet for this. I'm going to have to deal with it. And it was a pretty old school place. McGill is a bit like a boys’ club still, unfortunately. I didn't feel comfortable in residency to be out at all. I was the only woman in about 40 residents for four years. So that was that.

That was a tricky time in my career because to do pediatrics in Canada, you can't really be outside an academic center. And I was pretty attached to staying in Montreal because of my family, and my sister was back here. So I shifted my practice, started doing more of a general orthopedic practice. I was about to leave Quebec, actually. I was going to go to the US and leave Canada. The guy whom I started working with a little bit at one of the community hospitals, said, you can't leave. You’ve got to stay. We need you in Quebec. We need what you're doing. I said, okay, but how am I going to do this? I'm doing these crazy frame cases in a community hospital. [He said] Yeah, you're just going to do it.

And so that's what I did. I started doing these cases in the community and grew my reputation, grew my practice, and then I was allowed to do some peds stuff as long as I didn't have to keep the kids overnight. Then I had some colleagues whom I trained as my fellows, they came back and took jobs in Quebec City and Sherbrooke, which is about 2 hours away from Montreal. They said, well, if you have any kids you got to do, you bring them to us, we'll do them together. That's what we did. I shifted my practice. Then I started doing things like hip scopes because I spent a lot of hips in Australia with surgically dislocated hips as the technique for a SCFE and then realized that for fixing labrums and stuff like that, there were better techniques. I started doing hip scopes, which I'm not a sporty spice, I don't do any sports, but this is something that I feel is somehow in my sphere of deformity correction.

Then I started doing a bunch of foot and ankle deformity because that's what you see in general practice. I developed this percutaneous bunion technique. I started doing so many bunions, you can't imagine. I think I've done over 1000 bunions in five years. And so I got famous for the bunions in Canada anyways, which is really funny because it's like the easiest thing that I do.

Dr. marie gdalevitch, M. D., F.R.c.S.c.

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People always ask: what are you doing? My practice was, from my perspective, deformity corrections and lengthening. But from other people's perspective, it's foot and ankle, sports, osteotomy. It's just a very strange practice. Finally, because I do the lengthening, people started contacting me for this cosmetic lengthening stuff. I started gradually. There were a bunch of patients that were coming to see me because they didn't want to go to the US. They didn't want to go to some of the other countries that do this stuff. So that practice took off right before COVID hit. And because of COVID, I sort of slowed it down because I didn't think it was the right time to be in cosmetic surgeries that could potentially land patients in the hospital.

We restarted again in April 2022, and it has been crazy ever since. That was one of the initiating factors in developing the surgery center with my sister. I started to do a branch of Orthopedics that was not just something that I did in the hospital; that was private. I needed a space to do it in that was safe, that was up to my standard of care. My sister had already branched out. She was doing breast reconstruction for a while. The hospital system treats plastic surgeons really like s*&% in Canada. They just take a lot of calls,

don't get a lot of work. So she was done. She went off to do aesthetics, and she was ready to have a private practice.

Hence, we made and opened the surgery center. That was a project that sort of started during the pandemic, because, as you know, in Canada, we're having a hard time accessing OR time for patients. And so that was one of the initiating factors, just to see how we could help the system. And now we're here today.

PrideOrtho: Do you have a target date for when that's going to open?

MG: My sister has been using it for minor procedures, and we've been using it as office space already. And literally, the second we get our permit, it's open because we're ready. We have our staff, we have our equipment. The only thing that I still have to wait on is a permit for the CRM, which is another permit, which they have to wait for the first permit to get the second permit. I might not be able to do my limb lengthening stuff there just yet, but within, I hope, a month or so, we should be ready to go.

The idea is that we're going to have some kind of deal with one of the hospitals to put some of the Orthopedic and plastic stuff there so that we can offload the system. In Canada, what I do is considered not covered. It's aesthetic. Like what my sister does is aesthetic. We don't have to be part of the public system. We're still part of the public system to do the stuff that is covered for patients.

PrideOrtho: That's really quite a lot of pioneering work that you've done there.

MG: So for now, I'm the only person doing cosmetic lengthening in Canada. It is a struggle to do private surgery in Canada. It’s obviously a controversial topic. Even within the American community, is not necessarily super well-received. I think I'm pretty selective with the patients. It is a very interesting subgroup of people. It’s literally empowering men, which is not something I thought I'd be doing in my career, but it is an interesting subgroup of patients, really 90%, probably men, and they're very grateful patients. It's very different; I never thought I'd be doing this. Obviously, this is not what I got into it for, but it's helping people. It really is. Changing their lives, not taking unnecessary risks, it's quite safe, it's quite cosmetic. The technology has allowed us to get to this point, which is really amazing. And these guys, they're really very thankful patients.

