Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award

The Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award recognizes an individual or individuals who have made a significant and positive impact on the ELAM/ELH community. Recipients demonstrate professionalism, commitment and unwavering dedication to fellows, ELUMs, faculty, staff and/or other community members, inspiring others to use their talents and energy to advance the ELAM/ELH program and make a difference in achieving gender equity in academic medicine and/or hospital systems.

2024 Award Recipient: Susan M. Pollart, MD, ELAM ’17

Susan M. Pollart, MD, ELAM ’17, received the second annual Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award, which was presented during the Leaders Forum at the 2024 ELAM/ELH Spring Session in Philadelphia.

Dr. Pollart is the Ruth E. Murdaugh Professor of Family Medicine, and she leads the Offices of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development in the University of Virginia School of Medicine as senior associate dean. In 2018 she joined the faculty of ELAM and ELH and has served as a Learning Community advisor. She is being honored with the 2024 Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award for her inspirational dedication to the ELAM/ELH programs, her advocacy of the mission and her work to increase ELAM/ELH’s visibility and impact.

Please stay tuned for a call for nominations for the 2025 Laura Lynch ELAM/ELH Community Impact Award.

About Laura Lynch: Laura Lynch, who had served as ELAM's program director since 2006, passed away in February 2023. Laura shepherded hundreds of fellows through the program and stayed in close contact with them as they became ELUMs. She was the historian of the program and provided incredible insight. She led with humor and brought laughter and joy to ELAM’s national office. Her passing is a tremendous loss to the program and to our community. This award was created in her honor and in recognition of her commitment to the ELAM community.