CME ACADEMIC PROGRAM & FACULTY
Education Program 2025
Our Mission: Bringing together the top academic physicians and thought leaders in the world with practicing community clinicians to create an environment for high-level interaction in order to obtain up-to-date medical knowledge to benefit patients. Learning is patient-centered and case-based to maximize the translation of medical knowledge to clinical practice.
WIMS has tailored a CME program that promises to enhance professional growth, inspire educational pursuits, and drive advocacy for gender parity in healthcare. This floating symposium is not just a meeting of minds, but a celebration of the shared aspirations of women in medicine.
Accreditation: 
CME Credit: Approved for a maximum of 5 AMA PRA Category 1 credits. Full accreditation and credit designation TBA. 
 
Because this is a dedicated medical education conference, course participants will have unprecedented access to faculty to interact with them with inquiries both during and after the program. The detailed program will be supplied to participants closer to departure date.
Course Objectives
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Develop Leadership Skills: Enhance core leadership competencies, including effective communication, conflict resolution, and strategic decision-making tailored to the healthcare environment.
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Understand Healthcare Systems: Gain a deeper understanding of the complexities within healthcare systems and how leadership can influence systemic change.
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Empowerment through Networking: Build a supportive network by connecting with other women leaders in medicine, fostering relationships that empower personal and professional growth, and learn how to leverate networks to advance in the leadership space.
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Navigate Career Advancement: Learn strategies to successfully navigate career pathways in medicine, including tips for achieving promotions, handling transitions, and overcoming gender-specific barriers.
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Promote Wellness and Resilience: Focus on personal wellness and resilience strategies to manage stress and prevent burnout in high-pressure medical roles.
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Advocate for Equity: Equip participants with tools and knowledge to advocate for equity in healthcare, addressing disparities and promoting inclusive practices within their organizations.
Target audience: Women physicians, women leaders in healthcare, male leaders in healthcare
Join Our Special Guests & Educations
Dr. Shikha Jain MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine| Division of Hematology and Oncology 
GI Oncology Integrated Practice Unit (IPU) Lead
Director of Communication Strategies in Medicine| University of Illinois Chicago
Associate Director of Oncology Communication & Digital Innovation| University of Illinois Cancer Center   
CEO, Co-Founder IMPACT
President & CEO Founder, Women in Medicine® NFP
Founder & Chair Women in Medicine Summit
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Dr. Shikha Jain is a triple board-certified hematologist and oncologist, nationally recognized for her leadership and advocacy in healthcare. She serves as a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago and is the Founder and CEO of the Women in Medicine® Summit™, an annual event that brings together healthcare leaders from across the country to address gender disparities, leadership, and professional growth in medicine.
Dr. Jain is a passionate advocate for gender equity, physician well-being, and the retention of women in the healthcare workforce. She founded the 501c3 nonprofit Women in Medicine® in 2021, furthering her mission to empower women and create systemic change in healthcare. Additionally, Dr. Jain is a nationally respected speaker, Key Opinion Leader (KOL), and media contributor, frequently appearing in outlets like, NBC, CBS, FOX32, USA Today, US News, Fobes and The Chicago Tribune, where she speaks on healthcare communication, oncology, and public health.
Dr. Jain has played a critical role in combating misinformation, using both traditional and social media platforms to provide evidence-based medical information to the public. Her work spans a wide range of critical healthcare areas, including oncology, health equity, and physician advocacy. She focuses on the intersection of medicine, public health, policy, and healthcare innovation, addressing issues such as gender equity in medicine, the impact of misinformation on healthcare, and strategies to improve leadership and retention in the medical workforce.
In recognition of her contributions, Dr. Jain was named the 2024 Illinois Physician Leader of the Year and continues to shape conversations around healthcare innovation and equity. She is also the host of the popular podcast Oncology Overdrive, where she engages in conversations on cancer care, leadership, and healthcare trends.