PrideOrtho: How did you hear about PrideOrtho?

MG: When I shifted gears in my career, I really didn't think that I would be doing teaching, doing research, doing any of that stuff, because I left the academics based on a really terrible experience. Then I just started doing it through my community practice. I became a consultant for a company for the frame, to do some courses. I won a research grant for the bunions to do a study to show that this technique was better than some others. It's amazing how, if you want to, you can. You know what I mean? I went for an ortho pediatrics company event. They asked me to do a frame course for some of their surgeons so I did a course.

Dr. marie gdalevitch, M. D., F.R.c.S.c.

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Carla Bridges was there, and so she asked me to be part of PrideOrtho. I was pretty busy at the time . And she's said, no, you should sign up. Then once you sign up, you should sign up to do something. I'm on all these committees where for some of them, I don't feel that attached to. I thought: She's right. I should do something that I feel really strongly about, that I feel like I can make an impact and use my voice. So I signed up, and then they sort of enlisted me to be part of the Education Committee. I met Ashley, and then we started doing some work on some stuff, and it’s been great. It's been one of the more fulfilling committees that I'm a part of.

PrideOrtho: Do you find that it takes up a lot of your time with Pride Ortho Education Committee?

MG: No, the Education committee doesn't do the mentorship stuff which takes a little bit more time because we have a relationship, which is great. I think it's nice for me to have somebody to sort of look up to and bounce ideas off of. And then I have a Mentee, and then I'm also part of a group mentoring thing, so that takes up some time. But again, I've decided at some point it is okay.

During COVID, I signed up for all these things because we were doing nothing in Canada. We were literally sitting on our asses. So now I became part of too many committees. I cut back. I said, I'm going to hold on to the things that really bring me joy, and I'm going to cut back on the other stuff. And so now I find that it's getting better. The balance is getting better. During the time where we were fighting for a permit, things were a little more stressful, but now I feel like things are settled back down.

When everything picked up, again, you had all these other obligations.

PrideOrtho: Can you describe any incidents where you saw negative behavior? I mean, obviously, you've experienced some against the LGBTQ+ community, and how did you handle it?

MG: Yeah, well, I think a large part of what happened when I came back from residency, in part, had to do with me being out, and people not being comfortable with that. Nobody ever spoke to me about my spouse. Nobody ever spoke to me about my life. They didn't want to know. And so that sends a clear message that this is not accepted. It's not something we want to talk about. Every time it would come up, they would change the subject. So I think that that was a fairly negative experience. I was really worried when I switched environments. That would be a problem again. Before I accepted the job at the other place, I said, Listen, you guys need to know I'm gay. I'm out. If this is a problem, I'd rather know now, and I'm going to just go to the US. I didn't want to have to deal with that again. It [the first job] was such a terrible experience, and I didn't know how much it had contributed. I think the other thing that contributed is that I was very good at my job. I was highly skilled by that point. I had gone to get training that very few people had in Canada, and I was a threat to some people who were already doing that. So I think that that was probably the bigger problem. Obviously, being a woman didn't help. I think being a man would have been an easier scenario. Probably wouldn't have lost my job or fight for it or whatever. That was a negative experience, and in residency, it was quite negative. The guys would joke around calling each other gay, and it was really not the best environment. So that's why when I left, it was really clear to me that I needed to get out of the closet and stay out. I also had a pretty difficult family experience with coming out, and my parents took almost 15 years to accept the fact that I was gay. I come from a pretty traditional Jewish family, so it was a challenge. So all of those things put together made being gay challenging. It was a struggle, for sure, but I think once I came back and I established it, I didn't let things slide anymore. I think I gave you this example. I had residents come for a while to do some of the training, and one of them was calling the other one, “hey, man, you're so gay”. And I said, “oh, gay like me?”. And that really shut them up quite quickly. It’s not meant to be mean. And things have evolved.

Dr. marie gdalevitch, M. D., F.R.c.S.c.

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Like, I don't think anybody today would do what they were doing ten years ago, so it has evolved. But for sure, my experience in residency and my first few years of practice were not pleasant.

