Women Sharing & Learning

Dear Members and Friends of The Women of Saint Luke's,

After more than sixty years of friendship, service, and shared memories, the time has come to close the latest chapter in the history of The Women of Saint Luke's. 

Our story began as the Saint Luke’s Medical Staff Wives Association, when medicine looked very different than it does today. In those years, many physicians' wives set aside careers of their own to support their families and the hospital community. They created a network of friendship and service, with one of their earliest and most meaningful missions being to welcome and support the hospital's interns, residents, and their families as they began their medical careers.

As the world changed, so did we. More women entered professions of every kind—including medicine itself—and our organization evolved to become The Women of Saint Luke's, welcoming women physicians and midlevel providers to our membership. Throughout the decades we continued to gather for fellowship, to celebrate milestones, to welcome new members, and to fulfill our mission of providing support to the Saint Luke’s Medical Housestaff.

Today, we recognize that the needs of women and families have changed once again. Women are building careers, leading organizations, practicing medicine, raising families, caring for aging parents, and pursuing other opportunities. It has become more difficult to find members with the time to fill leadership roles.  We feel it is time to move on to the next chapter – one that does not require time-consuming leadership positions.

While our organization may technically be coming to an end, we are delighted to share that the friendships we have built do not have to end. Many of our members have expressed a desire to continue gathering informally. To help make that possible, we will be creating a GroupMe community where members can stay connected and receive invitations to our long-standing groups - Book Club, Canasta, Lunch Group, Mah Jongg, and Movie Club.  We are also adding a new group called “What’s Happening”, where those interested in new opportunities such as current exhibits, arts and crafts ideas, or anything else of interest that pops up, can float the idea to others in the group.  Rather than viewing this as an end to our organization, we choose to see it as a transition to a format that better fits our busy lives. We hope that everyone wishing to maintain their WSL friendships will join us on Group Me.

According to our bylaws, the dissolution process should take place in conjunction with the Spring Event/Members Meeting.  Since that isn’t possible, we will be using a Google ballot/form to replace that process.  You can access the form by logging into the member portion of this website. On the form please vote on the dissolution of our organization, indicate if you have interest in receiving an invitation to any of the Group Me groups, and whether you would like to be included in a final PDF version of our directory - so you can stay in touch. Please access the form before September 1.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to those who founded this organization, nurtured it through the years, served as officers, chaired committees, welcomed new members, and simply showed up with open hearts. Your dedication created something truly special.

As we close this chapter, we do so with gratitude for our past and pride in what we accomplished together.

Thank you for being part of this extraordinary journey. We look forward to continuing many of these friendships in new ways and hope you will join us.

With gratitude and warmest wishes,

The Board of The Women of St. Luke's