MEDEX Northwest is the UW School of Medicine’s physician assistant program. We are fortunate that our students are supported by the contributors and funds listed below.
Ruth Ballweg Fund for MEDEX Students
Ruth Ballweg, PA-C has every reason to feel an affinity for MEDEX Northwest: she is not only a graduate of the program but also its director. Given her deep familiarity with MEDEX Northwest, Ms. Ballweg appreciates how difficult it can be for students, especially older students, to return to school and to make ends meet. With the creation of this fund, Ms. Ballweg found the tool she needed to support students whose academic lives are interrupted by emergency financial needs. Ms. Ballweg, and fellow emergency-fund contributors Linda J. Vorvick, M.D. and Steven D. Brown. Are making MEDEX students' lives a little easier and helping them stay in school.
Gino Gianola and Esther Herst Fund for MEDEX Students
In creating this endowment, Mr. Gianola and Ms. Herst are providing crucial support for MEDEX students, many of whom return to school (and a student’s meager budget) after an extended period in the work world, and/or after starting a family. While students plan their return to school carefully, expensive emergencies — with children, parents, travel needs — arise. With this endowment, the donors hope to keep students’ financial worries at bay.
F. J. (Gino) Gianola is a 1976, Class 8 graduate of the MEDEX Northwest program of the University of Washington School of Medicine. Prior to entering the MEDEX program, he was a community organizer and co-founder of Country Doctor Community Clinic. Mr. Gianola has served as a lecturer, clinical coordinator, and senior advisor at the MEDEX program since 1993. Prior to that, he was the first physician assistant to be hired by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, as a clinical researcher on colorectal cancer. Mr. Gianola continued his research into AIDS at the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit at University of Washington Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He is a member of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, and chairs the ethics department of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. Mr. Gianola is a member of the executive committee of the board of trustees of the Physician Assistant Foundation. He is also a Viet Nam Veteran, having served as a medic in the Army from 1967–1970. He believes that teaching is an honor and that students are a treasure.
Esther Herst, FTA, is the executive director of Temple Beth Am, a Reform Jewish synagogue in Seattle’s north end. She received her advanced certification as a fellow in temple administration in 2003 and has been a synagogue administrator since 1994. Prior to that time, she served as executive director of the Washington State Affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League for six years. Ms. Herst was the chief lobbyist and the national director of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation from 1974–1986. Her scholarly expertise is focused both on protection of First Amendment constitutional rights and on organizational development and management.
MEDEX Scholarship Fund
This fund was established by graduates and friends of the MEDEX Northwest program. In contributing to this fund, these donors are making an investment both in the education of our physician assistants (PAs) and in the many communities in which our PAs will serve.
This scholarship fund contains within it several specialized scholarship funds to which donors can choose to direct their contributions. The Barbara Gunter Flynn Memorial Scholarship was created to remember the legacy of Barbara G. Flynn, a 1979 graduate of MEDEX Northwest, and to recognize students with humor, grace, and passion. A second scholarship, the Howard/Nalley Memorial Scholarship, was established by Roy Howard, a 1973 alumnus of MEDEX Northwest, and his partner, Catherine Nalley, to honor and remember members of their family. This scholarship recognizes student commitment to family and education. A third scholarship, the Sue Vader Memorial Scholarship, was established to remember 1995 MEDEX graduate Sue Vader, who died of cancer in 2004. Ms. Vader was a strong advocate for women’s health, loved traveling, and enjoyed making jewelry and tending bonsai trees.
Michael C. Merrill, PA-C Endowed Scholarship Fund for the Advancement of PAs in Emergency Medicine
The Michael C. Merrill, PA-C Endowed Scholarship Fund for the Advancement of PAs in Emergency Medicine was created to support MEDEX students interested in a career in emergency medicine. It is also intended to pay tribute to Michael C. Merrill, a graduate of the MEDEX Northwest program (Seattle Class 26), who died in 2007.
Mr. Merrill worked in the emergency room at Group Health Eastside Hospital in Redmond, Wash., and he was widely admired for his intelligence, curiosity, and kindness. Mr. Merrill enjoyed learning and teaching, and he was able to establish an immediate and reassuring rapport with his patients. When Mr. Merrill developed extrapulmonary small-cell carcinoma, his colleagues, patients, family, and friends decided to pay tribute to Mr. Merrill’s love of medicine, his commitment to patients, and his interest in education by creating a scholarship fund for MEDEX Northwest.
Richard Smith, M.D. Endowed Scholarship in MEDEX Northwest
This endowment provides assistance to students in the UW School of Medicine’s physician assistant program. The fund honors the professional contributions of Richard Smith, M.D., who — with Raymond E. Vath, M.D. ’65, Res. ’69, and Jerry Bassett, M.D. — helped establish MEDEX Northwest at the University of Washington. Dr. Smith was instrumental in making the program and its graduates an integral part of the spectrum of medical education offered by the UW School of Medicine.
Susan Vader Memorial Scholarship
In creating this endowment, Kira S. Vader took advantage of the Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign for Students, which will match her donation. Ms. Vader created this scholarship to assist MEDEX Northwest students and to honor her mother, Susan Vader, a graduate of the MEDEX program.
Linda J. Vorvick, M.D. and Stephen D. Brown Fund for MEDEX Students
As a teacher in the MEDEX Northwest program, Linda J. Vorvick, M.D. ’82, Res. ’85 has a great deal of respect and admiration for MEDEX students. She knows that students plan their finances carefully to attend school. Still, she says, things happen: with children, with travel, with older parents. In this fund, Dr. Vorvick and her husband, Steven D. Brown, have created a source of emergency funds for students who need some extra financial help. They hope that this fund — combined with the contributions made by MEDEX’s executive director, Ruth Ballweg — provides enough support to keep students in school and on track to becoming physician assistants.