Join us to celebrate, be empowered, reconnect and heal.

A national, virtual event —  with local connections

What you can expect

3 days of virtual programming, 4 hours each day: Aha moments. ``So right!`` moments. Breakouts designed to rewire your brain. Laughs. Tears. Reminders of why we do what we do. Every. Single. Day.

Who's invited

If you are a Permanente Medicine physician or clinician you belong here. A limited number of other staff members and guests have also received invitations.

Where we're focusing

Our event themes are in 3 areas: Healing the healers. Becoming a leader. Taking action as an ally.

Our inspiration

As practitioners of Permanente Medicine, we care about total health for one another, just as we care about total health in our larger communities.

Time to heal

In the wake of the pandemic, we want to give you, members of our medical groups, time to come together and reflect on the past year and chart the way forward.

The time is right

Before Dr. Wilson and Dr. Ferguson leave their roles in 2021, we want to make an opportunity to celebrate female leadership within Permanente Medicine.

Hosts

The women who lead three of our Permanente medical groups

Margaret Ferguson, MD, MBA
President and Executive Medical Director – Colorado Permanente Medical Group

Since 2015, Dr. Ferguson, a pediatric hospitalist, has served in her role as leader of the Colorado Permanente Medical Group, which comprises nearly 1,200 physicians and 35 specialties. Kaiser Permanente Colorado serves a population of more than 660,000 members.

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Margaret Ferguson, MD, MBA
President and Executive Medical Director – Colorado Permanente Medical Group
Mary Wilson, MD, MPH
President and Executive Medical Director – The Southeast Permanente Medical Group

Dr. Wilson, a pediatrician, leads TSPMG, one of Georgia’s largest multi-specialty medical groups, with more than 600 clinicians caring for nearly 310,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the state.

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Mary Wilson, MD, MPH
President and Executive Medical Director – The Southeast Permanente Medical Group
Imelda Dacones, MD
CEO and President – Northwest Permanente, Chair, National Permanente Executive Committee, The Permanente Federation

Dr. Dacones, an internal medicine physician, leads more than 1,700 physicians, clinicians, and administrative staff who provide care to some 625,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

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Imelda Dacones, MD
CEO and President – Northwest Permanente, Chair, National Permanente Executive Committee, The Permanente Federation

Speakers

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
The 60th Mayor of Atlanta

As mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms established the city’s first fully staffed Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, appointed an LGBTQ Affairs Coordinator and a Human Trafficking Fellow, eliminated the city's cash bail bond, closed the Atlanta City Detention Center to ICE detainees, and rolled out the most far-reaching financial transparency platform in the city’s history – Atlanta’s Open Checkbook.

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Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
The 60th Mayor of Atlanta
Nikki Giovanni
Poet, civil rights activist, best-selling author

Nikki Giovanni is one of this country’s most widely read poets and one of America’s most renowned poets world-wide. She has won dozens of awards in the course of her career; additionally, Oprah Winfrey recognized her in 2005 as one of twenty-five “Living Legends.” She continues to teach, write, and publish books, the most recent of which is A Good Cry.

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Nikki Giovanni
Poet, civil rights activist, best-selling author
Michele Harper, MD
Emergency Department physician, author of New York Times bestseller ``The Beauty in Breaking``

Dr. Harper has worked as an emergency room physician for more than a decade. As a Black woman in an overwhelmingly white and male profession, Dr. Harper is passionate about the persistent societal issues that impact patients and clinicians alike. In her memoir, The Beauty in Breaking, and her talks, she weaves personal stories of trauma and resiliency into an ode to service and healing. Dr. Harper also directly confronts the myriad racial inequalities that appear in the medical profession and the importance of dismantling bigotry on a personal and structural level.

Michele Harper, MD
Emergency Department physician, author of New York Times bestseller ``The Beauty in Breaking``
Zayid_Maysoon - Photo by Michelle Kinney
Maysoon Zayid
Comedian, writer, and disability advocate

Hailed in Glamour as ``the most fearless comic alive,`` Zayid is also a disability advocate who fights to mainstream disabled students worldwide and for disability rights. Her bestselling memoir Find Another Dream chronicles her life story in finding her voice and own path to stardom.

