Trainees and faculty bring presentations to 2025 CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting

An impressive group of Department of Ob-Gyn faculty, fellows, and residents shared their educational research at the 2025 Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG) and Association of Professors in Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) Annual Meeting, held February 26-March 1, 2025 in Philadelphia. 

Breakout Sessions: 
OBGYN Standardized Letter of Evaluation – Updates, Lessons Learned, Future Directions – Nicolette Codispoti, MD, MPH 

Farewell FLS! Embracing EMIG: A Near-Peer Educational Opportunity – Matthew Wagar, MD; India Anderson-Carter, MD; Saule Tamkus, MD 

Discussion Den Session: 
Striving for Resident and Fellow Symbiosis in Subspecialty Training – Saule Tamkus, MD; Katharina Stewart, MD; Caroline Cox, MD 

Oral Abstracts:
Navigating the Transition: Understanding Ob-Gyn Interns’ Perspectives on Residency Preparation – co-authored by Nicolette Codispoti, MD, MPH 

Mobile Health Mindfulness-Based Intervention Decreases Stress and Burnout in Residents – Bridget Kelly, MD; Amy Godecker, PhD; Sydney Tan 

Residents’ Experiences with Managing Moral Distress in Abortion-Restricted States – Abigail Cutler, MD, MPH (co-authors from UC San Francisco) 

Poster:  
An Evidence-Based Gynecologic Oncology Curriculum for All Ob-Gyn Residents – Carrie Sibbald, MD; Nicolette Codispoti, MD, MPH; Matthew Wagar, MD 

Congratulations to all who shared their expertise at the conference! 

Stewart receives APGO Humanism in Teaching Award

Congratulations to Kathy Stewart, MD, MS, professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and UW School of Medicine and Public Health Director of Core Clinical Curriculum, for receiving the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics (APGO) Humanism in Teaching Award!

This APGO award is given out to Ob-Gyn educators who consistently demonstrate compassion, respect and foster collaborative relationships with their patients, peers and students.

In nomination materials, her colleagues said:

“Kathy Stewart, MD, MS is an outstanding nominee for the APGO Humanism in Teaching Award. She consistently demonstrates compassion, respect and empathy for learners, healthcare teams and patients in all settings, and models sensitivity to and respect for the inherent dignity and work of every individual. Medical students, residents and fellows consistently note that Dr. Stewart is an extremely effective teacher who takes time to get to know each individual, and clearly cares about their overall wellbeing. They also emphasize that Dr. Stewart inspires her team to do their best possible work and learning, that she gathers and values input from everyone, and that on service she builds everyone up, creating a collegial atmosphere. Approximately 30 percent of our Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellows have accepted positions within our department, in no small part due to Dr. Stewart’s exceptional skill as an educator who dedicates time to mentoring faculty in their early career. Dr. Stewart serves as Director for our medical school’s advanced clinical curriculum, overseeing the design and implementation of acting internships and courses for our medical students and coordinating training programs with our statewide campus sites. Dr. Stewart applies herself to ongoing training to constantly improve her own leadership skills, which she very effectively applies to her service, clinical and teaching endeavors. Currently, Dr. Stewart serves on several curriculum assessment and improvement committees, including on the school-wide Technical Standards and Access to Accommodations Committee, emphasizing Dr. Stewart’s commitment to fostering safe and accessible learning environments.”

Congratulations again for this well-deserved honor!

**by Ob-Gyn Communications Intern Paige Stevenson

Stewart elected to UWSMPH Technical Standards and Access to Accommodations Committee

Congratulations to Kathy Stewart, MD, professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine! Stewart was elected to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s Technical Standards and Access to Accommodations Committee (TSAAC) for a two-year term.

The TSAAC is appointed and charged with reviewing and maintaining best practices related to medical school technical standards and implementing accommodations in medical school settings. TSAAC responsibilities include, but are not limited to, oversight of language used to describe and communicate technical standards for UW SMPH, and advising for appropriate implementation of approved accommodations at UW SMPH clinical and testing sites.

Stewart has long been a leader in medical student education, including her current role as Director for the Core Clinical Curriculum in the MD program. We are confident her service on the TSAAC Committee will be exemplary!

Grand Rounds: Stewart presents “Will you write me a letter? Teaching, coaching, mentoring and the art of letter writing”

On October 27, 2022, Professor Kathy Stewart, MD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, presented the Grand Rounds lecture “Will you write me a letter? Teaching, coaching, mentoring and the art of letter writing”.

