The Southeastern Section (SES) of the AUA (SESAUA) is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within our section. The SES represents a sub-geographical area with some of the greatest diversity in the organization. We continue our dedicated effort to encourage meeting attendance and support of our fellow urologists in Puerto Rico, Panama, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Executive Committee moved to establish a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee within the SESAUA. This new DEI committee is being led by Dr Martha Terris. This committee will work in concert with the AUA DEI committee to unite goals and help implement actions. Two of the SESAUA committee members are also on the AUA committee, so we have liaisons in place.

The SESAUA recognizes the changing demographics of practicing urologists and society in general. Our annual meeting continues to reflect our commitment to diversity and our intentional efforts to improve opportunities for all members. We have women on multiple panels and podium sessions, including Dr Kristen Scarpato as one of our State of the Art speakers.

The SESAUA continues to hold a W. Bedford Waters memorial lecture at our annual meeting. Dr Waters is remembered as a gentleman, friend, and mentor to many current urologists. Dr Herrell and Dr Ritenour noted in last year’s DEI article that “his strength, skill, tenacity and intelligence developed as he overcame the obstacles and prejudices of the South in the 1950-1960s. Moreover, his ability to truly connect with everyone as a person was masterful.” Dr Waters completed his career at University of Tennessee Knoxville where he was the first chair of the new Department of Urology and one of the first African American urologists in the SESAUA. Dr Cheryl Lee is our honored guest speaker for this event, speaking on “How Mentoring is Changing Urology.”

The SESAUA has a long, rich history in urology but is committed to creating and also maintaining opportunities for all members. As a brief review on the current state of women in urology in the SESAUA, we reviewed our membership data.

We currently have 2,200 members in the SESAUA with approximately 6% being women urologists. Nationally, the proportion of women in urology is closer to 11%.

When looking more closely at the number of women in leadership positions in the SES, we found that 12% of our leadership is female. In a detailed breakdown of these leadership positions, we see that there is 1 woman on the Executive Committee who will ascend to president in 2024. This will be the first woman to become president of the SESAUA in its 90-year history. There are 6 women out of 54 total state representatives on the Board of Directors of the SESAUA. On our committees, 11 out of 84 members are women with several being chairs. On our resident committee, 1 out of 5 is female.

As a reminder and brief history of women in urology, there were only 22 female urologists in 1985. By 1995 there were 100 board certified female urologists in the U.S. and now there are over 1,100 female urologists in the U.S.

In other areas of membership diversity, according to the AUA census, the SESAUA has a 6.6% Hispanic membership. There is also a documented 15% non-White membership of the SESAUA according to the AUA. In summary, the SESAUA is committed to equitable opportunities in our meetings, membership and leadership and we look forward to creating a welcoming environment for all of our members.