Dr. Vijayakrishna (VK) Gadi, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
University of Illinois Cancer Center College of Medicine
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Dr. Gadi, whose laboratory and clinical research has focused primarily on breast cancer, joined the Cancer Center in 2020 as Associate Director of Translational Medicine when he came to the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) after 20 years in Seattle at the University of Washington, where he did his postgraduate training, and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
Working closely with Cancer Center leadership, Dr. Gadi continues to lead efforts to identify and recruit novel molecular assets for clinical trials testing from both big pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech.
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Dr. Gadi’s efforts have increased national-level engagement for cooperative group studies and provided access to Cancer Center disease team leaders for clinical trial development opportunities to ensure trials are written to address the needs of diverse patient populations.
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In collaboration with several groups of investigators and UIC technology transfer, Dr. Gadi also is accelerating the process of commercialization of multiple diagnostic and therapeutic intellectual properties to build a sustainable licensing revenue stream to support Cancer Center activities.
Dr. Holly H. Shen, MD FACOG
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Dr Holly Shen is a board-certified OBGYN who provides services for rural and critical access facilities in multiple states. She also co-leads FlexMedStaff, a Physician Education platform for independent Physicians. Her medical degree was obtained abroad in the Dutch West Indes and residency completed in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Emory University.
Rashmi Rao
Founder and Managing Director, rcubed | ventures; Founder and Board Chair, HLWFâ„ Alliance
Rashmi Rao is an entrepreneur and inventor with 40+ patents and demonstrated prowess in transforming ideas to lucrative tech and healthcare businesses generating $500M+revenue at Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Philips Healthcare. She founded rcubed | ventures and non-profit HLWF ™ Alliance focused on women's health issues and strives to work at the intersection of technology, public health and public policy.
Inducted into Women in Tech Hall of Fame in 2018 and listed as the Top 100 Women Leaders in Healthtech in 2024, she champions diversity and health equity, influencing STEM through Board roles at University of Washington (Engineering Innovation in Health), World Affairs Council-Seattle, and World Economic Forum. Rashmi works at the intersection of technology, public health and public policy.
Dr. Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO
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Dr. Dizon is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Surgery at Brown University and serves as the Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Professional Integrity at SWOG Cancer Research Network, a member of the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network. He is the Editor in Chief of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the flagship journal of the American Cancer Society. He is a medical oncologist specializing in ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancer, prevention – particularly as it relates to the HPV vaccine, sexuality after cancer for men and women, and professional use of social media.
He is the Director of The Pelvic Malignancies Program at Brown University Health and Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. Among his other roles, he is Chairperson of the Hope Foundation for Cancer Research and sits on the board of the LGBTQ Cancer Network. Dr. Dizon is a founding member of the Collaboration for Outcomes Using Social Media in Oncology and is active on many platforms, including Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Follow him @drdonsdizon
Dr. Naomi Lawrence-Reid, MD
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Dr. Naomi Lawrence-Reid, M.D. is a board-certified pediatrician and founder of Doctoring Differently®, the landmark digital course and online community that educates physicians of all specialties about flexible, lucrative careers beyond full-time, clinical medicine.
She is a proud Boston-area native now warmly based in San Diego, California. Dr. Lawrence-Reid graduated from Wake Forest University, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and she completed general pediatrics residency at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York.
In 2017, Dr. Lawrence-Reid sought to discover the full breadth of creative opportunities that her medical degree could provide. She went on to explore per-diem contracts, locums assignments, veteran disability exams (yes, even as a pediatrician), independent telemedicine, physician expert witness, health advisory roles with the Social Security Administration, medical writing and consulting, and she has established her own aesthetics practice in southern California.
Through her innovative curriculum, physicians learn exactly how to pivot from full-time clinical, academic jobs into lucrative, flexible careers that maximize their autonomy. Every physician has the ability to transform their hard-earned expertise into a satisfying career with tremendous freedom, increased income, and enhanced quality of life.
