Physiology lectureship honors Dr. Lois Taylor Ellison
The Medical College of Georgia Department of Physiology has established a lectureship to honor Dr. Lois Taylor Ellison, a clinician, researcher, educator and administrator whose 60-plus-year affiliation with Georgia Health Sciences University has left a lasting legacy on the institution and on health care in general.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Medical College of Georgia Department of Physiology has established a lectureship to honor Dr. Lois Taylor Ellison, a clinician, researcher, educator and administrator whose 60-plus-year affiliation with Georgia Health Sciences University has left a lasting legacy on the institution and on health care in general.
“It is a great privilege to honor a colleague who has contributed so voluminously to the advancement of science and medicine,” said Dr. R. Clinton Webb, Chairman of the Department. “Dr. Ellison has distinguished herself on so many levels that her legacy is sure to outlive us all, but we hope this lectureship serves as one more way to ensure that future generations appreciate the impact of her tremendous body of work.”
The lectureship was initiated by the department’s postdoctoral fellows. “The Provost generously provided seed money, and many faculty members have made donations since then to establish the lectureship endowment,” said John Apolzan, one of the fellows. “We were proud to name it in Dr. Ellison’s honor. She is an excellent scientist with numerous accomplishments related to physiology, and she has strongly supported the department and its trainees for many years.”
Dr. Ellison, a native of Fort Valley, Ga., was the editor of her high school paper, captain of the basketball and tennis teams and winner of the Georgia State High School Singles Tennis Championship before graduating as an honor graduate and commencement speaker at Athens High School in Athens, Ga.
She continued her education at the University of Georgia, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and zoology in less than three years rather than the standard four. Also at UGA, she participated in many extracurricular activities. She was President of the Z Club and Mortar Board, Secretary of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and staff member and columnist of the Red and Black weekly student newspaper.
In 1943, she enrolled in the University of Georgia School of Medicine ( now the Medical College of Georgia of Georgia Health Sciences University ), one of four females in a class of 78. Her medical education was interrupted by a battle with tuberculosis but she persevered and graduated in 1950.
Dr. Ellison completed a cardiopulmonary physiology fellowship, then was appointed to the faculty where she helped develop GHSU’s cardiopulmonary laboratory, serving as Director until 1992. She worked alongside her now-deceased husband of 62 years, Dr. Robert G. Ellison, who served as Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery for 32 years before retiring in 1987 as Charbonnier Professor of Surgery Emeritus.
“People talk a lot these days about translational research, and let me tell you, we had it,” she said. “Our cardiothoracic surgeons and physiologists were like one group, and a lot of wonderful research came out of it.” For instance, the work of former Department of Physiology Chairman William F. Hamilton, including inventing the Hamilton Optical Membrane Manometer to measure pressures, greatly expedited clinical advances such as Dr. Robert G. Ellison’s performance of Georgia’s first open-heart surgery using bypass in 1956.
Dr. Lois Taylor Ellison’s research was furthered as a research fellow and established investigator of the Georgia Heart Association and with a Research Career Award from the National Heart Institute of the National Institutes of Health from 1963-68. She published 73 articles in scientific journals and made numerous presentations at meeting predominantly related to preoperative and postoperative studies, open-heart surgery, alveolar surfactant and cardiovascular and pulmonary physiology. During her research with the Savannah River Site, she was the only female on the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Board of Directors.
The Ellisons continued their medical advancements while raising five sons, three of whom are now physicians themselves. In the 1970s, Dr. Lois Taylor Ellison’s career began to shift into administration. In 1974, she was named the MCG Associate Dean for Curriculum. A year later, she was named Provost, second in line to then-President William Moretz and the highest-ranking female in U.S. medical schools.
As GHSU’s physical plant mushroomed, her next role was to oversee the expansion of clinical facilities as Associate Vice President for Planning ( Hospitals and Clinics ). Campus additions during her tenure included the Ambulatory Care Center ( now the Medical Office Building ), the Specialized Care Center and the Children’s Medical Center.
Dr. Ellison retired as Professor Emeritus and Provost Emeritus in 2000, but stayed on as GHSU’s Medical Historian in Residence. She meticulously gathers and chronicles materials about the university’s heritage.
Her influence extends far beyond the confines of campus. She is a past President of the Georgia Thoracic Society, the American Lung Association of Georgia and the Georgia affiliate of the American Heart Association. She is a past President of the American Lung Association and in 1998 was awarded its highest honor, the Will Ross Medal. She is a charter member of the Board of Directors of the MCG Research Institute and is a past Vice President and current Treasurer. Dr. Ellison served as the first female President of the MCG Alumni Association in 1988-89.
She is a past recipient of an MCG Distinguished Alumnus Award, an MCG Lifetime Achievement Award, a Woman of Excellence Award in Health and the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation Stewardship. She was included in the 2003 National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine exhibition, “Changing the Face of Medicine – Celebrating America’s Women Physicians.” Dr. Ellison is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Honor Society and Sigma Xi.
“It was a marvelous honor to conduct translational research and to advance health care with many specialties on campus, including of course the Department of Physiology,” she said. “It is a great thrill to be honored with this lectureship.”
The inaugural lecturer, Dr. Marlene Rabinovitch, is the Research Director of the Wall Center for Pulmonary Hypertension at Stanford University, pursuing National Institutes of Health-funded research on chronic lung injury after premature birth, cardiovascular development and disease, pulmonary vascular disease and pulmonary hypertension. She is also the Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford. She received the American Heart Association’s 2006 Distinguished Scientist Award.
“Dr. Rabinovitch is intimately familiar with Dr. Ellison’s body of work and is honored to be the inaugural speaker since their work is similar,” said Theodora Szasz, a Department of Physiology postdoctoral fellow.
Dr. Rabinovitch earned her medical degree from McGill University and completed a pediatrics residency at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver. She completed clinical fellowships in pediatric cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. She also completed a pediatric cardiology research fellowship at Harvard.
The lecture will be held Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. in room 1222 of the Health Sciences Building, followed by a reception. The public is invited.
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