MD & Founder of the Madam Athlete Podcast
The podcast series promotes the truth of life. It’s uncut and taps into the real time everyday acts that women face. So let’s break it down. Madam Athlete; a noun, a respectful yet formal way of addressing a female athlete. One who exhibits strength and determination. Someone who is constantly excelling and reaching past their limits while maintaining physical and mental stamina. Also, a space for these voices to be heard, and to take inspiration from. A network and community.
Time was gained to reflect and ask questions to herself like, are you able to use your skills in the best way to contribute to the world or what do you want to do, are you happy? Feeling run down by the medical community and where she stood, she recognized her worth and knew her voice could reach more people. Why not create her own community?
 Her life was comfortable and set, she had a great job and had just been awarded, ‘Faculty of the Year’, but she realized she wasn't happy and knew that she could do more. This is not to say that she hasn't had a wonderful career thus far. All that she has done professionally she takes pride in, and she is grateful for the relationships. There are so many lessons, experiences, and achievements that she can and does carry with her.
Backtracking, Aerni completed her undergraduate at Muhlenberg College and later her doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh. Going into college she had no visions of her future or what type of career she wanted. She was incredibly smart and was good with math and science. In her free time, she was an avid trainer, teacher, and competitor of the martial art form, Tae Kwon Do. All these elements came together and while she was entertaining the idea of different careers she officially decided to go to medical school. After completing her degree, her residency was in primary care, family medicine and then she spent a year at the University of Connecticut in her fellowship for sports medicine. She then was hired there, which she is incredibly thankful for because if it wasn’t for that position she may have never realized how much she wanted to teach.
with discovery, innocence and an unbroken determination. Students have their whole life ahead of them and have a willingness to learn.
Her job was broken down into two categories. On one end, she was the team physician and took care of the athletes. The other, was teaching. She taught fellowship faculty, the upcoming generation of sports medicine physicians. Being faculty was rewarding for her as she was able to teach, train and mentor. After years as a working doctor she became fed up with the toxic masculinity in the workplace systems and the ongoing fight for the struggle of gender equality. She realized there is only so much you can do to improve a situation internally and she knew it wasn’t serving her anymore.
Making a leap like this isn't easy, no matter what it is. She, first hand, knows the importance of women's voices being heard because her own voice wasn’t, time and time again. Often, during meetings and conferences she was the only woman in the room. Throughout her years as a doctor she had many instances where she was treated poorly. Female doctors (compared to their counterparts) are known to have lower salaries, less promotions and deal with high levels of harassment.
She recalls multiple times where she dealt with sexism directly at the workplace. Such as a time when she had been in a position for years and would point out problem areas, request changes and discuss improvements that would never happen. She would be told things like, “You know, you're not working well with others.” Then a young white male was hired into a director role and was able to immediately fire people, rearrange the department and was looked at as being impressive and taking charge.
One large instance is a time where she didn’t receive a promotion because….well, she used a swear word...once. Now, don’t forget, she works in sports and athletics, it’s part of the industry, and kind of a thing people do. Aerni said, “It became a convenient excuse.” They clearly never did that to men. One more for the count, (she unfortunately has many), her and a medical assistant were giving an injection to a male patient and he said, “I’ve just been picturing you two ladies naked to get me through this.” Of course she expressed her discomfort. Patients exhibit these types of behaviors towards female physicians all the time.
She has experienced countless cases dealing with male abusive colleagues and in general toxic individuals. Rising out of this, she feels the undying need to take a stand for women equality. Despite the barriers and possible repercussions that could come with it she has decided to take action. Women are very outweighed in the medical field. Aerni says that now only 6% of Orthopedic Surgeons are women. Universities have seen an influx in female enrollment to the point where they are equally represented. Which is great, but there is still inequality. Males typically end up receiving more prestigious roles and higher paid positions. This isn’t even addressing the issue of women of color in medicine. Due to to a lack of diversity there is so much discrimination. It’s hard to even get into the field with all of the institutional roadblocks. Women of color face chauvinistic attitudes by many professionals, colleagues and patients.  With there being so much gender and racial inequality, women find a lack of mentorship and guidance. Aerni said that she often struggled finding mentorship. Many of her superiors were men who didn’t offer the help that they should have. It was a difficult setting, in every job. Every department was male dominated. Thankfully she did have some mentors along the way but it was always situational, more for whatever the task was at hand. With being a primary physician, part of her role was developing her own teams and a staff. Because of such a lack of support amongst her colleagues she built constructive, motivational and encouraging teams.
