About the WIO Exemplary Senior Trainee Award
The WIO Exemplary Senior Trainee Award recognizes an outstanding female senior resident or fellow in an otolaryngology-head and neck surgery training program who demonstrates excellence in leadership, research, education, and mentoring.
The 2023 nomination process will be open January 4 – March 15. Submit your nomination today!
2022 WIO Exemplary Senior Trainee Award Recipient
This year’s awardee is Zainab Farzal, MD, MPH, who is a resident on the T-32 track and author of more than 35 publications, including ones in which she mentored junior residents and medical students. She used her time in the lab to improve the readability of patient outcomes measures in several areas and was the first University of North Carolina (UNC) otolaryngology-head and neck surgery resident to simultaneously earn a Master of Public Health degree from the UNC School of Public Health with a focus on public health leadership. She is also a 2016 graduate with distinction in research from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Dr. Farzal has chaired the AAO-HNS Section for Residents and Fellows-in-Training (SRF) and held multiple roles in the SRF including the SRF Representative to the Board of Governors, Information Officer, and Chair-elect. She developed a grand rounds titled “The History of Civil Rights and Desegregation in Healthcare,” which she presented within the UNC School of Medicine’s Academy of Educators.
Dr. Farzal is also an advocate for patients, junior residents, and students alike. Her efforts to investigate long-term outcomes of women and ethnic populations in otolaryngology residency programs were published in Laryngoscope in 2021. In addition, she has authored several publications on sex bias in research within the specialty. In 2019 she received her residency’s Citizenship Award. During her residency, Dr. Farzal also worked with and helped resettle refugee families in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, area.
RECIPIENTS:
- 2021: Anisha R. Noble, MD, MS
- 2020: Leila Jean Mady, MD, PhD, MPH
- 2019: Hayley L. Born, MD
- 2018: Sarah N. Bowe, MD
- 2017: Juliana Bonilla-Velez, MD
- 2016: Kara Davis, MD
