Overview
The ORS Women’s Leadership Forum Award will provide an honorarium of $500 to a female biologist, clinician, or engineer who has made significant contributions to the understanding of the musculoskeletal system and musculoskeletal diseases and injuries.
About the Award
The Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF) Award is given every year to recognize a woman biologist, clinician, or engineer who, throughout her professional lifetime, has made significant contributions to the understanding of the musculoskeletal system and musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. She will have also demonstrated outstanding leadership through service to the professional community and mentorship of colleagues and trainees.
Nominations will be reviewed by the ORS Awards and Recognition Committee and the WLF Governing Committee.
Recognition
- Honorarium of $500
- Commemorative plaque
- Complimentary registration to the Women’s Leadership Forum Reception
The winner must be present at the ORS Annual Meeting to accept the award.
Eligibility
- Nominee must be an ORS member* in good standing. Those writing nomination letters are not required to be members of the ORS.
- Nominations/applications packages for this award must be received by August 23, 2026. (self-nominations are accepted).
- Service to the broader professional community (ie., other musculoskeletal societies and organizations).
*Note: If you are not a member of the ORS, but would like to apply to be eligible for this award, visit our membership section of the website for an application. Thank you for your interest.
Submissions
Submission package must include:
- Nomination Letter
- Brief Letter Outlining Achievements
- Nominee’s Full Curriculum Vitae (NIH biosketches will not be accepted.)
Only complete electronic submissions will be considered for review.
*For those submitting nominations who are not ORS members please contact Karey Hyland at [email protected]*
Nominations are now closed.
2026 Women’s Leadership Forum Award Recipient
Dr. Meghan McGee-Lawrence serves as a Regents’ Professor and Chair of the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and completed postdoctoral training in Cell / Molecular Biology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN prior to joining her current department at the Medical College of Georgia in 2014.
Dr. McGee-Lawrence’s laboratory works to understand the processes driving maintenance & regeneration of musculoskeletal structure, strength, and interorgan communication, particularly in the context of aging. Current ongoing projects in her lab address how inflammaging, hormonal factors like endogenous glucocorticoids, nutrient signaling from tryptophan metabolites, and infection from HIV affect bone and muscle cell activity, musculoskeletal crosstalk, and frailty.
In addition to serving as PI on grants from the NIA and NIAMS, she oversees the Augusta University Electron Microscopy and Histology Core facility and the Augusta University Intramural Grants Program. Along with recently completing service on the ORS Board of Directors, Dr. McGee-Lawrence serves as Chair of the Advocacy & Science Policy Committee for the ASBMR, councilor for the Association of Osteobiology, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Perry Initiative, the American Federation for Aging Research National Scientific Advisory Council, the ASBMR Working Group on Aging, and the Scientific Advisory Board for the ORS Musculoskeletal Biology Workshop.
