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August is Neurosurgery Awareness Month!

Some organizations are founded around an opportunity. Others are born from a moment that makes action impossible to postpone.

For ASBN, that moment came in 2020.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic that exposed deep inequities in health and healthcare, and a national reckoning following the murder of George Floyd, more than 100 Black neurosurgeons stood together around a shared conviction: that their responsibility as physicians and public servants extended beyond the operating room.

They affirmed a commitment to uphold the standards of neurosurgical care regardless of bias—and, in doing so, gave greater urgency to an idea that had existed for years.

Five years later, that purpose can be seen in every student introduced to neurosurgery, every mentor who opens a door, every physician whose work advances the field, and every effort to ensure excellence and equity remain inseparable in patient care.

As we celebrate five years of ASBN, we begin where every story should:

at the beginning—with the people who saw what was needed, answered the moment, and chose to build something that would endure.

This is where our story began. And five years later, we’re still building what’s next.

That idea became an organization.
That conviction became a mission.
And that mission became a movement.

In 2021, as ASBN entered a new era of formal leadership, William W. Ashley, Jr., MD, PhD, was installed as the organization’s inaugural president, helping lead ASBN forward as its founding vision took shape.

At the heart of that vision was a clear mission: ASBN improves public health by supporting Black neurosurgeons and enriching the equity and integrity of neurosurgical care.