PrideOrtho: What advice do you have for somebody who is being denigrated or if there's a bystander, what advice would you have for them? How do they deal with all this aggression and nastiness?

MG: That was the thing that disappointed me. No one else said anything. Nobody else stood up for me, and I was in a position where I had the least amount of power. Nobody else did something where they could have. And so that's where I think people don't realize the impact that they can have. Often times people don't want to get involved. They don't want to, but you need to get involved if you see something like that happening. If you see somebody saying something wrong or being discriminatory for any reason, if you don't say something, they're coming for you next. You have to stand up for the other people. If there's anything that I took away from both having daughters and what I've gone through is that I don't let anything slide. If I see something, I say something to anybody, regardless of their position of power, I don't care. You're not allowed to treat anybody in any way that's disrespectful or denigrating. I think that that's the message. People should get involved, you should say something. Sometimes people just don't know that they're doing it. Once you've told them, they're going to correct, they're going to course correct.

PrideOrtho: What inspires you to continue in this business? That's a tough business that we're in, regardless of where we are or specialties. What inspires you to keep going?

MG: I mean, I love what I do. At the end of the day, could I do a little less of it and still be happy? Yes. That's probably the part that's hardest, finding where to set the boundaries, that your personal life doesn't get overly affected by being overworked. I don't know if I could live without doing what I do. I love it. I literally am passionate about it. It's just that taking care of people and listening to people complain all day about their problems, and that can be a lot. If you don't know how to compartmentalize that and you come home, then the kids are whining, and the wife is complaining about something, that's when it gets too much. So it's about finding boundaries that work and making sure that I'm not overworked. It's only when I get to the point where I need a vacation, I'm yelling at everybody. You know what I mean? That's when I'm like, okay, I need to take a step back. But otherwise, if you love what you do, it's hard not to do it.

I don't think too many people go into orthopedics or medicine, I know that might be a little naive, but I think a lot of people go into it because they enjoy helping people, because otherwise you could make money doing a lot of other things. This would not be number one career choice for that. So I think a lot of us do love what we do. It's just the system wears you down.

PrideOrtho: Finally, if you want to give a fun fact about yourself or share about your family, if you're comfortable, we would love to hear about them, too.

MG: So I have a five and a half year old and a four year old, and my wife is a high school teacher. A fun fact about me before the pandemic anyways, I used to play a lot of ice hockey. I'm a true Canadian, played a lot of women's ice hockey before the pandemic.

PrideOrtho: Do you have a favorite team? They're only like two or three in Canada anyways.

MG: Montreal. Yes, of course. It's the Habs. Go, Habs, go.

PrideOrtho: I'm from Toronto. Toronto Maple Leafs is my team. They haven't won a Stanley Cup since before I was born.

MG: It's hard being a Habs fan. They've really not been doing well for a long time, but it is the Canadiens. The Habs fans are a little more forgiving.

Dr. marie gdalevitch, M. D., F.R.c.S.c.

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Member spotlight

PrideOrtho: Please describe your background - Med, school, residency, fellowship, and current practice with subspecialty, if any.

Ayesha Rahman (AR): I'm originally from Ann Arbor, MI. I completed my Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Michigan in biomedical engineering. I did medical school at Georgetown University, orthopedic surgery residency at NYU, and a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at UCSF. I am currently a hand and upper extremity surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian with a focus on complex trauma and reconstructive procedures.

PrideOrtho: How did you hear about PrideOrtho?

AR: The President Q Hammouri initially reached out to me during the genesis of Pride Ortho to be part of some brainstorming meetings with other attendings and leadership. To his credit he was able to recognize the need for this organization and was able to put together a brilliant team to make it happen.

PrideOrtho: What drew you in to become a pride ortho member?

AR: I have been part of the mentorship committee, which is something I always wish I had when I was in training. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to be able to engage with other members of the LGBTQ ortho community and especially to do so in a constructive way.

PrideOrtho: Are you able to describe any incidents where you saw negative behavior against the LGBTQ community? How did you handle this?

AR: My overall experience has been enormously positive, however there have been a few incidents I can speak to. In one incident a surgeon did not realize I was gay and proceeded to compare gay marriage to bestiality and make derogatory jokes to other staff members. I chose not to engage with him in that moment for many reasons. Instead, I chose to kill him with kindness by later introducing him to my wife, who is lovely, kind, and extremely likeable. It’s hard to continue in ignorance when the truth is so plainly in front of you. I experienced other incidents throughout my career, but my general impression is that they were done in ignorance and not always malice, and those were opportunities for education and building bridges. There is a saying: you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. In many instances that was certainly my experience. To that end, the more open and visible we can be as LGBTQ people, the more we normalize our presence in spaces where we people assume we do not exist.

