About the MCW AWSM Center

MCW’s AWSM Center was built on the collective work of women and men over the past nearly 40 years. Notably, women founded the Women’s Faculty Council (now the Council for Women’s Advocacy) in the early 1990s with a mission to identify and examine issues pertinent to women faculty members and to recommend measures that support and enhance their professional development. Their work has resulted in development of institutional policy on full professional effort, salary equity report, backup care benefits, grants to examine gender in promotion and retention, and the creation of an Associate Dean for Women’s Leadership in 2013.

We began our discovery phase in the fall of 2016 to solidify the center’s original vision, mission and strategic plan in collaboration with MCW’s strategic goals. MCW’s Center for the Advancement of Women in Science and Medicine launched in October 2018, with a vision that MCW will be a destination for women leaders, cultivating an inclusive and vibrant culture that supports all genders to grow and thrive in the health sciences. In 2025, we evolved to our current name and vision to articulate our current efforts supporting our faculty, staff and learners, emphasizing our commitment to advancing our people into leaders in the health sciences. Today, the AWSM Center is shares a vision where individuals in academic medicine are respected and affirmed for their talents, ambitions and achievements, and are encouraged to pursue a pathway in academic medicine that supports personal and professional excellence. With programs and opportunities open to all, we play a crucial role in cultivating an inclusive and vibrant culture that supports members of the MCW community to grow and thrive, expanding opportunities for leadership skill development, connectivity and recognition of substantial achievement.