Alumni Profile: Elizabeth Petty, MD '86

Madison, Wisconsin - When Elizabeth Petty, MD '86, starts packing personal items in her office at the University of Michigan Medical School in preparation for her move this summer to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, she'll bring along some things that undoubtedly will come in handy.

 

"I have a Badgers cap, a Wisconsin cheese head and red shoes ready to put on anytime UW-Madison is playing," she says. "When I left Wisconsin, I always hoped I'd come back, but I never thought it would take so long. I am very excited to be returning to Madison."

 

At Michigan, Petty has served as associate dean of student programs and medical student education. All the while, she has maintained an active basic science research program investigating the functional roles of novel genes important in cell cycle regulation and cell division in breast cancer cells.

 

In addition, she has cared for individuals with, and families at risk for, a wide variety of genetic conditions at Michigan's Medical Genetics Clinic, which she oversaw as medical director for many years. It's all given her an invaluable opportunity to nurture relationships and work closely with others.

 

"The experiences I have had at Michigan have helped prepare me for the next step - a step I am very much looking forward to in Madison," she says.

 

Destined to be a Doctor

 

Petty, who will be the new senior associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Medicine and Public Health, has come a long way from her childhood years attending middle school and high school in Shawano, Wisconsin. Her future seemed to be foretold when as an inquisitive girl she shadowed her father, a general physician.

 

"I was really intrigued when I went with Dad to the clinic, hospital or on house calls, and saw many patients, including people with disabilities," she says. "It was fascinating watching my father help his patients."

 

Petty found living in a small town, where many people knew her father and looked up to him for advice, a stimulating experience. It was one of the things that sparked her interest in medicine.

 

But another impetus occurred when she was in eighth grade.

 

"That's when my father asked me if I would like to meet Dr. Renata Laxova, a pediatric geneticist he admired," she says.

 

Petty later attended a clinical conference where Laxova, now professor emerita in the School of Medicine and Public Health Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Genetics and the Waisman Center, was speaking.

 

"What I really enjoyed was being able to shadow her for a day," she says. "I remember being awed by her-she was so kind, wise and gracious."

 

Over the years, Petty has had more than one opportunity to tell Laxova what that meeting meant to her and how it played such an important part in her own medical journey. That enriching day helped hone Petty's curious nature and her interest in ongoing learning, traits that would prove beneficial later in her life as a physician, scientist and educator.

 

In college at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, she explored interests she shared with both her parents: her mother's as an artist in addition to her father's as a physician. Petty made her own way by majoring in art history and human biology.

 

When it came time for medical school, she boldly applied to only one - Wisconsin.

 

"When I was accepted, I was thrilled that they set me up as a student fellow in a lab in the Department of Oncology, where I did research the summer before school began," she notes.

 

Medical school fueled her drive and curiosity. She thrived in the competitive environment, where she was encouraged to ask questions and test ideas. In Petty's fourth year, during a rotation in pediatric genetics, Laxova made another appearance in her life.

 

"It was exciting to see patients with her, write a manuscript with her and work with her in outreach clinics," Petty says.

 

By then, Petty had embraced genetics. After her UW pediatrics residency, she spent five years at Yale University, working on fellowships in medical genetics and clinical molecular genetics.

 

But she attributes her strong clinical skills and solid scientific foundation to her medical school days in Wisconsin.

 

"Memories from Wisconsin will come at me during the strangest times - when I'm teaching or in a clinical setting - and I'll think about my training in Madison," she says. "It was where I learned how to do a good clinical evaluation, practice good genetic counseling skills and understand concepts. My approach to using the medical literature effectively was learned in Madison."

 

Medical school at UW also inspired her to pursue a career in academic medicine.

 

Focused on Education

 

In her new leadership role at the School of Medicine and Public Health, Petty will see some patients and continue to be involved in scientific inquiry, but her primary focus will be on medical education. She will oversee all educational programs at the school, including:

• Medical student education
• Curriculum development
• The Student Services Office
• The Office of Rural Health
• The Area Health Education Centers
• The Office of Continuing Professional Development

The physical therapy, physician assistant, genetics counseling and master of public health educational programs will also fall under her purview.

 

What is she most proud of in her career? It's not the long list of awards she has accumulated over the years.

 

"I've had incredible opportunities in my life," she says, "but I'm most proud of the effective teams I've helped build and the many successes of the students, seeing them reach their full potential."

 

With education on her mind, she says if she could have dinner with anyone, living or deceased, she would choose her grandfather, William C. Petty. He was a superintendent of schools in Lake County, Illinois, for 40 years and was memorialized by having an elementary school named in his honor.

 

"I'd like to talk to him about his educational philosophy and learn what inspired him," she says.

 

When she's not thinking about education or research or patient care, Petty often dives into music. In fact, she is a self-taught musician who plays numerous instruments.

 

"I love the challenge of the steep learning curve - of getting a new instrument that I don't know how to play and then learning how to play it," she says.

 

If you count her achievements in terms of musical instruments, there would be plenty.

 

"Every year someone seems to give me a musical instrument as a gift," she says. Her collection now includes guitars, saxophones, flutes, a clarinet, violins, accordions, a French horn, a cello, a euphonium and many percussion instruments. When she moves to Wisconsin, a drum set may be added.

 

In Madison, she will also seek out the city's lakes.

 

"I love anything having to do with water - swimming, kayaking and sailing on Lake Wingra," she says. "I'm also looking forward to taking walks in the Arboretum, visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art, biking to and from UW Hospital, people watching at the Dane County Farmers' Market and going to concerts."

 

Petty will return to the School of Medicine and Public Health as a highly accomplished and widely recognized clinician, physician-scientist and medical educator who also happens to be a very interesting, vibrant person. Students - and the school - will soon benefit from one of the best. Just as Petty benefited from some of the best in her days at Wisconsin.

 

By Sharyn Alden

This article appears in the spring 2011 issue of Quarterly.

Date Published: 05/18/2011