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.
2023 WIO Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award Recipient
This year’s awardee of the AAO-HNS Women in Otolaryngology (WIO) Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award is Amy Y. Chen, MD, MPH, MBA. She is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor and inaugural vice chair for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) of the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine. She also co-leads the DEI efforts at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. She serves as Emory’s director of head and neck endocrine surgery and is the program director for the endocrine head and neck surgery fellowship.
Dr. Chen has been a trailblazer in promoting the interests of women in her specialty. She was the first female faculty member to join the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Emory in 2001. In 2010 she became the first woman and person of color to attain the rank of full professor in otolaryngology at Emory. She has served as a mentor and sponsor for women faculty and faculty of color in countless ways, implementing the first Women in Surgical Specialties group at Emory in 2019 and advocating for faculty and staff with children as cochair of the Child Care Task Force for the Emory University Senate.
On a national level, she founded the Women in Head and Neck Surgery service in the American Head and Neck Society. There she established the first mentoring program offered by any national otolaryngology society and was a founding member of its DEI Committee.
Her academic research has focused on disparities in healthcare, particularly the effect of socioeconomic status and insurance coverage on outcomes in head and neck cancer, which resulted in appearances before Congress. Dr. Chen also led inaugural efforts to raise awareness of unconscious bias throughout Emory University School of Medicine. She serves on the Board of two social justice non-profit organizations: Partnership for Southern Equity and the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence.
Past Recipients:
- 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
