2023-24 AOA President Ann Van Heest on Leadership, Mentorship, & Shaping the Future of Orthopedic Surgery

Tradition of Leadership

In the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, leadership is more than an individual pursuit—it’s a shared legacy, passed down through generations. This tradition of professional leadership has shaped the careers of many, including Van Heest.

The department has a rich history of producing leaders in national orthopedic organizations. Arthur Gillette, MD, the namesake of Gillette Children’s Hospital, was a founding member of the American Orthopedic Association (AOA) and AOA President in 1901.  More recent national leaders include Department Chair Dr. Roby Thompson Jr., who served as President of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery (AAOS) in 1986, and Dr. Dick Kyle, who held the same position in 2006.

Among those who have played a significant role in Van Heest’s career is Marc Swiontkowski, MD, who, among many accolades, served as President of the AOA in 2006 during his tenure as Chair of the UMN’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

“Marc has been very instrumental in helping me advance my career,” reflects Van Heest. 

Swiontkowski’s influence began early in her career when he appointed Van Heest as Residency Program Director six years into her practice, and at a time when female residency directors were a rarity in the field.

His mentorship and support didn’t stop there. In 2005, Swiontkowski was pivotal in getting Van Heest involved with the AOA, introducing her to the opportunities available through committee service and broader organizational involvement. 

Ascending the Ranks

From the start, Van Heest embraced opportunities to contribute to the AOA, quickly making her mark by joining the Critical Issues Committee (formerly the Academic Leadership Committee), a position she was nominated for by Swiontkowski.

This committee plays a crucial role in identifying and addressing the most pressing challenges facing the orthopedic profession.

It was within this committee that one of her most significant contributions took form—the creation of the Council of Residency Directors (CORD) in 2009.

“At the time, we had no national organization for our program directors to come together and address residency issues,” Van Heest recalls.

The formation of CORD filled that gap, providing a vital platform for program directors to collaborate, share best practices, and advocate for residency training improvements. That same year, Van Heest was elected to the CORD Board of Directors, where she worked to tackle residency-related concerns and develop cohesion across institutions.

In addition to her work with CORD, Van Heest held multiple leadership roles within the AOA. She served on several important committees and held the position of Secretary, which included membership on the Executive Committee. These roles helped her gain a deeper understanding of the organization, sharpen her leadership skills, and build strong connections within the orthopedic community—all of which paved the way for her eventual presidency.

136th AOA President

Through her extensive committee work, Van Heest became acquainted with Dr. Larry Marsh, chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Iowa and AOA President in 2014-15. This relationship proved pivotal when she was appointed as Chair of the Annual Meeting in 2015 by Marsh, a position that can be a stepping stone to the presidency. 

“In some ways, the presidency is essentially a five-year term,” Van Heest explains. 

After being elected as Second President-elect in 2021, she progressed to President-elect in 2022 and was officially sworn in as the 136th President of the AOA in June of 2023. Van Heest’s responsibilities extend beyond her presidency, as she holds the title of Immediate Past President in 2024 and will eventually be known as the Past Past President by 2025.

As President of the AOA, Van Heest played a critical role in maintaining the organization’s mission and vision. Her responsibilities included overseeing key initiatives aimed at promoting graduate medical education, including forging a partnership with ARCOS (Association of Residency Coordinators in Orthopedic Surgery) to initiate the first combined stand-alone meeting of AOA-CORD and ARCOS on Feb 13-14, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Leadership development was a major focus during her tenure. She supported the Emerging Leaders Forum, the Residency Leadership Forum, and traveling fellowship opportunities, all of which will help guide the next generation of orthopedic leaders.

A special aspect of her role as President was her involvement in the Orthopaedic Carousel, a quasi-international think tank formed in 1952 by the Queen Mother of England. Composed of sitting Presidents and Past-Presidents from the seven English-speaking orthopedic societies, the Carousel provides a platform for its members to share global insights and tackle critical issues in orthopedic surgery from the countries of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Great Britain, and the USA. 

“[The Carousel] was an incredible opportunity to learn from international leaders and bring those insights back to help our own organization,” she reflects.

Bringing Diversity to the Field

In the nearly century-and-a-half history of the American Orthopedic Association (AOA), only two women have held the title of President—the first being Dr. Serena Hu in 2020, who, coincidentally, was a faculty member at the University of Minnesota from 1991 to 1993.

For Van Heest, promoting diversity in leadership, particularly by elevating more women into key positions, is a passion. She believes that the path to leadership is a "pipeline process." 

As she puts it, “You have to go through the committee work and eventually the leadership positions. It takes a number of years for people to work their way up the ladder, and in my opinion, people should not be promoted simply based on their gender or their race. It should be based on their past performance.”

Despite this, she is committed to helping women navigate this trajectory, ensuring they are not just represented, but prepared for leadership roles. 

“You really need to build that performance throughout your academic leadership roles, and then you build your way up to the top,” Van Heest says. 

However, she is forthright in acknowledging the challenges that come with this process. “You have to get women on the nominating

committees to get women elected into these positions, and that can be difficult when the pool of women in orthopedics is substantially smaller than their counterpart.”

To address this, Van Heest is committed to playing an active role on nominating committees, where she can advocate for greater representation of women. She believes that diversity in leadership—including gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation diversity—is essential for the profession’s growth. In her view, leadership should reflect the broader community of surgeons and patients, and diverse perspectives are critical to advancing orthopedic surgery.

Outside of formal leadership roles, progress is being made, as evidenced by the recent milestone of over 20 percent of orthopedic surgery residents being women. Van Heest sees this as a positive sign of change and remains hopeful that, with continued efforts, more women will rise to leadership roles in the future.

National Collaboration

Van Heest emphasizes the value of being actively involved in national orthopedic organizations, not just for individual growth, but for the pure benefit of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery. 

"It really helps elevate and bring our department to a national level," she explains. 

When faculty members are engaged with these influential national organizations, such as the AOA, it enhances the profile of the department and creates valuable connections with other top-tier programs.

Van Heest also highlights the collaborative advancements that come from national involvement. For example, The University of Minnesota was one of the first orthopedic surgery residency programs to implement competency-based medical education, joining just 16 other institutions in the country to validate surgical skills and behavior assessment tools. 

"We've been one of the top-tier programs in the knowledge, skills, and behavior program," Van Heest remarks, referencing the department's pioneering role in national projects that help shape orthopedic training and board certification standards.

She also stresses the importance of collaboration between organizations like the AOA, ABOS, and AAOS to create unified projects that benefit the orthopedic community at large. Without such alignment, the profession risks working in isolated silos, which can stifle the progress that needs to occur in order to meet the demands of the next generation of orthopedic professionals.

Pulling Others Up

"For those of us leaders who are in the later years of our practice, we want to support our younger faculty members and trainees and ensure they get involved at the committee level and then work their way up through leadership development in our national orthopedic organizations and in our national subspecialty societies as exemplified by my pathway," she explains.

Van Heest's own career reflects this philosophy of elevating others, a practice she strives to embody each day. 

"As I advance in national organizations and within our department, I aim to enhance the career of others—at all stages of their career; from medical student, to resident, to fellow, to faculty member," she adds, acknowledging how influential mentors like Swiontkowski helped shape her career early on. "Just like Marc did for me, I try to pay it forward to other members of our orthopedic community."

By supporting leadership development, Van Heest believes the Department of Orthopedic Surgery will continue to play a central role in shaping the future of the field. 

"Doing so will help strengthen our faculty, engage our department in national discussion, and ultimately shape the future of our profession," she concludes, leaving an optimistic vision for the next generation of orthopedic leaders.