Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar Is Honored with Inspiring Women in Surgery Award

Otologist-neurotologist Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD, FACS, received the Dr. Mary Edwards Walker Inspiring Women in Surgery Award during Convocation at Clinical Congress 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Receiving this award is a huge honor for me,” said Dr. Chandrasekhar, a partner at ENT and Allergy Associates in New York, New York. “Awards like this showcase the importance that the House of Medicine, our House of Medicine, puts on supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in surgery.”

Dr. Chandrasekhar is acknowledged as one of the leading authorities on sudden sensorineural hearing loss and has spearheaded groundbreaking research on the treatment of otitis media with an intranasal spray of surfactant.

While serving in the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), American Otological Society (AOS), and other organizations, Dr. Chandrasekhar noticed gaps where women and other groups were not adequately represented in meetings and other leadership positions. She led the creation of the Women in Otolaryngology (WIO) Section of the AAO-HNS and Foundation and ensured a permanent WIO seat on the AAO-HNS Finance and Investment Subcommittee and Board of Directors, among other activities to promote women in medicine.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-hosted a videocast, “She’s on Call.” One memorable episode for International Women’s Day featured ACS Past-President (2021–2022) Julie A. Freischlag, MD, FACS, and Carol R. Bradford, MD, MS, FACS, discussing the representation of women in leadership roles in medicine. 

In addition to her position at ENT and Allergy Associates, Dr. Chandrasekhar is director of neurotology at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, clinical professor of otolaryngology at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell, and clinical associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—all in the New York metropolitan area—as well as a teaching faculty member of five otolaryngology residency programs. She also is president of the AOS.