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Dr. Erica Howe, MD, FSHM
Physician and Founder of the Women Physicians Wellness Conference
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Dr. Howe is a board-certified Hospitalist and a nationally known educator, wife, and mother to three crazy kids. As a prolific speaker and lifelong advocate for improved wellness in medicine, she has given hundreds of talks both nationally and internationally on topics like conflict management and boundary setting. In 2018, she founded the Women Physicians Wellness Conference—a 3-day event hosted in Aruba, Grand Cayman, and Amelia Island exclusively for women physicians--as a way of bringing them together to share their struggles and their strategies for success. She believes that women are stronger together and wants to inspire them to find the courage, clarity, and community to succeed on their own terms, instead of someone else’s.
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
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Cecilia is a founder, an entrepreneur and executive.  She has held leadership positions in strategy, joint venture, startup development, program administration and experience with mergers and acquisitions.  Her career spans more than 30+ years in life science/biotechnology and healthcare industry.  
Cecilia started her tenure as a strategic planner under the direction of Dr. Robert Day, then President of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research in the early 1990s.  She then became Division Program Administrator for the Molecular Pharmacology, Clinical Research Division under the leadership of Dr.Lee Hartwell and Dr. Stephen Friend.  Cecilia held the position of Director of Strategic Development and as the Director of Affiliate Network and Strategic Outreach, overseeing all clinical research partnerships with community cancer centers in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Hawaii.  
In the summer of 2017, Cecilia decided to return to her life science and biotechnology roots and started a new company 3rdeEyeBio, LLC as one of the Managing Partners.  3rdEyeBio, LLC is an accelerator group providing life science/biotech startups the infrastructure to support overall growth from scientific advisory to investment raise. Has held the role of CBIO for Vyrty Corporation dba SyncMD, located in Anderson, South Carolina, a multi-dimensional technology company.
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She is founder and executive director of Women, Life and Science, Inc., a board member for the Luskin Family Foundation.
Mark Hertling, DBA
Lieutenant General, US Army (retired)
 
Lieutenant General (retired) Mark Hertling retired from the Army in December 2012, finishing his 38-year Army career as the Commanding General of US Army, Europe. After retirement from the Army, Mark began a 2d career contributing to leadership in healthcare organizations. He received a BS from West Point, an MS from Indiana University’s School of Public Health, and a Doctor of Business Administration from the Crummer School of Business, Rollins College, defending research addressing physician leadership in the healthcare industry.
Hertling was a senior vice-president at AdventHealth from 2013-2018. After writing “Growing Physician Leaders,” he began teaching and researching physician leadership as well as continuing to teach leadership to health care professionals at several systems. He also serves as the Professor of Practice in Strategic Leadership at the Crummer School of Business, and he serves on the Dean's Alliance at Indiana University’s School of Public Health. Mark is also a military and national security analyst for CNN/CNN International.
General Hertlings onboard seminar will include a 3 lecture “Medical Professional Leadership mini course” part of Women in medicine leadership programming.
Laurie K. Baedke, MHA, FACHE, FACMPE
Founder and CEO of The Growth Edge
 
Laurie K. Baedke is the founder and CEO of The Growth Edge. Ms. Baedke is a well-regarded keynote speaker at international conferences, an executive coach, and the host of a weekly leadership podcast, The Growth Edge.
Laurie holds a master's degree in healthcare administration and is a board-certified fellow of both the American College of Healthcare Executives and the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She has been certified by the Gallup organization as a Strengths Performance Coach since 2006.
She has written two editions of a book, The Emerging Healthcare Leader: A Field Guide. In 2017, Ms. Baedke contributed a chapter titled "The Clinician Entrepreneur" to a book published by Oxford Press titled The Handbook of Private Practice. Her most recent book, Mentor Coach Lead to Peak Professional Performance was released in February, 2023.