From Pioneers to a Pipeline: The Women of NYOH & Columbia Orthopedics
Carving out a future
In the spring of 1944, Allied casualties from the Battle of Monte Cassino poured into a British military hospital in Pompeii. Among the surgeons working nearly around the clock was an American orthopedic surgeon from Columbia named Barbara Bartlett Stimson, MD.
The photographer Irving Penn, then serving as a volunteer ambulance driver, encountered Stimson shortly after she emerged from the operating room. He later described her as one of the British Army's top surgeons, leading an orthopedic unit responsible for much of the bone surgery in the Italian theater. She was exhausted, with blood still on her gloves and apron. Penn's assessment was succinct, “She is the real stuff.”
It would be difficult to find a more fitting place to begin the story of women in orthopedic surgery at Columbia.
Barbara Stimson: Before There Was a Path
Born in 1898, Stimson graduated from Vassar College and entered Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1919, as a member of only the third medical school class to admit women. After graduating with honors in 1923, she obtained a surgical internship at Columbia-Presbyterian, where she met William Darrach, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery.
Darrach encouraged her interest in orthopedics. Stimson had a wonderfully uncomplicated explanation for why the specialty suited her: “I have the hands for it—large, strong, mechanical hands.”
She completed her surgical training, joined Columbia's fracture service and, in 1940, became the first woman certified by the American Board of Surgery, receiving certificate number 860. Seven years and approximately 2,500 candidates would pass before another woman was certified.
World War II took Stimson far beyond Columbia. Because the United States initially would not commission women physicians, she joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a major and practiced orthopedic trauma surgery in England, North Africa and Italy.
Her cousin, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, reportedly told her that he did not like seeing her in a British uniform. She responded: “But you don't give women doctors commissions in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.” Stimson subsequently presented evidence at the Pentagon that women physicians were already serving successfully in Britain. Federal legislation later authorized military commissions for American women physicians. Although Stimson was never officially credited with bringing about that change, her advocacy was part of the history surrounding it.
King George VI ultimately named her a Member of the Order of the British Empire for the “energy, zeal and breadth of vision” she brought to the specialized orthopedic center she established in Italy.
Her philosophy was remarkably simple: “There was no distinction made professionally between the sexes. The work was there to be done by whoever was fitted for it.”
It would take American orthopedic surgery decades to approach that ideal.
Ros Kane: The First Woman at NYOH
The generation after Stimson produced another Columbia pioneer: Rosamond “Ros” Kane, MD.
Kane graduated from Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1952 and made history when she became the first woman resident at the New York Orthopaedic Hospital. She went on to specialize in pediatric orthopedics and remained at Columbia, becoming an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Director of the Children's Foot Clinic at Columbia-Presbyterian.
Dr. Kane did more than cross a threshold. She remained within the institution as a surgeon, teacher and academic orthopedist during an era when remarkably few women practiced the specialty.
Dr. Kane died from breast cancer in 1989 at only 62. Her name remains part of Columbia medicine. Each year the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons presents the Rosamond Kane Cummins '52 Award to a graduating medical student entering orthopedic surgery who has demonstrated exceptional promise.
There is something particularly fitting about that legacy: the first woman to enter the NYOH orthopedic residency is remembered by recognizing another Columbia medical student preparing to enter the specialty.
Nancy Otto: A Generation Later
Nearly three decades would pass before another woman entered the NYOH orthopedic residency. Nancy Otto, MD, now 77, was the first woman accepted into the program since Ros Kane.
Otto's path to orthopedic surgery was anything but predetermined. She began college as a voice major, hoping to become an opera singer, before eventually completing her undergraduate degree in sociology. Her father, a Columbia P&S graduate and surgeon, had watched his three sons choose careers outside medicine. He offered his daughter a challenge: “My three sons are not going to medical school, and I'll pay for you if you can get in.”
She did. Dr. Otto entered Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons at a time when women pursuing medicine still encountered remarkably explicit resistance. She remembers being told that a woman would simply “take the spot of a man and leave and get married,” while some institutions explained that they had once trained a woman and, because “it didn't work out,” were reluctant to take another.
Her experience at Columbia was different. Looking back more than five decades later, Dr. Otto said, “I think Columbia should be applauded for taking on women at a time when nobody else did and giving us a chance.”
