Kristy Townsend’s vision and leadership accelerates rapid growth of WIMS and career development
“Kristy is a dedicated and passionate leader. Her work has expanded the reach of WIMS.” – Maya Iyer
In January 2022, when Kristy Townsend, PhD, became director of Women in Medicine and Science (WIMS) at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, it was an organization of 50 engaged members. Today, there are over 284. Just how did her role as an innovative thinker grow the size of the organization and expand the support of equity, inclusion and representation for women and faculty in science and medicine?
She led with careful and targeted restructuring, including establishing a new open membership model in 2022.
“We opened up WIMS to a more transparent and accessible membership model with three tiers — general, advocate/ally and subcommittee — all with the goal of supporting the mission to identify and actively reduce barriers to the professional success of women in medicine and science,” Dr. Townsend says. “Any faculty in the college is welcome to join us as a member at any time.”
In early 2022, WIMS also updated its bylaws and operating procedures, updated their website and generated an email alias, and developed a new five-year strategic plan, which has now been informed by a large survey of woman-identifying faculty in the college. The group also began producing an annual report, which is now distributed in the spring around the time of the Annual Celebration event.
As her three-year term comes to a close, Dr. Townsend is passing the director torch to Maya Iyer, MD, MEd, FAAP, associate clinical professor of Pediatrics and assistant dean for clinical track faculty at the Ohio State College of Medicine. In this piece, we reflect on the focus of Dr. Townsend’s service and the future directions of WIMS.
Creating access to support for innovation projects
Dr. Townsend and colleague Carolyn Presley, MD, associate professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the Ohio State College of Medicine, created a research accelerator called Research Accelerator Program to Translate, Innovate and Commercialize (RAPTIC). The aim — combine innovation, commercialization and translation of work while encouraging research equity and success for faculty in the college.
“RAPTIC also targets faculty with a new and innovative translational/clinical research project, a new MD-PhD collaboration or a first-time research project,” Dr. Townsend says. “Eighty-five to 90% of our academic medical center’s budget depends on individual productivity, both clinically and in research. That’s why programs like this that target research success for all, are so important.”
Dr. Presley explains that the novel research-equity program was formed to address documented setbacks to women academics’ productivity and access to grant funding. She says that evidence indicates that formal programs best serve equity initiatives as they provide integrative programs and support across disciplines for trainees at all levels. RAPTIC’s peer coaching and monthly learning sessions on accelerating projects into products has gained wide attention.
“RAPTIC is expanding beyond WIMS in 2025,” Dr. Presley says. “And it will become a campus-wide program open to all colleges and faculty involved in innovation research in medicine, health and biomedical fields.”
A vision for gender equity and success
Mid-career faculty constitute the largest component of the academic workforce, and Dr. Townsend understands the difficulty of navigating the landscape at that critical career point. So, she focused on outreach internally and externally. She worked with three colleagues, Aubrey Moe, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the College of Medicine, Megan Ballinger, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the College of Medicine and Dr. Iyer to form the CommUNITYten initiative, which brings together all prior, current and future Big Ten Academic Alliance universities to support women in medicine and biomedical research, including all health sciences and biomedical engineering.
The inaugural CommUNITYten conference was held at Ohio State in June. The two-day event brought together health care professionals at various stages of their career paths — medical and graduate learners, women in science and early-career researchers — to share resources and offer networking opportunities while addressing sponsorship and mentorship for rising leaders.
“The energy was palpable — lots of excitement around what we can do together to promote better gender equity in medicine and biomedical science across our institutions,” Dr. Townsend says. “These connections will help all of us achieve career milestones and overcome barriers that impede success.”
Another upcoming summit, created by Drs. Iyer and Townsend is scheduled for January 2025. The Women’s Health and Wellness Summit will bring WIMS, College of Medicine and Engineering alumni and alumni supporters from the Buckeye Engineering Women’s Executive Leadership (BEWEL) group to campus and will feature engaging, general-audience short talks about medicine, biomedical research and engineering innovations that address gaps in women’s health research and target women's needs across the lifespan. It is also an opportunity for alumni to meet each other and learn more about the formation of BEWEL, which has supported several women engineering faculty.
“It’s a joint collaboration between alumni and WIMS leadership that will focus on women’s health and wellness,” Dr. Iyer says. “It will be structured to elevate the focus of advancing women leaders in industry, academia and government.”
The future of WIMS: Bridging strategies across partners
As incoming director and associate director of WIMS, Drs. Iyer and Moe plan to increase research initiatives within WIMS through internal and external funding. Through Dr. Iyer's recent grant from the American Medical Association, and in collaboration with WIMS Media Co-Chair Jaclyn Caccese, PhD, assistant professor in The Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Rehabilitation, increasing allyship for gender equity will be investigated, which will also feature advocate leaders within the college. In addition, Dr. Iyer plans to bridge connections further between Ohio State and Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH), where she also serves as a pediatric emergency medicine attending physician. She says NCH colleagues have grown in WIMS membership from 1% to 10% in the last three years.
In 2023, the WIMS Advocacy committee developed and shared a survey with College of Medicine woman-identifying faculty across disciplines, academic rank and promotion track, which garnered around a 50% response rate. The survey poised questions around available mentorship and sponsorship experiences for professional development, gauged understanding of the faculty promotion and tenure process and collected responses on experienced and perceived barriers toward career advancement. Nearly half of the survey participants reported that the main factors affecting career advancement were caretaking responsibilities, burnout and administrative burden. In fact, 41% of early career faculty and 43% of clinical faculty reported a lack of formal mentors.
Dr. Iyer plans to use these data to propose potential solutions and strategic tools that will include building accountability on all levels to encourage and make space for senior faculty to mentor and sponsor junior faculty. Dr. Iyer and WIMS leadership are also adding an outreach subcommittee to grow networks of support and shared resources within the local community.
“WIMS has also started making a mark on the national stage,” says Dr. Iyer. “We will grow that seed even further through strategic national collaborations, but we are also cognizant that we must promote our remarkable efforts internally and ensure that we are reaching and supporting all WIMS faculty.”
Dr. Iyer and Dr. Townsend both agree that the ongoing support from Dean Bradford and Tatiana Oberyszyn, PhD, vice dean for Faculty Affairs at the College of Medicine, contributes to the teamwork it takes to move forward.
“Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to take on these initiatives, and we are so fortunate to have leaders like them,” says Dr. Iyer.
