This is a reshare of the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) most recent newsletter. AFMW is affiliated with Medical Women’s International Association, an association of medical women and students representing women doctors from all six continents and eight regions. In this newsletter, the Secretary General MWIA shares information about the World Health Day 2022 and the Slate of Officers Nominations Received for the 2022- 2025 MWIA Executive Committee.
April 2022
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Hope all of you are doing well.
April Showers Bring May Flowers; I sincerely hope soon we will emerge from the Continuing COVID Crisis – I am optimistic. April 7th is observed as World Health Day and this year’s theme is Our Planet, Our Health. We need, as a global community, to focus on protecting our environment to ensure health and well-being for global communities.
I am enclosing the names of the slate of officer nominations received for the 2022-2025 Executive Committee. The update regarding this information and their bios have been shared in the December MWIA update.
Slate of Officers Nominations Received for the 2022- 2025 MWIA Executive Committee:
- President
- Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi (Nigeria)
- Past President (nominations in alphabetical order)
- Dr Clarissa Fabre (U.K)
- Prof Dr Dr Bettina Pfleiderer (Germany)
- President Elect (nominations in alphabetical order)
- Dr Amany Asfour (Egypt)
- Dr Neena Modi (U.K.)
- Dr Magdalena Simonis (Australia)
- Secretary General (nominations in alphabetical order)
- Dr Mariam Jashi (Georgia)
- Dr Padmini Murthy (U.S.A)
- Treasurer (nominations in alphabetical order)
- Dr Eliza Lo Chen (USA)
- Dr Helen Goodyear (UK)
- Regional Vice Presidents
- Northern Europe Dr Elizabeth Lorraine-Lichtenstein (Sweden)
- Central Europe Dr Edith Schratzberger-Vécsei (Austria)
- Southern Europe Dr Concetta Laurentaci (Italy)
- North America Dr Connie Newman (U.S.A.)
- Latin America Dr Nelci Zanon Collange (Brazil)
- Central Asia Dr Darunee Buddhari (Thailand)
- Near East and Africa Dr Claribel Abam (Nigeria)
- Western Pacific-Dr Bong-Ok Kim (Korea)
The upcoming Congress in Taipei Taiwan is 2 months away, our colleagues have left no stone unturned in organizing the congress.
Please note the Congress website will be frequently updated with information regarding the congress including the guidelines for travel due to COVID.
Look forward to seeing you in June. Thank you for all you do.
In Health, Human Rights and Peace,
Padmini Murthy MD
Padmini Murthy
Secretary General MWIA
(see original MWIA Newsletter)
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate 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.
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.