In the lecture, Stewart explained the history of letters of recommendation, outlined the role of the letter writer, discussed competency domains as a key part of letters, and prepared participants to compose draft letters of recommendation in the future.

Watch the whole lecture here!

Presentations, posters, and more at the 2022 CREOG/APGO Annual Meeting!

UW Ob-Gyn faculty, residents, and affiliated medical students with interest and expertise in medical education showcased their work at the CREOG/APGO Annual Meeting​! The conference, which was organized around the theme “Together Again, Together Forever: Med Ed Family Reunion”, took place in Orlando, Florida March 9-12. Some of the exciting highlights from our department:

Ryan McDonald, MD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Academic Specialists in Ob-Gyn, graduated from the APGO Academic Scholars and Leaders Program! Read more about his experience in the program and how UW Ob-Gyn Faculty Development Funds supported his training!

Laura Jacques, MD, director of medical student education and assistant professor in the Division of Academic Specialists in Ob-Gyn, presented during the breakout session “Getting the Right Ingredients for Your Sauce: An Innovative Tool for Applicant-Program Compatibility”. (Presenters: Seine Chiang, MD, Jesse Rafel, MD, Jenci Hawthorne, MD, Jennifer Hamm, MD, Laura Jacques, MD, Lauren Holt, Medical Student)

Jacques and Ryan Spencer, MD, MS, residency program director and gynecologic oncology fellowship director and associate professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, presented during the breakout session “A Crying Shame: A Structured Debriefing Workshop to Reduce Second-Victim Syndrome in Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents”. (Presenters: Laura Jacques, MD, Beverly Gray, MD, Samantha Hoffman, MD, Tamika Alexander, MD, Jessica Francis, MD, Ryan Spencer, MD, MS)

Jacques also co-authored the oral abstract “The More Cooks in the Kitchen the Better the Sauce? Impact of an Abortion VCAT Workshop on Medical Students”. (Authors: Elise Cowley, Medical Student, Jessie Chen, MD, Jessika Ralph, MD, MSCI, Allison Linton, MD, MPH, Sarah Hutto, MD, MPH, Laura Jacques, MD)

People in the department also brought many posters to the conference, including one that received second place in the conference poster awards!

Congratulations to the authors of “Ingredients for teaching confidence: A Fourth-year medical student clinical teaching elective”, which earned second place in the CREOG/APGO Annual Meeting Poster Awards! Authors: Kristen Kreh, John Poehlmann, Katharina Stewart, Amy Godecker, Laura Jacques

“Opinions at the Thanksgiving Table: A comparison of medical student and resident attitudes about abortion” – Jessie Chen, Elise Cowley, Jessika Ralph, Amy Godecker, Daniel Pellicer, Laura Jacques

“An Educational Program to Implement a Well-Validated Screening Tool for Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy” – Ryan McDonald, Samantha Haefner, Kaley Gyorfi, Heidi Brown

Congratulations to all on an impressive showing at the conference!

Stewart published in FASEB BioAdvances

Kathy Stewart, MD, of the UW Ob-Gyn Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, co-authored a new publication in the journal FASEB BioAdvances about adapting medical school instruction to meet educational needs and maintain safety during a public health emergency.

In the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Stewart is the Director of Core Clinical Curriculum and Phase 2 Director for medical student education. “Patient care, public health, and a pandemic: adapting educational experiences in the clinical years”, which was published in a special issue of FASEB BioAdvances dedicated to managing MD program curricula during the pandemic, describes the UW SMPH approach to adapting clinical curriculum and integration of public health principles for medical students during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic:

“Despite the ongoing stresses maintaining high‐quality medical education throughout the pandemic, this experience has redemonstrated the scope of possibility from work of the committed teams that have built and now adapted the new ForWard curriculum. The initial building of a highly integrated curriculum forced the creation of necessarily collaborative teams. Having centralized so many of our educational processes also streamlined coordination with the healthcare institutions where UWSMPH students train across the state of Wisconsin, allowed for system‐level solutions, rather than each course and department independently working to develop online curriculum and adapted clinical experiences. Without the preexisting collective mindset and dedication of individual faculty and staff of this medical school, these creative yet rapid adaptations may not have been possible.”

Read the whole article here. Congratulations to Dr. Stewart and UWSMPH curriculum leaders for adapting so successfully to the past year’s challenging circumstances!