Her interest in orthopedics began in the anatomy laboratory. She was particularly drawn to the hand and upper extremity—the intricacy of the anatomy, the small bones and vessels, and the mechanical challenge of putting them back together.
Otto ultimately entered the NYOH residency and remembers the experience with great affection. “I had a great time at NYOH. The teaching was great; the diversity of patients was great.” She recalls Harold Dick, MD, as her most influential mentor. Operating-room access was not always easy to obtain, and she remembers performing tendon repairs and fracture care with fellow resident Melvin Rosenwasser in the emergency room.
After residency and hand fellowship, Dr. Otto initially struggled to find a practice willing to take on a female orthopedic surgeon. She practiced general orthopedics and hand surgery in New Jersey before moving with her family to San Antonio in 1988, where she built a remarkably busy hand surgery practice while raising three children. At its peak, she recalls seeing approximately 150 patients and performing 25 to 30 operations each week.
She retired after a career spanning more than four decades.
Dr. Otto's story occupies an important place in the history of women at NYOH. Ros Kane had demonstrated that a woman could train and remain at Columbia as an orthopedic surgeon. A generation later, Otto entered a specialty in which many institutions still openly questioned whether women belonged at all.
Columbia gave her the opportunity.
She made the most of it.
From One Woman to a Community
The pace of change began to accelerate. Two women graduated from the NYOH residency in 1983, Victoria Langa, MD, and Laura Tosi, MD.
In an interview for the 40th anniversary of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS), Tosi recalled just how unusual that remained: “I was the 75th board-certified female orthopedic surgeon.”
Tosi went on to a distinguished career in pediatric orthopedics, bone health and advocacy and became a national leader in advancing women in orthopedic surgery. When she served as RJOS President in 1992–1993, the community was still remarkably small. She recalls inviting the women of the Society to her Washington, DC, home for dinner.
That image may describe the era better than any graph could: a national community of women orthopedic surgeons still small enough to gather around one dinner table.
Yvonne Shelton, MD, graduated in 1989 and is the earliest Black woman graduate we have identified in our records. Her father, Marvin Shelton, MD, was the first African American man to join the NYOH/Columbia orthopedic faculty. A generation later, his daughter became one of the pioneering Black women to train in the same department.
Laura Forese: From Orthopedic Leadership to Leading NYP
Laura Forese, MD, a 1993 graduate, represents another important first. She became the first woman Vice Chair of Columbia Orthopedics, serving during the chairmanships of both Harold Dick, MD, and Louis Bigliani, MD.
Her leadership trajectory ultimately took her far beyond the department. Forese became Chief Medical Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian and later Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, the second-highest-ranking leadership position in the organization.
Her career broadened what leadership by a Columbia-trained orthopedic surgeon could look like. Forese first broke a barrier within the department in which she had trained and ultimately reached the highest levels of leadership of the academic medical center itself.
Critical Mass
A major inflection point occurred with the residency class that matched in 1997 and graduated in 2001. Beth Shubin Stein, Jennifer Winnell, Iris Yaron and Charlotte Shum all trained together. Because residency classes were not yet fixed at their current size, women represented four of ten graduates, but having four women train together was nevertheless striking for its time.
Beth Shubin Stein, MD, became one of the country's leading sports medicine and patellofemoral surgeons at Hospital for Special Surgery. Her influence has extended to subsequent generations of Columbia women. Lauren Redler, MD, a 2014 Columbia graduate who subsequently returned to join the Columbia faculty, trained with Shubin Stein at HSS and developed particular expertise in patellofemoral disorders within a broader sports medicine practice encompassing knee and shoulder surgery. Elizabeth Dennis, MD, a 2020 Columbia graduate, also trained under Shubin Stein and has emerged as a leader in patellofemoral surgery.
That progression—from Columbia alumna to mentor and then to subsequent generations of Columbia-trained women—illustrates how a pipeline becomes self-sustaining.
After Columbia standardized the residency at six residents per year, women represented half of the graduating class for the first documented time in 2012 and again in 2019, 2024 and 2026. The class of 2028 includes four women among six residents, the first female-majority class identified in our program's history.
Beyond the Old Assumptions
Numbers tell only part of the story.
For decades, women in orthopedics confronted assumptions not only about whether they belonged, but also about where they belonged. Hand surgery and pediatric orthopedics were often viewed as more natural destinations for women, while fields such as spine, trauma and adult reconstruction carried the stereotype that women lacked the physical strength required for the work.
