The AAOS Impact Award recognizes individuals who demonstrate excepional leadership in reducing barriers that limit entry into the field of orthopaedics in the U.S. The Impact Award identifies living Academy Fellows and Emeritus Fellows who have distinguished themselves through an outstanding committment to making orthopaedics more representative of and accessible to the entire population it serves.
This award is presented each year at the AAOS Annual Meeting. Recipients receive a $5,000 honorarium.
Candidates for the award will be evaluated for activities that include:
- Actively working to reduce obstacles that prevent individuals from entering the field of orthopaedics in the U.S.
- Acting as a role model to colleagues and leading by example in promoting engagement.
- Making a lasting impact on expanding the composition of our professional community.
- Recruiting and encouraging students from all backgrounds and experiences to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery.
- Sponsoring, mentoring, and/or guiding orthopaedic trainees and early career orthopaedic surgeons from all backgrounds and experiences.
- Promotes the advancement of knowledge about the prevalence of healthcare deserts, their locations, and effective strategies for improvement through teaching in a clinical or non-clinical setting; through research and publishing scholarly work; or through other leadership roles.
Who is Eligible?
- Must be an AAOS Active Academy Fellow or Emeritus Fellow in good standing
- Cannot be a current member of the AAOS Community Advisory Board
- Cannot have served on the AAOS Community Advisory Board, as voting member or chair, within the three years prior to the award year
- Cannot be a current member of the AAOS Board of Directors
- Cannot have served on the AAOS Board of Directors within the three years prior to the award year
- If selected to receive the award, the candidate agrees to attend the AAOS Annual Meeting at his or her own expense
- Agrees to release his or her image and an approved biography of his or her diversity activities for publicity purposes
- Must be nominated by a sponsor
Who May Nominate/Sponsor a Nominee?
- AAOS Fellows in good standing, Candidate members eligible for fellowship, and Emeritus Fellows
- Orthopaedic residents who have directly and professionally benefited from the activities of the nominee
- Sponsor cannot be a current member of the AAOS Community Advisory Board
- Sponsor cannot have served on the AAOS Community Advisory Board, as voting member or chair, within the three years prior to the award year
- Sponsor cannot be a current member of the AAOS Board of Directors
Thomas P. Sculco, MD, FAAOS, Receives 2025 AAOS Diversity Award
Thomas P. Sculco, MD, FAAOS, surgeon-in-chief emeritus, Hospital for Special Surgery and professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, was presented with the AAOS 2025 Diversity Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to promoting diversity at the local, institutional and national level. Dr. Sulco’s dedicated and visionary leadership over the past five decades has thoughtfully shaped and established lasting infrastructures that have enhanced diversity among orthopaedic surgeons, addressed healthcare disparities and elevated the quality of patient care.
According to orthopaedic spine surgeon and President of the J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society Susan E. Stephens, MD, FAAOS, “Dr. Sculco has embodied and lived diversity in orthopaedics. He has trained under his leadership more Black and Women Orthopaedic surgeons than any other majority training program in the world. The excellence of his trainees speaks for itself in their success by all standards. Dr. Sculco never stops leading by example and continues through his personal mission to impact healthcare disparities by creating an honorable legacy of excellence in diversity in orthopaedic surgery.”
Previous AAOS Diversity Award Winners
Boris A. Zelle, MD, FAAOS, FAOA
2024 Diversity Award Winner
Mary I. O'Connor, MD, FAOA, FAAHKS, FAAOS
2023 Diversity Award Winner
Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, FAAOS
2022 Diversity Award Winner
Lisa L. Lattanza, MD, FAOA, FAAOS
2021 Diversity Award Winner
James A. Hill, MD, FAAOS
2020 Diversity Award Winner
Michael L. Parks, MD, FAAOS
2019 Diversity Award Winner
Mark Gebhardt, MD, FAAOS
2018 Diversity Award Winner
Richard E. Grant, MD, FAAOS
2017 Diversity Award Winner