Summary of 15 May Webinar
As Chair of the MWIA Mentoring and Leadership Special Interest Group, I am thrilled to report that our first ever webinar on May 15th 2021 was a fabulous success. I enjoyed every part of the effort and am very grateful to all who participated and attended. We should all be proud of the outcome as the comments in the chat box attached below indicate how appreciative the audience was.
Special thanks to my co- presenters
- Professor Padmini Murthy (USA), who talked to us about leadership as ‘service’ to those relying on you.
- Professor Wendy Bernstein (USA), who pointed out that women doctors step back from opportunities due to self-doubt, not lack of ability.
- Dr Claribel Abam (Nigeria), who spoke about the importance of taking an interest in politics and training medical women in medical politics.
I presented on Strengths-Based Coaching and the importance of identifying which signature strengths each one of us possesses, then learning to use these in different settings.
Professor Antonella Vezzani (Italy) and Dr Joyce Barber (Nigeria) moderated the animated Q&A at the end. I am especially grateful to the African Universities Association for generously providing the webinar services.
Summary Outcome
- We had around 309 register for the event
- Registrants from USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Italy, Sierra Leone, Turkey, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Zambia, Malawi, Germany, UK, Canada, Brazil, Uganda, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Malaysia, Vietnam, Egypt and Sudan, to name a few.
- The Q&A was excellent and allowed interactive participation.
The feedback has been outstanding as demonstrated in these few comments taken from the chatbox:
‘Fantastic presentation, I like the focus on our strengths’,
‘I came looking for answers and they are here. Thank you panelists’,
‘Thank you’.
‘We would be grateful to have all slides so we can digest it and help others with the knowledge we gain. Again thank you so much’,
‘Brilliant presentations so far! many thanks.’,
‘These presentations are beautiful and very mind-provoking.’,
‘Wow!! This is so enlightening!!! ???’,
‘Fantastic presentations, thank you to all the speakers.’
I am very happy to be a member of MWIA and feel honoured to have these opportunities and to provide these same opportunities to those who wish to participate.
Next Steps
- The African Universities Association have kindly shared the webinar link and it will be posted on the MWIA website, for those who could not attend.
- I proposed we host these Mentoring & Leadership webinars quarterly based upon the responses for registration on the night and it was agreed unanimously, to host more and include diverse speakers and voices. Names and topic themes from you are welcome
- Please put your hand up – diversity is needed and enriches the conversation.
- We also need to invite our younger members from yMWIA/ yAFMW to participate and give the mentee perspective.
More good things to come.
Mentoring and our use of the term
In academic circles, the term ‘mentoring’ has quite specific meaning and implications. It is a contractual arrangement and has a clear set of goals – there is also a power dyad.
Our group is really one of sharing and learning with the aim of helping us prosper as doctors and women throughout the course of our life and through our experience with MWIA. Our Mentoring and Leadership Special Interest Group does not focus on the power differential, but aims to engender a spirit of mutual respect with honest, open communication in a safe, shared environment.
More good things to come and I look forward to hosting our next session in a few months.
Magdalena Simonis
Chair, MWIA Mentoring and Leadership Special Interest Group
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is a Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