 By creating Madame Athlete, Aerni is able to teach and heal a broader spectrum of people than she was able to in her career thus far. She hopes that she can push peoples messages further into society and create a community through women's life stories. The podcast is just the beginning. There are big visions for the future. Aerni poses some questions. How can these women's stories coexist? How can we start a conversation, a community? How do we support each other? Sometimes you need to go outside of your immediate circle to find that.
Already, she herself has learned valuable lessons from Madame Athlete. She has learned new skills, networks with constructive and inspiring people and in general, just putting herself out there has given her confidence. By sharing individual career stories, she has gained inspiration. For Aerni, the podcast was the most sensible place to start.
Plain and simple, it’s purpose is to empower other women. Eventually she hopes to create a program targeted towards professional development not just for women in sports and athletics but for everyone. One that can help people take steps in both their career and personal lives. This community will be a place where people can connect through their own life experiences and support each other. A place where people that are in the same careers can meet each other. Another facet will be some type of course catalog where women can complete them on their own terms, in their own time frame. Aerni wants to help and teach women constructive skill sets that they can bring into their own life.
Madam Athlete is exactly what it says it is. There could not be a better title for this online community. It encompasses the essence of a powerful woman. The best support women can get is from other women. Aerni has put everything on the line to make this happen. She is fighting for what she believes in. Women need to know they aren’t alone in their thoughts and there are actions that can be taken to ensure a better tomorrow. We here at Moxxi salute Aerni for her continual efforts in the fight for gender equality! Q + A with Giselle AerniQ: What does the word Moxxi mean to you? A: “A badass woman who is fearless who has gumption. Who's willing to go after her goals and is willing to BE and realize her dream.” Q: Do you have any favorite quotes? A: “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass." - Maya Angelou and "Of course, there will always be more you could do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor." - Anne Lamott Q: How do you take your coffee? A: Aerni is one of the few who don’t drink coffee! It stems from an experience that happened when she was 11 and has turned into a lifelong stubborn commitment of never drinking it. She was in a soft ball game, felt like 100 degrees out and the water from the fountain was as she described, ‘hot and yellow.’ This made her find her mom in the bleachers, ask for something to drink and grab her travel mug which she basically pounded and proceeded to spit it out everywhere, as it was coffee! Ever since then she will not drink it. As a camp counselor in high school people would ask, “Why don’t you drink coffee...well in undergrad you will need it, just you wait.” Then in medical school, same thing….”When you get your doctorate, just you wait,” her residency, same thing and so on and so forth. It became a commitment. Although, she does admit she loves everything else about it! Haha. She can’t drink it at this point though, would you break that pact with yourself? She says it’s just part of her identity now and is a goofy stubborn quirk of hers. Instead of coffee, she drinks Chai latte’s...and a lot of them. It’s her morning ritual. If you haven’t had one, Chai Latte’s are great! Q: What does coffee mean to you? A: “I love the coffee shop, the culture, I immediately feel like i'm being more productive and I feel kinda cool, I feel like man, i'm so hip but i'm clearly old, i'm like 100!!” (Hahaha) She loves the smells, the atmosphere and for the record...she is not elderly but she is hysterical. Q: What was something that inspired you in your past jobs? A: “I love getting to build those relationships. It helped teach me about building those multi- disciplinary teams.” There are so many facets people don’t realize that goes into sports medicine. It wasn’t just her, the physician, there are the athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, the phycologists, she loved creating teams. Building a multi disciplinary team for her was inspiring. She saw the importance of everyone working together to take care of the athletes and they motivated and inspired each other." Q: Do you have advice for people who are taking a leap in their career, like you? A: “The first step is the biggest step and the hardest to take.” Also, find other people who are doing the same thing. Look for forums, groups, communities that are doing something similar to you. For example, she joined groups where other people are starting podcasts and they give each other support. “You don’t always realize how important having other people who are interested in similar things as you are is.” She says sometimes the people closest to you don’t offer the best advice because they care about you and want you to be comfortable. Sometimes they aren’t so encouraging because they know that you are taking a risk and don’t want to see you struggle. Look outside ‘the box.’ Moxxi’s favorite quote from goes... “Perfectionism is the enemy of the good.” Basically, nothing is going to be perfect so don’t spend so much time trying. Written & Curated By | Krysta Kearney, Moxxi Coffee Co. Want to get involved? Donate to the Moxxi Women's Foundation below!  Keep updated on Giselle! Follow her at the links below. WORK FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MadamAthlete WORK INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/themadamathlete/ PERSONAL INSTAGRAM: https://madamathlete.com/
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