About the WIO Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award
This award recognizes an individual who has furthered the interests of women in the field of otolaryngology.
2025 WIO Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award Recipient
This year’s awardee of the AAO-HNS WIO Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award is Pell Ann Wardrop, MD. Dr. Wardrop has been an active member of the AAO-HNS since 1984. A true “trailblazer,” she was an original member of the working group that established the WIO as a section, including the creation of its structure and bylaws. She was one of the founders of the WIO Endowment in 2008 and a WIO Committee member from 2005-2010 prior to WIO becoming a section.
Dr. Wardrop served as the financial officer of the WIO from 2010-2017 and as WIO representative on the AAO-HNS Finance and Investment Subcommittee from 2011-2017. She was a member of the WIO Governing Council from 2010-2017 and WIO representative to the ENT PAC* from 2016-2018. She was chair of the WIO Endowment Committee from 2010-2017.
Dr. Wardrop was one of the first otolaryngologists to achieve sub-certification in sleep medicine and served on the AAO-HNS Sleep Disorders Committee from 2006-2015 and 2019-2021, where she was also chair from 2008-2013. She contributed to the Outcomes Research and Evidence-based Medicine Committee from 2006-2009 and received the Distinguished Service Award (2018) and Honor Award (2023). Dr. Wardrop is a Millennium Society Life Member.
She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University and her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; she completed her residency and fellowship at the University of North Carolina.
Past Recipients:
- 2024: Cherie-Ann O. Nathan, MD
- 2023: Amy Y. Chen, MD, MPH, MBA
- 2022: Andrea Vambutas, MD
- 2021: Nancy M. Young, MD
- 2020: Kathleen L. Yaremchuk, MD, MSA
- 2019: Carol R. Bradford, MD
- 2018: Stacey L. Ishman, MD, PhD
- 2017: Amber Luong, MD, PhD
- 2016: Karen M. Kost, MDCM
- 2015: Sukgi S. Choi, MD
- 2014: Family of Linda S. Brodsky, MD
- 2013: Dana M. Thompson, MD
- 2012: Sujana C. Chandrasekhar, MD
- 2011: Ron B. Kuppersmith, MD, MBA, & Sonya Malekzadeh, MD