Dr. Ayesha Rahman

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Member spotlight

PrideOrtho: What advice do you have for anyone to advocate for someone being denigrated or put down, especially in the LGBTQ community?

AR: Allies are incredibly important advocates for our community. There is an interesting perspective that homophobia is not a gay problem--it's mostly a straight problem. Similarly one could say racism is not a black problem it's a white problem, sexism is not a female problem it's a male problem, etc. While it certainly generalizes a bit, there is also some truth to it. And unfortunately the responsibility to change those behaviors falls on the affected group. This can be a difficult task. It's about educating people, building bridges, opening hearts, and changing minds. Allies can be an essential part of changing people's minds by reaching out to people that we may not be able to reach, in spaces where we may not be welcome in. Allies have more power than they realize simply by speaking up. Asking “what did you mean by that?” can take the air out of any attempted derogatory remark and help the person to course-correct. It’s harder to put someone down in a space where that behavior is not condoned. Allies particularly in positions of power can have a profound impact on improving the lives of LGBTQ people when they use their voice to speak up—everyone tends to listen to their boss. The boss sets the example for the department to follow. (PrideOrtho note: two or three of her biggest allies for her career were straight white men. This demonstrates how allies can be anyone, and this transcends politics and other barriers).

PrideOrtho: Describe your involvement with the PrideOrtho group

AR: I am on the mentorship committee and a board member at-large. I encourage anyone who is interested in changing the narrative and making a difference to get involved.

PrideOrtho: What inspires you to continue in orthopedic surgery

AR: I love what I do and where I work everyday. I am lucky to have a very supportive professional environment. However I recognize that not all orthopedic surgery environments are like this, and that is why I continue to work towards making a more inclusive environment for all. We have started to see more “firsts” in many departments. I am always excited to see barriers get broken down, and if we break down enough barriers hopefully one day we will get to a point where that will not be necessary anymore. Our goal is to continually make it better for those who come after us, and there’s certainly work to be done in orthopedics. Every barrier is motivation to overcome, and every barrier broken is inspiration to keep going.

PrideOrtho: Please give a fun fact about yourself.

AR: I love the Golden Girls. I have watched all seven seasons several times.

PrideOrtho: What do you like to do for fun?

AR: I like to spend time with my wife and with our two rescue cats. We like taking walks in the mornings and evenings. It is very calming.

PrideOrtho note: Dr. Rahman will be travelling to Japan on a much-needed break. Being the only hand surgeon in her group gives her little opportunity to take time off and travel. PrideOrtho wishes her a wonderful trip.

Dr. Ayesha Rahman

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Research Committee

Aliya Feroe - Vice-Chair

Rachel Seymour

Morgan Turnow

Kyla Petrie

Emma Payne

Cameron Levins

Josh Choe

Mentorship Committee

Leah Gitajn - Vice-Chair

Matt Bauer

Kyla Petrie

Cameron Levins

Brianna Fram

Rina Jain

Ezra Goodrich

Alexander Koo

Susan Odum

Lisa K. Cannada

Mark Schultzel

Ayesha M. Rahman

Membership Committee

nick Tully

Chris paiz

Ezra goodrich

Johnathan dallman

Committee Members

Communications Committee

Matt Bauer

Brianna Fram

Rina Jain

Taylor Bradley

Christopher Nguyen

Education Committee

Marie Gdalevitch

Sara Ballatori

Taylor Bradley

Tyler Williamson

Alicia Jacobson

Rachel Turner

Alex Keuroghlian

Social Media Task Force

Christopher Nguyen

Caellagh Catley

Join a Committee!

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DONATEHERE Thank You Donors

Dr. David P. Roye Jr., M.D.

dr. Joseph zuckerman m.d.

Dr. Qusai Hammouri m.d.

Dr. Julie Samora M.D.

Dr. Lesley Anderson

Spencer Adler

Dr. Kristen L. Carroll, M.D.

Ariel Shagory

Dr. Susan M. Odum Ph.D.

Aidin Eslampour

Chad Krueger

Justin Mitchell

Tejas Patel

Mariana Sánchez de Ovando

Duane Towns

Pride Ortho Newsletter: APR 2023

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