Message from the chair

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Summertime is the season for academic graduations, renewals, and new beginnings. We bid farewell to an outstanding group of graduating UW Otolaryngology-HNS residents and fellows, who have been a wonderful part of our community. Our graduates are equipped with exceptional training, are ready to provide exemplary care for patients and their families, perform innovative research to advance all areas of otolaryngology, and become leaders in our field. 

We are also excited to welcome a diverse and exciting group of new trainees who are joining us from all over the country and all over the world. Their energy, enthusiasm, and optimism will refresh our engaged community. With our R25 training grant firmly in place for the next five years under the direction of Drs. Jennifer Stone, David Horn, and Jay Rubinstein, and with the expansion of our resident complement to five individuals per year, spearheaded by our residency program director Tanya Meyer, MD, and residency program manager Domonique Calhoun, the education and research opportunities will be boundless.

At our annual graduation symposium, we were thrilled to welcome Peter Hwang, MD, who presented the 16th Annual Weymuller Endowed Lectureship. Dr. Hwang is professor and vice chair of clinical affairs and director of the Division of Rhinology and Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery in Oto-HNS at Stanford. He provided a unique perspective about otolaryngologists as entrepreneurs and held robust discussions with the residents about academic otolaryngology. 

In addition to celebrating our chief residents and fellows that evening, the coveted resident awards were presented to three outstanding individuals: the Trachy Award for outstanding resident research guidance went to David Raible, PhD; the Driftwood Award for outstanding resident clinical education went to Zain Rizvi, MD; and the Resident Recognition Award for staff support went to Jessica Augustine, surgery scheduler at Harborview Medical Center. We also had the opportunity to thank all the parents and other family members who have supported our trainees through this arduous training program. Nobody achieves this level of success without having a strong and loving team with them on this journey. 

If you haven't had the opportunity yet, please read our summer newsletter celebrating the achievements across our vibrant department, which I hop0e gives you a sense of the incredibly meaningful work being done across the entire spectrum of otolaryngology - head and neck surgery. As I begin my 17th year as chair of UW Oto-HNS, I remain as energized and enthusiastic about our future as I was when I first joined the department. We all share a passion to try new things to better care for our patients and to create new knowledge. Even though it requires adapting to never-ending change, we do it because this is how we fulfill our mission to improve the health of our patients and advance the field.

Sincerely, 

Neal