The Diversity Award recognizes excellence in promoting diversity in orthopaedics. The Diversity Award identifies living Academy Fellows and Emeritus members who have distinguished themselves through their outstanding commitment to making orthopaedics more representative of and accessible to the diverse population it serves.
This award is presented each year at the AAOS Annual Meeting. Recipients receive a $5,000 honorarium.
Candidates for the award will be evaluated for activities that include:
- Promotion of diversity
- Actively working to reduce obstacles that prevent greater numbers of women and under-represented ethnic groups from entering the field of orthopaedics in the U.S.
- Acting as a role model to colleagues and leading by example in promoting diversity
- Supporting diversity-related legislation, activities, and issues in health care
- Making a lasting impact on the profession's diversity
- Mentoring
- Recruiting and encouraging diverse ethnic and/or female medical students and pre-med students to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery
- Sponsoring, mentoring, and/or guiding culturally diverse and female orthopaedic residents and young orthopaedists
- Culturally Competent Care
- Staffing clinics that provide musculoskeletal care to underserved patient populations
- Teaching culturally competent care in a clinical and/or institutional setting
- Acting in a leadership role in eliminating disparities in health care and/or promoting culturally competent care
- Writing and publishing materials that relate to culturally competent care and/or healthcare disparities
Who is Eligible?
- Must be an AAOS Active Academy Fellow or Emeritus Fellow in good standing
- Cannot be a current member of the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board
- Cannot have served on the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board, as voting member or chair, within the three years prior to the award year
- Cannot be a current member of the AAOS Board of Directors
- Cannot have served on the AAOS Board of Directors within the three years prior to the award year
- If selected to receive the award, the candidate agrees to attend the AAOS Annual Meeting at his or her own expense
- Agrees to release his or her image and an approved biography of his or her diversity activities for publicity purposes
- Must be nominated by a sponsor
Who May Nominate/Sponsor a Nominee?
- AAOS Fellows in good standing, Candidate members eligible for fellowship, and Emeritus Fellows
- Orthopaedic residents who have directly and professionally benefited from the activities of the nominee
- Sponsor cannot be a current member of the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board
- Sponsor cannot have served on the AAOS Diversity Advisory Board, as voting member or chair, within the three years prior to the award year
- Sponsor cannot be a current member of the AAOS Board of Directors
2025 nomination period will open later this year.
Boris A. Zelle, MD, FAAOS, FAOA, Receives 2024 AAOS Diversity Award
Boris A. Zelle, MD, FAAOS, FAOA, was presented with the AAOS 2024 Diversity Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to promoting diversity at the local, institutional and national level.
“Receiving the AAOS Diversity Award means a lot to me. I have practiced academic medicine for many years, and I cannot think of any other accomplishment that I have found more meaningful,” Dr. Zelle said. “Above all, I consider it a recognition of our combined efforts to support important values that I deeply believe in.”
Previous AAOS Diversity Award Winners
Mary I. O'Connor, MD, FAOA, FAAHKS, FAAOS
2023 Diversity Award Winner
Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, FAAOS
2022 Diversity Award Winner
Lisa L. Lattanza, MD, FAOA, FAAOS
2021 Diversity Award Winner
James A. Hill, MD, FAAOS
2020 Diversity Award Winner
Michael L. Parks, MD, FAAOS
2019 Diversity Award Winner
Mark Gebhardt, MD, FAAOS
2018 Diversity Award Winner
Richard E. Grant, MD, FAAOS
2017 Diversity Award Winner