Mission:
Women In Ophthalmology was founded to enhance and improve the professional environment for women ophthalmologists. WIO encourages diversity, impartiality, and economic parity, and strives to cultivate new opportunities for leadership, education, and public service in the field of ophthalmology for ourselves and future generations.

President's Message:
As this new year begins, I wish to thank you for your continued support of WIO. It has been my pleasure and distinct privilege to serve as your president. At this time, I would like to present an update to you about developments in WIO over the preceding year. My main areas of focus over the past year were on membership development and enhancing benefits available to you as WIO members. I have been fortunate to be assisted by a very capable, dedicated and talented group of WIO members comprising the WIO Executive Committee and the WIO Board. The WIO Executive Committee meets monthly and the WIO Board meets quarterly via teleconference calls. In addition we meet face-to-face at the AAO meeting and the Annual Summer Symposium meeting...more

History:
Women are entering medical school in unprecedented numbers, and in some institutions, are the majority of enrolled students. This is a far cry from the 1960's when the founding officers of WIO were medical students in schools where barely 5% of a given class were women.

The need for collegial relationships, the effectiveness of a support network, and validating communications led founding WIO officers in the mid-1970's to bring together about 25 women who met for noon-time luncheons, speakers, and networking at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). The early women in ophthalmology were few in their respective departments and worked on such challenging issues as gender equity in pay, academic promotion and tenure track opportunities, and the need for recognition of academic achievement.

The luncheon gatherings evolved into a structured organization that enables WIO to share information and solve problems that previously were often faced in isolation. The late Bernice Z. Brown, MD, brought further recognition to the organization in her term as the third president. In 1997, she began what has been a continuous series of WIO-AAO co-sponsored symposia at the AAO Annual meeting. She led a strategic planning retreat during which our current mission statement was implemented with emphasis on education and service. ...more