Residents Division

Susan Love Resident Writing Competition

Essay submissions are now closed.

In honor of Dr. Susan Love, a prominent author for the public on women’s health, we established a writing contest in 2015 in order to offer our members recognition for their creative work.

About Dr. Susan Love

Susan Love, MD/MBA is an American female surgeon, author and advocate for preventive breast cancer research. She attended medical school at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center where she graduated with honors and completed a surgical residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Massachusetts. At the start of her career, she was one of few female surgeons. However, despite the gender-based obstacles she faced early on, she became a trailblazer for women’s health, developing new techniques for breast cancer surgery. In addition she published Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book, which the New York Times called the “bible for women with breast cancer.” She served on the National Cancer Advisory Board under President Clinton in 1998 and helped establish the National Breast Cancer Coalition which influenced the federal government to augment research funding for breast cancer from $90 to $420 million. She serves as the chief visionary officer of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation which is dedicated to identifying where and how breast cancer begins and is engaged in innovative approaches to conducting research in this field.

Contest Rules

  • Authors must be active AMWA-RD members
  • The topic of the piece should be about Women and Medicine
  • It must be prose, and must not be illustrated
  • The writing submitted must be unique and unpublished in any outlet, including personal blogs
  • There is a 1000 word limit. The font and text size is up to the author’s choice
  • Submit your essay

If there are any questions, please email awards@amwa-resident.org.

2023 Winner

Krystal Mills, MD — Essay and Bio

Previous Winners

  • 2022 Bridget Findlay, MD — Essay and Bio
  • 2021 Ovini Rodrigo, MD, MSc — Essay & Bio
  • 2020 Tara Shrout, MD MSc Essay & Bio
  • 2019 Brit Trogen, MD — Essay & Bio
  • 2018 Elizabeth Brigham, MD
  • 2017 Angela Jarman, MD (First place) and Chung Sang Tse, MD (Second place)
  • 2016 Preethi Raghu, MD
  • 2015 Preethi Raghu, MD (First place) and Regina Toto, MD (Second place) — Essays & Bios