The careers of Columbia women have steadily rendered those assumptions irrelevant.
Women trained at Columbia now practice throughout orthopedic surgery. Leslie Barnes, MD, became Chief of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at Temple, while Charla Fischer, MD, built an academic career in spine surgery at NYU.
Katie Rosenwasser, MD, represents another dimension of that evolution. A graduate of Columbia's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and our orthopedic residency, she returned to Columbia after fellowship training in pediatric orthopedics and additional training in limb lengthening and deformity surgery. Her practice spans limb lengthening and extremity deformity surgery in pediatric, adolescent and adult patients, and she has emerged as a leader in this highly specialized field. She also serves as Director of Medical Student Education for students interested in orthopedic surgery, helping guide the next generation toward the specialty.
Her return reflects another recurring theme in the modern history of the program: Columbia residents who choose to come back as faculty and become teachers themselves. Rosenwasser's story has an additional generational connection. Her father, Melvin Rosenwasser, MD, has spent his career at Columbia and served as Chief of Hand Surgery. But Katie's place in this history is distinctly her own: she returned to the institution where she had been a medical student and resident to build a specialized surgical practice and to educate those considering the same path.
The class of 2028 provides perhaps the clearest snapshot of how far the field has moved. Four of its six residents are women. Natalia Czerwonka, MD, and Tiffany Smith, MD, are pursuing orthopedic trauma; Beth Ashinsky, MD, PhD, is pursuing sports medicine through Columbia's six-year surgeon-scientist pathway; and Michaela O'Connor, MD, is pursuing pediatric orthopedics.
The point is not that women stopped choosing hand surgery or pediatric orthopedics—demanding fields in which generations of women have built extraordinary careers. The change is that the old presumption that certain parts of orthopedic surgery were more appropriate for women has steadily lost its meaning. Today's Columbia women pursue the subspecialty that interests them.
Columbia and the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society
The Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society provides another thread through this history. Laura Tosi served as President in 1992–1993. Three decades later, Columbia faculty member Christen Russo, MD, served as RJOS President in 2023–2024. For the Society's 40th anniversary, RJOS devoted special attention to Columbia, interviewing women who had trained in the program. Their reflections provide an oral history of something the numbers alone cannot capture: how the experience of being a woman in orthopedic surgery has changed across generations.
From a Dinner Table to a Pipeline
Since 2014, 17 women have been recruited to the Columbia orthopedic faculty. Today, approximately 40 percent of the residency is female. Women have repeatedly been selected as Administrative Chief Residents, while women with MD/PhD training are choosing Columbia's six-year surgeon-scientist pathway.
The generational change can also be seen within orthopedic families. Perhaps the most striking example is current resident Karina Roye, daughter of Columbia faculty member Benjamin Roye, MD, and granddaughter of David Roye, MD, former Columbia faculty member and Chief of Pediatric Orthopedics. Three generations of one family now intersect with Columbia Orthopedics.
These family connections do not define the accomplishments of these women. They do, however, reveal how profoundly the culture has changed. There was a time when a daughter following her father into orthopedic surgery was remarkable simply because she was a woman. Increasingly, it is simply another way someone finds her calling.
Nearly a century separates Barbara Stimson from the women training at Columbia today. During that span, women went from rare pioneers, to residents entering a nearly exclusively male specialty, to leaders and mentors whose presence became part of the fabric of the department.
Today, women train throughout the breadth of orthopedic surgery at Columbia and enter residency classes in which their presence is no longer unusual.
Yet perhaps the most meaningful measure of progress is not the number.
Barbara Stimson wrote of her wartime experience: “There was no distinction made professionally between the sexes. The work was there to be done by whoever was fitted for it.”
More than 80 years later, Kyle McCormick, MD, Columbia residency class of 2025, described her experience in remarkably similar terms: “I've been allowed to be a person in orthopedics, not a woman in orthopedics.”
After completing fellowship training in adult reconstruction at NYU, McCormick returned to Columbia in September 2026 to join our hip and knee reconstruction faculty.
Separated by generations, Stimson and McCormick describe essentially the same aspiration: to be judged by the work rather than by gender.
That may be the history most worth preserving—and the future worth continuing.