Mission Statement

Pinnacle is the first multi-specialty organization specifically dedicated to giving professional women in medical settings the tools needed to succeed in medicine.

Pinnacle is the ONLY organization dedicated to addressing the challenges that ALL women in healthcare face.

Pinnacle empowers women in medicine through education, community, and actionable strategies for both the practice and business of medicine. Medicine is a lifelong career, and continuing education is crucial for professional development.

THE PILLARS OF PINNACLE:

Each year we work tirelessly to create an event that is more than a medical conference.

The pillars of pinnacle are the foundation for each talk, in addition to carefully selected workshops and experiences.

Meet The Pinnacle Team

Executive team

  • Dr. Crawford is co-founder of Fora Fertility, a boutique fertility practice in Austin, Texas is board certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. She promotes fertility awareness and education through social media on Instagram, with over 180K followers, her blog, and her wildly successful podcast “As a Woman” podcast, with over 4 million downloads, and on her YouTube channel.

Natalie Crawford MD

  • Dr. Pamela Mehta is a board certified orthopaedic surgeon practicing in Northern California. Dr. Mehta has been in practice for over 10 years and started her own solo concierge private practice called Resilience Orthopaedics in 2016. She focuses on surgery of the shoulders, knees, hips and hands and has a passion for getting her patients back to their active lifestyles. In addition to her clinical practice she advises several medical companies and startups. She is passionate about women designing a life on their own terms when it comes to career and family. She shares her life as a practice owner and mom to 3 on her social media platforms @dr.pamelamehta.

Pamela Mehta MD

  • Dr. Rupa Wong is a wife, mom to 3 kids, entrepreneur, and the managing partner of Honolulu Eye Clinic for the past 13 years. In addition to building a successful practice on Oahu (she's been featured as a Best Doctor since 2010 and was even featured on the cover of Honolulu magazine). Dr. Wong is active on Instagram, her blog and YouTube channel where she discusses harmonizing work and life, as well as the gaps in business knowledge that medical school does not address.

Rupa Wong MD

KRISTI PLOTNICK MHA

  • Kristi is an Austin native and grew up in healthcare with two physician parents. Kristi received a Masters in Healthcare Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio. Currently, Kristi serves as Vice President of Surgery at Texas Oncology. Joining the

    Pinnacle team in 2023, Kristi enjoys the supporting positive culture and empowering leaders in medicine. Kristi is a mom of two and enjoys spending time with her family and friends, when she is not chasing her daughter in and out of cheer competitions.

GAYLE PATEL CGC

  • Gayle was born and raised in Austin, completed her Bachelors at Trinity University, anD then concluded her Maters in Genetic Counseling at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Gayle created and now leads the genetics program at Texas Oncology, as the Director of Genetic Risk Evaluation and Testing. An advocate of excellent clinical care, Gayle translates that passion into her annual coordination and support of the Pinnacle conference. Gayle is the mother of two amazing daughters who keep her very busy with dance and teen angst.

staff

  • Kayla is originally from Louisiana and received a Bachelors degree from Northwestern State University in Family and Consumer Sciences. Kayla has been with the Pinnacle Team since 2020 and is the lead on ground support for The Pinnacle Women in Medicine Conference each year. She is expecting her first child who we can’t wait to welcome into the Pinnacle family - say hi to baby Hallie if you are at Pinnacle 2024.

KAYLA CAVAGNARO

LISA GIBSON

  • Lisa is the Head of Internal Audit for eyewear brand Warby Parker. She has a Bachelors of Business Administration in Management Information Systems and is a Certified Internal Auditor. She is originally from Austin, Texas but spent 10 years living and working abroad in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She currently lives in Austin with her husband and two children.

ANGELA SMITH

  • Angela Roantree Smith is a licensed veterinary technician with over 20 years experience in the field. She has worked for over 10 years as an emergency and critical care veterinary nurse, as well as in large multidisciplinary centers working alongside veterinary dentists, oncologists, and orthopedic surgeons. Her personal interests include volunteering her time in rural Guatemala, hiking, learning languages, and anything animal related! Currently she enjoys the position of office manager for Dr. Pamela Mehta's busy orthopedic practice in San Jose, CA and behindthesenes production at Pinnacle Conferece

AMANDA ZIEHE

  • Amanda is a highly skilled electrical engineer with a Bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University. With nearly 20 years of experience, she has been involved in diverse projects ranging from defense, consumer electronics and medical equipment. Amanda's most notable achievement is spearheading and managing the production floor for a specialized line of gimbals used in critical intelligence and surveillance missions. When not in the office, Amanda can be found with her husband cheering on their two sons at the fields, caring for her botanical buddies or reluctantly learning about Pokemon and Minecraft.

JOINT SociaL MEDIA STATS

INSTA

381 k followers

972 k reach/mo

YOUTUbe

300 k subs

310 k views/mo

TIKTOK

480 k followers

930 k views/mo

PODCAST

4 M downloads

100 k listens/mo

Pinnacle Faculty

Mona Amin DO

Maggie Cadet MD

Katie Duke NP

Laura Heffern NP

Anna Larson DO

Bonnie Mason MD

Renee Paro MD

Amy Shah MD

Karen Sutton MD

Ruth Williams MD

Lori Atkins MD

Jen Caudle DO

Shieva Ghofrany MD

Heather Iroubunda MD

Rose Mare Leslie MD

Wendy McDonald MD

Kameelah Phillips MD

Jessica Shepherd MD

Staci Tanouye MD

Renee Young ND

Aisha Baron MD

Jamie Coleman MD

Betsy Grunch MD

Tori Jaeger DO

Darria Long MD

Meg King

Lauren Powell MD

Mona Stone DDS

Liesel Teen RN

Nicole Basa MD

Kristina Collins MD

Stephanie Gustin MD

Hafiza Khan MD

Jessica Malaty MD

Kriti Mohan MD

Brooke Rogers

Brooke Stubbs MD

Arti Thangudu MD

Hope Bennett JD

Emily Crittendon

Sonal Haerter MD

Leslie Kim MD

Manasa Mantravadi MD

Tiffany Moon MD

Taryn Rose MD

Karen Sutton MD

Sarah Wakefield MD

Laurel Bristow MSC

Marsheila DeVan MBA

Nichelle Haynes DO

Bonnie Koo MD

Shari Marchbein MD

Joan Oloff DPM

Angie Sadeghi MD

Wendy Sue Swanson MD

Jennifer Weiss MD

The origin story - 

Pinnacle Conference was created from a joint passion to support women in medicine. In a world where many women are leaving medicine due to burnout and discrimination, Pinnacle strives to provide a community that helps women develop the skills they need to not only stay in medicine, but to excel.

The four original founders met via social media and quickly aligned with a similar mission and goal. What started as a small idea was quickly put into action to become reality.

Our first conference in 2019 was a truly life-changing event for everyone who participated. We have continued to follow our mission and make Pinnacle bigger and better every year. Pinnacle is not just a conference - but also a community.

Pinnacle is led by co-founders Dr. Natalie Crawford, Dr. Pamela Mehta and Dr. Rupa Wong with a continued goal to support women in medicine by providing leadership, business, and communication skills.

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