As part of its legacy of advancing inclusion, the College of Medicine has been home to the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program for 30 years. The program, which is a yearlong, part-time fellowship for women who want to develop the personal and professional skills required to become leaders in academic medicine, has graduated more than 1,500 fellows. Nancy Spector, MD, who serves as executive director of the program, says, “ELAM was created in 1995 to honor the legacy of our predecessor school, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, which was established in 1850. We are thrilled to commemorate ELAM’s 30th anniversary in 2025! This year’s exceptional cohort of 147 fellows, and our more than 1,500 alumnae representing 300 institutions across the U.S. and Canada, truly inspire us in this milestone celebration.”

In 2022, the program added the Executive Leadership in Health Care track, focused on fostering leadership skills in health care settings. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, MD, MEd, MPPM, who serves as professor and academic chair in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the College of Medicine, completed the ELAM program in 2024.

“The journey from ELAM to ELUM was a milestone in both my personal and professional career,” she says. “Malcolm X noted, ‘When I is replaced with We, even Illness becomes Wellness.’ ELAM and its collective and emphasis on the ‘we’ is changing the world for women, and changing the world.”

 
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