Minto completes national leadership training focused on women

T.J. Hundley, M.D., associate dean for medical education, 

presents Elizabeth Minto, M.D., assistant professor of 

neurology, with a certificate and award for completing 

the Women Leading in Neurology program.

Elizabeth Minto, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at the USA College of Medicine and a neurologist with USA Health, recently completed a national leadership training program. After a competitive application process, she was accepted to the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) Women Leading in Neurology program.

Over the course of a year, Minto, who is also director of clinical skills in the College of Medicine, completed a customized leadership curriculum and received one-on-one guidance from an AAN mentor to help focus her career and leadership goals as well as devise specific strategies to achieve these goals. 

“As a female neurologist in a leadership role within our academic institution, I applied for the program to better reflect on my leadership strengths and areas for growth and to broaden my network of female leaders in a field where there are far more men in leadership roles,” Minto said. “This program was extraordinarily helpful to me in evaluating how I can best continue to excel in my career goals, teaching, and patient care while taking into account the different ways that women can often be perceived in this role versus men.”

Minto said the program was centered on mindful leadership, focusing on understanding one’s self (including a personal mission, goals, and values), followed by leading a team, and then leading within an organization while always keeping one’s personal goals and values in mind. 

“The focus on mindfulness and being mission-driven was truly transformative, and the experience was extremely positive,” Minto said. 

In the 2020 class, Minto joined 11 other female neurologists from institutions across the United States, including the National Institutes of Health, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, and UCLA. While their meetings transitioned from an in-person to a remote format with the March shutdown, the group still meets monthly to provide support and community to one another.

Phung led session of international dermatopathology meeting

Thuy Phung, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at the USA College of Medicine and director of molecular genetic pathology and dermatopathology, was invited to chair a session of the second annual meeting of the Asian Society of Dermatopathology, held virtually in November. 

Dermatopathology is the study of skin pathology and a subspecialty of dermatology and pathology. Phung's duties as chair was to lead the session “Update in Soft Tissue Tumor and Nail Tumor,” introduce each of the speakers with a brief summary of professional qualifications and achievements, and moderate the question-and-answer period after the talks.

“The participants got to hear lectures from leading authorities in dermatopathology and dermatology, on a wide array of clinically important disease entities in cancers of the skin and soft tissues as well as a great talk on the unique and rare pathologies of the nail apparatus,” she said.

Phung, who joined the faculty in March 2020, said she was honored to represent the USA College of Medicine at the international meeting, which featured speakers from Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific countries. The combined dermatopathology and dermatology meeting had more than 1,000 participants. 

“It was an honor to meet virtually and work with the invited speakers from across the globe in this forum. Despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic, we were able to hold a highly successful meeting with probably more participants in the online virtual format than if we were to have the meeting live in person in the traditional way,” Phung said. “We were able to attract more trainees and young professionals to the meeting this year because of this new format, and to expand our reach to those who may not have been able to afford to travel to the meeting on site.”