About the Holt Leadership Award for Residents and Fellows-in-Training
The Holt Leadership Award is awarded annually to the Resident or Fellow-in-Training who best exemplifies the attributes of a young leader: honesty, integrity, fairness, advocacy, and enthusiasm. The Award recognizes exemplary efforts on behalf of the Section for Residents and Fellows-in-Training of the AAO-HNS/F for the promotion of the missions and goals of the association.
Nominees are brought forward annually from the SRF. The award, a check for $500 and a medal, is presented at the annual SRF General Assembly and the awardee is announced during the Annual Meeting Opening Ceremony.
2025 Holt Leadership Award Recipient
This year’s recipient of the AAO-HNS Holt Leadership Award for Residents and Fellows-in-Training is Julia Brennan, MD. Dr. Brennan graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan. She then spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer working in the public health sector in Uganda. She returned to the University of Michigan Medical School for her medical degree where she graduated with honors and completed a one-year funded NIH T32 research fellowship. She completed her residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center before pursuing a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Northwestern University.
During her medical training, Dr. Brennan has been actively involved in working within underserved populations at home and abroad. She coordinated the University of Michigan student-run free clinic throughout medical school and served on the executive board. She was also awarded a Dow Sustainability Fellowship in her final year to explore the socioeconomic and health impacts of Detroit’s large scale development projects on its most vulnerable populations. Dr. Brennan’s professional interests include global health, medical education, surgical simulation, and more.
Throughout residency she collaborated with James Netterville, MD, to organize international surgical training workshops between American and Kenyan academic surgeons. She has been able to continue this work in Kenya since graduating from Vanderbilt and hopes to build on these efforts to bring fellowship-level otolaryngology-head and neck surgery care to populations most in need.
Previous Awardees:
- 2024: Pauline Huynh, MD
- 2023: Shannon D. Fayson, MD
- 2022: Hayley L. Born, MD
- 2021: Carla V. Valenzuela, MD, MSCI
- 2020: Aurora G. Vincent, MD
- 2019: Claire M. Lawlor, MD
- 2018: Peter M. Vila, MD
- 2017: David S. Cohen, MD
- 2016: John M. Carter, MD
- 2015: Nikhila P. Raol, MD, MPH
- 2014: Jayme R. Dowdall, MD
- 2013: Mark E. Zafereo, Jr., MD
- 2012: Jeffrey C. Liu, MD
- 2011: Vasu Divi, MD
- 2010: Lily Love, MD
- 2009: Spencer C. Payne, MD
- 2008: Jacob D. Steiger, MD
- 2007: Monica Tadros, MD
- 2006: Angela M. Powell, MD and Mark E. Boston, MD
- 2005: Adam T. Ross, MD
- 2004: Paul L. Leong, MD
- 2003: Liana Puscas, MD and Robert Puchalski, MD
- 2002: F. Christopher Holsinger, MD