Zayid's candid, inspiring, and laugh-out-loud funny talks cover topics ranging from beating the odds, to fostering inclusivity and battling discrimination, to the challenges facing the disability community.

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Maysoon Zayid
Comedian, writer, and disability advocate

Our schedule

What can you expect? Interactive, mobile-accessible, CME-accredited programming will begin at 11 a.m. PDT each day, concluding by 3:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and no later than 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Workshops

These sessions will allow for focused instruction, interaction, and, we're confident, inspiration. Watch for more details soon.

Becoming a leader

Do you wonder if you have what it takes to be leader — or how you can best tap into your own unique capabilities? Often, we aren’t sure we have the ability within ourselves to be leaders, but as the promotional video for this event suggests, we are each enough. And even if we don’t want to be in formal leadership roles, we can benefit from learning leadership skills. After all, physicians are, by definition, leaders — in the care of their patients.

In this workshop, you’ll discover best practices for how to lead authentically and with confidence, and learn techniques for taking ownership of the skills that best suit you for success.

Healing the healers

Recent events in our society require us to adopt creative coping strategies. Those of us in health care often believe we are exempt from care for ourselves. We may be unaware that our colleagues and patients experience the world very differently from how we experience it. We may also be unaware of the impact that stressors place on our colleagues.

By the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to practice enhanced creative and healthy communication strategies and create habits of reflective and active practice that promote self-care.

Taking action as an ally

Being an ally means committing to an equitable, inclusive, and diverse culture. Many individuals appreciate this goal but struggle with knowing what to do exactly: How do we show up as allies? The premise of this workshop is that allyship is not a destination but a journey — one that requires that we each take ownership of our own biases and recognize how those biases influence our decision-making and behaviors.

In this workshop, among other things, you’ll learn and practice applying tools tethered to becoming an actionable ally; specifically, we will seek to provide you with critical language to help you overcome barriers in showing up as an ally.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are you sponsoring an event on this topic now?

We are creating Permanente Women in Medicine now for several reasons: 

Over the past year, our physicians (you!) have been at the forefront of the global pandemic, and we know it’s taken a toll. This is an opportunity for us to come together to, among other things, begin to heal.   

Also, we want to acknowledge and address the continued and disproportionate challenges that women face in their personal and professional lives. For many of us, this pandemic has only heightened those experiences. 

Finally, three of our seven Permanente executive medical directors are women, and two of those, Mary Wilson, MD, and Margaret Ferguson, MD, will be leaving their positions in 2021. We want to seize the moment to recognize the contributions of these remarkable leaders. 

2. Is there a charge to attend Permanente Women in Medicine?

This event if offered at no charge to registrants. The program is an investment in you, the physicians of Permanente Medicine.

3. What can I expect on June 11, 12, and 13?

Each day the event will offer 2-4 hours of virtual programming. We’ll post more information on this site as the schedule is finalized. 

4. Will I be able to watch it on my own time?

The meeting will be live, but if you can’t tune in for the entire program, don’t worry — you’ll be able to watch sessions you may have missed via the Swapcard platform for a limited time. 

5. Who are the other registrants?

All Permanente physicians are invited to attend. A limited number of spots are available for invited guests and others. 

6. Are men invited to attend?

Absolutely! We welcome men to join the event, and welcome everyone’s participation as allies in this work.

7. Is CME credit available for this event?

Accreditation: The Northwest Permanente, PC, Department of Continuing Medical Education & Professional Development (NWP CME & PD) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation: NWP CME & PD designates this live activity for a maximum of 8.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Statement: All individuals with influence over the educational content of this CME activity have disclosed they have no financial relationships with any ineligible companies.

Claiming CME Credit: Following the conference, a CME certificate will be emailed to the email address that you provided during registration.

We’ll be broadcasting from the beautiful Columbia River Gorge

Some regions are hosting in-person or virtual "spoke" events. Watch for information in your local area.

Our conference base

Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, Washington

EMAIL US

NWP-Events@kp.org