In addition to a robust scientific program, the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium® will feature several career development workshops aimed at helping attendees navigate the opportunities and challenges that arise at different stages of their professional journey, while also offering valuable mentorship and networking opportunities.
New to SABCS® this year, a special workshop will offer physicians and researchers practical tools to prevent burnout, navigate high-stakes pressures, and foster more supportive, collaborative environments in academic medicine. Psychologist and Executive Coach Anne Welsh, PhD, will lead Career Development: Compassionate Leadership on Tuesday, December 9, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. CT in Room 221ABC of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
“At a time when burnout, staffing shortages, and funding pressures continue to strain health care and research, it’s more important than ever that compassion — not just competence — become a core leadership skill,” Dr. Welsh said.
The workshop will examine what Dr. Welsh said are the four roots of compassionate leadership:
- Resilience – cultivating healthier workplaces and building awareness of burnout.
- Recognition – using “appreciative inquiry” to focus on strengths and successes rather than deficits.
- Reach – developing coaching and listening skills that foster growth and connection.
- Respect – setting and maintaining boundaries, a particularly challenging but vital act in mission-driven fields like medicine and research.
“This isn’t a generic leadership workshop. I will talk specifically about how these principles work in health care and academia — two environments where people give endlessly of themselves and where leadership skills are rarely taught,” Dr. Welsh said.
Through a mix of clinical storytelling, interactive exercises, and practical tools, participants will leave with strategies they can apply immediately to strengthen team culture, sustain themselves, and lead with greater compassion, Dr. Welsh said.
“Compassionate leadership starts with awareness, the ability to notice when the system — or you — are stretched too thin and appreciate that even small changes make a difference. One moment of recognition or one healthy boundary can ripple through an entire team,” Dr. Welsh said. “When you lead with compassion, for yourself and for others, you don’t just sustain your team, you help rebuild the culture of care that medicine and science were founded on.”
Dr. Welsh will also facilitate the Women’s Career Development Workshop, an immersive, practice-focused session designed to help women in health care build connection, confidence, and clarity in their career paths, on Wednesday, December 10, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Room 221ABC. Evolving from a broader half-day session at last year’s SABCS, this year’s workshop will zero in on career development and burnout prevention, incorporating neuroscience-based tools and peer support strategies to foster ongoing connection beyond the conference.
“At the end of this session, I want women to walk away feeling less alone—and equipped with concrete, evidence-based tools they can put into practice that same day,” Dr. Welsh said.
This year’s SABCS will also include a session designed specifically for early-career investigators, Real World Effectiveness: Career Development for Enhanced Research and Community Impact, on Tuesday, December 9, from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Room 221ABC.
Presentations will detail collaborative strategies and cooperative partnerships for building networks, translating ideas into impactful research, and broadening career growth within breast oncology.
Speakers will include Dawn Hershman, MD, MS, Witten Family Professor of Medicine, American Cancer Society Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Deputy Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University, and Clifford Hudis, MD, CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Brenda Ernst, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, and Abirami Sivapiragasam, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, will moderate the session.
Session titles, times, and locations are subject to change. For the most up-to-date SABCS program information, please visit the Program page at SABCS.org.
