We want to welcome and encourage medical students who are historically underrepresented in orthopaedic surgery to consider Penn Orthopaedics! We believe you will find our program outstanding and inclusive in many ways. Let us share a bit about our past, present, and future as it relates to our commitment to female and gender minority faculty and residents.
Photo caption: Penn Medicine has had four women presidents of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic society. No institution has more.
Top row: Kristy Weber and Mary Ann Keenan. Bottom row: Helen Horstmann and Marlene DeMaio.
Contact Us
If you are a female or a gender minority medical student considering Penn for orthopaedic residency and have additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact one of our residents at: WomenOrthoSurgeryResidents@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
Past
The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn cultivates underrepresented leaders in orthopaedic surgery. Mary Ann Keenan, MD, was chief of neuro-orthopaedics from 2002 until she retired in 2012. Dr. Keenan was revolutionary in her understanding that surgery is often a more conservative and cost-effective treatment than non-operative management. She embodied the role of a surgeon-scientist, long before this was a popular pursuit, publishing more than 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 50 book chapters, and three books. In addition, numerous female and gender minority residents have graduated from our residency program with families and partners who have supported their careers. They are now in academic centers and private practice groups throughout the country.
Present
We are incredibly proud to have 36% (15) female and gender minority residents in the Penn Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Our R2 class has five women out of eight residents! We value diverse voices and consider ourselves leaders in gender diversity. among orthopaedic surgery residency programs. Graduating residents frequently comment they are proud the program welcomes all genders.
Penn Orthopaedics supports the Perry Initiative, regularly hosting programs for female and gender minority high school and medical students interested in orthopaedic surgery. The next program will be in March 2024.
We also have a robust basic research faculty that includes prominent funded female and gender minority musculoskeletal scientists. To learn more, please see the McKay Laboratory faculty.
As many as nine faculty and 15 residents gather for a regular "Ortho Gals Night Out" to be together socially and create an informal forum to discuss professional and personal topics as they relate to orthopaedic surgery. The first picture below is from June 2023 when we gathered at a nearby restaurant to check in on our new female interns. The second picture is from a fun dinner at the White Dog farm to table restaurant in October, 2023 where several of our women faculty only a few years into practice met with the seven intern/R2 residents to discuss opportunities and barriers in the early years of residency.
First Year Residents
Jiwon Park
Sarah Rappaport
Second Year Residents
Anna Blaeser, MD
Emily Eiel, MD
Lisa Friedman, MD*
Rachel Flaugh, MD*
Alyssa Thorman, MD
Third Year Residents
Caroline Granruth, MD
Erin Hale, MD
Sand Mastrangelo, MD
Fourth Year Residents
Ashleigh Bush, MD
Kathleen Collins, MD
Kendall Masada, MD*
Dainn Woo, MD
Fifth Year Residents
Kelsey Young, MD
*Indicates Research Track Resident
Faculty
We are growing our female clinical faculty, adding Hannah Lee (Hand) in 2020, Casey Humbyrd (Foot/Ankle, Division Chief) and Cara Cipriano (Orthopaedic Oncology, Division Chief) in 2021, Lorraine Boakye (Foot/Ankle) in 2022 and Liane Miller (Sports) in 2023. At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), we added Kathleen Maguire (Sports) in 2020 and Christine Goodbody (Deformity) in 2022. We currently have women faculty in hand, foot/ankle, pediatrics, sports, and oncology.
Current Department Leaders:
Women clinical faculty who are members of the Department Executive Committee include the following:
Kristy Weber, MD is the Vice-Chair of Faculty Affairs, Director of the Penn Sarcoma Program, served as the first female president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (2019-2020) and is the past president of the International Orthopaedic Diversity Alliance (IODA).
Casey Humbyrd, MD, MBE is the Chief of the Division of Foot & Ankle Surgery and has an appointment in the Department of Ethics and Health Policy as the head of Penn's surgical ethics and serves on the board of the Association of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (AOFAS).
Cara Cipriano, MD, MSc is the Chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Oncology and is nationally active in the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS). She has a scholarly focus on gender diversity in orthopaedics and is the Chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Oncology.
Our current Penn female and gender minority faculty, pictured below, can attest that Penn's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is committed to mentoring all residents and promoting their diverse careers. Furthermore, L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, current Chairman, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, shares in this commitment. Dr. Levin is incredibly supportive of females and gender minority in the department; while maintaining exacting standards for himself and others, he allows residents and faculty to identify and achieve their goals. An innovative leader in orthopaedic, plastic, and hand surgery, Dr. Levin is an active supporter of the Perry Initiative. Many faculty at Penn are also members of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (www.rjos.org).
Future
We are proud of our inclusive reputation and acknowledge we have more work to do. We are committed to welcoming more female and gender minority residents of color and are growing our collective awareness of the systemic injustices that impact the percentage of underrepresented minority residents in orthopaedic surgery. A pillar of our 5-year Penn Orthopaedics Strategic Plan, we are committed to cultivating CULTURE with a priority on diversity, equity, and inclusion within and outside of our residency program.
If you are a female or gender minority medical student considering UPenn for orthopaedic residency and have additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at: WomenOrthoSurgeryResidents@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
We sincerely hope you'll join us!!
Sincerely,
Women in Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn
Lorraine Boakye, MD
Assistant Professor
Specialty: Foot & Ankle
Primary Location: Pennsylvania Hospital
Wen Chao, MD
Clinical Associate Professor
Specialty: Foot & Ankle
Primary Location: Pennsylvania Hospital
Cara Cipriano, MD
Associate Professor
Specialty:Orthopaedic Oncology
Primary Location:Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Christine Goodbody, MD
Assistant Professor
Specialty: Pediatric Orthopaedics (Deformity)
Primary Location: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
Casey Humbyrd, MD
Associate Professor
Specialty: Foot & Ankle
Primary Location: Pennsylvania Hospital
Hannah Lee, MD
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Specialty: Hand
Primary Location: Penn Presbyterian Medical Center/VA Hospital
Kathleen Maguire, MD
Assistant Professor
Specialty: Sports
Primary Location: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
Liane Miller, MD
Assistant Professor
Specialty: Sports
Primary Location: Penn Presbyterian Medical Center/VA Hospital
Kristy L. Weber, MD
Professor and Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs
Specialty: Orthopaedic Oncology
Primary Location: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania