Keynote Speaker

Cherri D. Hobgood Dr. Hobgood is a seasoned physician executive with a distinguished career in academic medicine. A graduate of the UNC School of Medicine, Dr. Hobgood has held leadership roles in the dean's office, practice plan management, and as a pioneering department chair. Her contributions to academic medicine have been recognized with prestigious awards, including the 2019 UNC-School of Medicine Distinguished Medical Alumna and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Jon Marx Leadership Award. Dr. Hobgood's groundbreaking research into the intersection of gender and leadership emerged from her firsthand observation of the powerful impact senior women leaders can have on organizational culture. Driven by curiosity and a passion for fostering diverse leadership, she embarked on a rigorous multi-year study to uncover the hidden forces that shape the experiences of women in leadership roles. Through her in-depth analysis, Dr. Hobgood gained a unique perspective on how organizational culture can both hinder and support the advancement of diverse leaders. Her findings, published in several influential journals, have shed light on critical issues facing organizations today and provided invaluable insights for practitioners and scholars alike.  This extensive research forms the foundation of Dr. Hobgood's coaching and consulting practice, where she leverages her expertise to empower individual leaders and drive positive organizational change.

Planners/Presenters 

Nasia Safdar, MD

Dr. Nasia Safdar is the Dr. Dennis G. Maki Endowed Faculty Fellow in the Division of Infectious Disease within the Department of Medicine and the associate dean for clinical trials at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She also holds affiliate appointments in the Department of Medicine's Division of Geriatrics, the Department of Population Health, and the UW College of Engineering's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Azita Hamedani, MD, MPH, MBA

Dr. Hamedani is the Founding Chair of the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. When she first returned to her home state of Wisconsin in 2006, she took on several leadership roles before being named Chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine within the Department of Medicine in 2009. She quickly oversaw the significant growth of the division’s clinical, educational, and research missions, resulting in shepherding the division into an independent academic department.

Elizabeth Petty, MD

Dr. Petty is a senior associate dean of academic affairs, medical director of the genetic counselor training program, co-director for the AMA SMPH LGBTQ+ health fellowship, and professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW-SMPH). Dr. Petty oversees multiple health professional degree programs and helps guide the academic missions of GME, CME, global health, and learner diversity programs at UW-SMPH.

Kelly McQueen, MD, MPH, FASA

Kelly McQueen is the Ralph M Waters Distinguished Chair and Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Previously a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Surgery at Vanderbilt University, she served as the Director of Vanderbilt Anesthesia Global Health and Development, and as Director for the Vanderbilt Global Anesthesia Fellowship. As global researcher, Dr. McQueen focuses on improving infrastructure and studying outcomes in low and middle-income countries.  She recently started the Global Academic Anesthesia Consortium, a US academic department collaborative that is committed to supporting residency training and education, service and research development in Lusaka, Zambia.

Vanessa Sperandio, PhD

Dr. Sperandio is Sperandio is the Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Robert Turell Professor. She was the Jane and Bud Smith Distinguished Chair in Medicine, and a Professor in the departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She got her bachelors in biology, and her masters and PhD in Molecular Genetics in the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. She was a Latin American Pew Fellow in Biomedical Sciences (1997), an Ellison Foundation New Scholar (2004), a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases (2006), and a National Academy Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (since 2007). She is the recipient of the ASM 2015 Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research award, and a winner of the 2014 GSK Discovery Fast-track challenge.

Policy on Disclosure

It is the policy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Interprofessional Continuing Education Partnership (ICEP) to identify, mitigate and disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies* held by the speakers/presenters, authors, planners, and other persons who may influence content of this accredited continuing education (CE).  In addition, speakers, presenters, and authors must disclose any planned discussion of unlabeled/unapproved uses of drugs or devices during their presentation.

This accredited continuing education activity is focused on the non-clinical topic of women's leadership in medicine and science. As such, no one who is able to control the content of this activity has relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

*Ineligible companies are those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on, patients. The ACCME does not consider providers of clinical services directly to patients to be ineligible companies.