It is an honor and a privilege to be included in the AUA Leadership Class cohort for 2023-2024. Several past graduates, as well as members of the North Central Section leadership, encouraged me to apply for the program as a pathway to become more involved with organized urology at the national level. I was fortunate to train under Dr Martin Resnick during his tenure as AUA president from 2003-2004 and currently work with Dr Stephen Nakada, AUA president-elect, and thus see, first-hand, the benefits and impact of participation in the national urology conversation. My first role in service to the profession was as president of the Wisconsin Urologic Society from 2020-2021. I enjoyed the challenge of leading a group of diverse urologists to advocate for public policy in our state and creating a robust educational program that showcased leading women in our field. Participation in my state society afforded me my current leadership opportunities in the North Central Section as vice chair of the Women in Urology Committee and the Wisconsin representative to the Nominating Committee. The primary objective of the Women in Urology Committee has been to embed a systematic application of a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens across all policies, processes, and decisions in the North Central Section. As a result, we have dramatically increased the number of women presenting at the annual meeting and in leadership roles on the board.

One of my local departmental roles is to serve as the vice chair for Faculty Development and Wellness. A robust sense of purpose and meaning in your work is inversely related to burnout and positively related to professional fulfillment. I believe the AUA Leadership Program is one route to building and reinforcing purpose and meaning in my work. In February 2023 I attended my first AUA Advocacy Summit as an incoming North Central Section representative to the Public Policy Council. This experience was personally invigorating. It also highlighted for me the intersections of wellness, advocacy and service, and leadership—each reinforcing the other. The AUA Leadership course will help me more effectively navigate these intersections with the destination of fostering leadership opportunities for young female urologists in our state society, the North Central Section, and nationally, and advocating on behalf of female faculty, trainees, and patients.