Arghavan Salles

Arghavan Salles (; born February 23, 1980) is an Iranian American bariatric surgeon. Salles is a Director of the American Medical Women's Association, a Special Advisor for DEI Programs in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Senior Research Scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Salles' research focuses on gender equity, well-being, and the challenges women face in the workplace. Salles works as an advocate for equity and inclusion and as an activist against sexual harassment. Salles is an international speaker who worked on the front lines and supported health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic through social media.

Early life and education Salles was born in Iran and emigrated to the United States with her mother when she was five years old.

In 2002, Salles received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.A. in French from the University of Southern California. In 2006, Salles received an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2014, Salles completed a PhD social psychology from Stanford University, after which she finished her last two years of surgical residency, going on to become a Board Certified Surgeon in 2016. Salles has said that this event dramatically impacted the program to enact changes and educate the community about burnout, depression, and wellbeing in medicine.

Career From September 2016 to June 2019, Salles was an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Washington University, where her lab conducted research on gender bias and inequities in medicine. In 2017, she developed an online wellness resource for Washington University residents that offered counselling and crisis lines.

In 2018, Salles became a founding member of Time's Up Healthcare, part of the organization's initiative which supports "safe, fair, and dignified" work for women around the world and helps to prevent sexual assault and gender-based discrimination in the workplace. This same year, she and five other female medical trainees at Washington University, helped start 500 Women in Medicine, a satellite of 500 Women Scientists established to make medicine more inclusive and reflect the true diversity of society.

In 2019, Salles became a Board Certified Physician of Obesity Medicine, and returned to Stanford to develop Educational Programs and Services at the medical school. She has also advocated against weight bias, and spoken publicly about the challenges faced by female doctors who want to have children.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Salles created fitness challenges, free weekly yoga classes, and daily videos on Twitter and Instagram to engage her followers and bring together a supportive community. and issues associated with the requirements for in-persons admissions testing during the pandemic. In 2022 Salles expressed her concern that the United States has moved on from COVID too rapidly, and people are still at risk if they contract COVID.

In 2022, Salles was selected as a Director on the Board of Directors for the American Medical Women's Association, a nationally recognized organization, founded in 1915 that is committed to the advancement of women in medicine.

Research Stereotype threat During her PhD, Salles learned about stereotype threat. This is exemplified by the old "surgeon riddle" which unveils strong gender stereotypes in medicine such that the majority of the population much more easily associate surgeons with being male than being female. These stereotypes that society holds, about women being less competent surgeons than men, leads to a phenomenon called stereotype threat which Salles explored in her work. Salles tested this hypothesis by implementing methods to combat stress and stereotype threat through value affirmations.

Gender bias in surgery At Washington University, Salles explored gender bias in clinical evaluations of surgical residents. Their results, published in The American Journal of Surgery in 2018, showed that evaluations display gendered differences and the overall tones of men's evaluations were more positive and included more standout words than women's. They found that respondents associated men with career and surgery while they associated women with family and family medicine.

Well-being in surgery Salles also explores different facets of how well-being impacts the retention of residents in the progression towards careers in surgery. In 2018, Salles found that feelings of social belonging were positively correlated with well-being and negatively correlated with thoughts of leaving surgery. She then explored how general self-efficacy impacted retention in surgical specialties and found that self-efficacy was a strong predictor of well-being, which prevents physician burnout and improves retention in the medical field.

Awards and honors 2019: Women in Medicine Summit, #IStandWithHer Award Honorable Mention 2019: American Medical Women's Association, Exceptional Mentor Award 2020: ABIM Top Research Article Award on Medical Professionalism Estimating Implicit and Explicit Gender Bias Among Health Care Professionals and Surgeons

Memberships 2018–present: 500 Women in Medicine, co-founder; advisor (2018-2019) 2018–present: Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, Creative Director and Associate Editor 2022-present: Director on Board of Directors of American Medical Women's Association

Selected publications