Elizabeth Sadowski, MD accepted the 2024 Excellence in Mentorship Award from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s Chapter of the Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) symposium. She was nominated by Jessica Robbins, MD, who received the award last year. “I can unequivocally say that I would not be where I am today in my academic clinical career without Dr. Sadowski’s mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship,” says Dr. Robbins.
In 2001, Dr. Sadowski joined the Department of Radiology as a fellow in abdominal imaging and continued as faculty in the Abdominal Imaging and Intervention section as well as serving as the director of gynecological imaging.
Throughout her long career at UW, she has focused on advancing women’s health through imaging and presenting her work locally, nationally and internationally. She is a founding chair and member of multiple national committees focused on gynecologic imaging, including the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) Disease-focused Panel on Uterine and Ovarian Cancer and the American College of Radiology (ACR) Committee on Ovarian-Adnexal Reporting & Data System (O-RADS). In addition, she led committees focused on diversity and inclusion, including the ACR Committee on Women and Diversity as wells as the SAR Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Dr. Sadowski has also been a remarkable mentor and sponsor to faculty in radiology and has guided trainees and early-career faculty locally and nationally, shaping the next generation of leaders in radiology.
We interviewed Dr. Sadowski to learn more about her long history as a mentor that led to this award.
Can you share what the receipt of this award means to you?
I am honored and humbled to receive this award. You may not always know how your interactions impact others and I feel fortunate to work with all those who I have mentored – feeling they have taught me as much as I have taught them. So to be recognized for mentoring makes me feel happy and that perhaps I’ve made a difference in other people’s lives and careers.
What inspired you to take on a mentorship role in your career?
My early years here at the UW were emotionally isolating as I was one of the only women in the department and the only woman in my section. Drs. Elizabeth Burnside, Lynn Broderick, Donna Blankenbaker, Susan Rebsamen, Gale Sisney and I came together to mentor each other. Through this interaction, the Women Professionals in Radiology (WPR) was born in 2009. With Dr. Gale Sisney, I was the founding chair of the WPR committee, after which Dr. Susan Rebsamen and I continued as co-chairs until 2020, when Drs. Erica Knavel and Kelly Capel, followed by Dr. Jade Anderson took over.
The mission of WPR is to facilitate the success of women in all ranks of the radiology community and to promote academic and clinical excellence in all faculty, residents, and students, regardless of gender identification. We have an amazing group of talented and successful women at all ranks and is one of the things I am most proud of in my career.
Are there any key mentors you had who made a significant or positive impression on your career? If so, how have they influenced your approach to being a mentor to others?
Some of my key mentors early in my career were Drs. Mark Kliewer, Parvi Ramchandani (PENN), Susan Rebsamen and Deborah Rubens (University of Rochester). They empowered me to think outside the box and reach out to others who work in the field of gynecologic imaging to help me build my career in this area. Their insightful views humanized the academic world, which can sometimes be cold and harsh. No one talks about these aspects of academics, yet many experience this. I’ve made it my mission to talk to my mentees about building a diverse network of colleagues, mentors and sponsors within and outside of their institution, to support them.
Why is mentorship important to the field of radiology?
We can all mentor one another in our work to improve the lives of our patients. You can learn from everyone – those junior, senior and at your level. Never be afraid to collaborate and choose projects you are passionate about. As the Greek proverb says: “A society grows great when (people) plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” When we all work together and promote one another, we move forward in a positive direction, even if we never know the true impact of our work.