Helen and John Schilling Endowed Lectureship & Research Symposium

2025

Gretchen Schwarze, MD, MPP, FACS
Morgridge Professor of Vascular Surgery, Professor, Departments of Surgery, Medical History, Bioethics, University of Wisconsin
2025 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2024

Fiemu Nwariaku, MD, MBA, FACS
Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Helen Lowe Bamberger Colby Presidential, Endowed Chair in Health Sciences
2024 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2023

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, MA, FACS
Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, University of California - San Francisco, Leon Goldman, MD Distinguished Professor of Surgery
2023 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2022

Kathie Ann Joseph, MD
Professor of Surgery and Population Health, Vice Chair of Diversity and Health Equity, Co-Director of the Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program, and Medical Director KP-3 at NYU Grossman School of Medicine/NYU Langone Health
2022 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2021

Robin S. McLeod, MD, FRCS(C)
Professor in Department of Surgery and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and Vice Chair of Quality and Performance at University of Toronto
2021 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2019

Mary Hawn, MD, MPH
Professor of Surgery, Stanford Medicine and Chair of the Department of Surgery, Stanford University
2019 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2018

Caprice C. Greenberg, MD, MPH
Professor of Surgery, Morgridge Distinguished Chair in Health Services Research, Director, Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program
Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2018 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2017

Diana Farmer, MD
Chair and Pearl Stamps, Stewart Professor, Department of Surgery, University of California, Davis, Surgeon–in–Chief, UC Davis Children’s Hospital
2017 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2016

Melina R. Kibbe, MD, FACS, FAHA
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Northwestern University
2016 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2015

Walter J. Pories, MD
Professor of Surgery at Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University
2015 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2014

Timothy R. Billiar, MD
George Vance Foster Professor & Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh
2014 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2013

Anthony Atala, MD
Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
The W.H. Boyce Professor & Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest Universit

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2012

Gerald Fried, MD, FRCS(C), FACS
Professor of Surgery and Gastroenterology, Adair Family Chair of Surgical Education, Montreal General Hospital
2012 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2011

Julie A. Freischlag, MD
The William Stewart Halsted Professor, Chair, Department of Surgery, Surgeon-in-Chief, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD
2011 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2010

Jeffrey B. Matthews, MD
Dallas B. Phemister, Professory of Surgery, Chair, Department of Surgery, Dean for Clinical Affairs, Biological Sciences Division, The University of Chicago
2010 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2009

Michael W. Mullholland, MD, PhD
Frederick A. Coller Distinguished, Professor of Surgery, Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan School of Medicine
2009 Research Symposium and Helen & John Schilling Lecture Booklet (PDF)

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2008

Timothy J. Eberlein, MD
Bixby Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine

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2007

Shukri F. Khuri, MD, MS (Hon.)
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, VA Boston Healthcare System, Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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2006

Richard H. Bell, Jr., MD
Professor and Chair of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

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2005

Barbara L. Bass, MD
Professor of Surgery, Maryland University School of Medicine

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2004

Michael T. Longaker, MD
Director of Children’s Surgical Research in the Department of Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine

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2003

Michael G. Sarr, MD
Professor of Surgery, Mayo Clinic Rochester

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2002

Ori D. Rotstein, MD
Peter A. Crossgrove Chair in General Surgery, The University of Toronto

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2001

John Mannick, MD
Moseley Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital

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2000

Lazar J. Greenfield, MD
Frederick A. Coller Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, The University of Michigan

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1999

Samuel A. Wells Jr., MD, FACS
Executive Director, American College of Surgeons

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1998

Haile T. Debas, MD
Chancellor and Dean, School of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco

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1997

Murray F. Brennan, MD
Alfred P. Sloan Chair in Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

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1996

Richard L. Simmons, MD
Vance Foster Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh

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1995

Judah Folkman, MD
Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Harvard Medical School

The Helen and John Schilling Endowed Lectureship was established by the late Helen Schilling to bring distinguished scholars to the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington, and to enhance the Department’s commitment to the highest standards of patient care, teaching, research and scholarship. It was Mrs. Schilling’s wish that the lectureship be named in honor of her husband, John.

Dr. Schilling devoted his life to academic medicine in a career spanning 50 years. He was born and raised just outside Kansas City, Missouri, and at the age of 15 entered Dartmouth College. After graduating from Dartmouth in 1937, he attended Harvard Medical School as a member of the class of 1941, the last class to graduate before World War II. In the six months before the start of his internship and residency at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, he signed on as a ship’s doctor on the schooner Effie M. Morrissey for a scientific expedition to the Arctic sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Standards. After a number of perilous adventures along the Greenland coast and in the Hudson Straits, he returned to New York and started his training in general surgery. He joined the surgical staff at the University of Rochester in 1945 where he began his lifelong work on wound healing. His career at Rochester was interrupted for several months by a stint in the Central Pacific (Eniwetok) to participate in the study of flash burns as part of the atom bomb tests and the Manhattan Project. Subsequently he joined the Air Force as a volunteer and set up a surgical department at the new School of Aviation Medicine in San Antonio.

In 1956 Dr. Schilling was invited to be the Chief of the first full–time Department of Surgery in the new medical school at the University of Oklahoma. He was successful in recruiting a number of outstanding junior faculty, many of whom went on to become chairs. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he maintained an extensive research program in wound healing in collaboration with Dr. Betty White. At the end of 18 years, Dr. Schilling and his faculty had trained 75 surgeons from Oklahoma and adjoining states, and had established a department known for its academic accomplishments.

Dr. Schilling came to the University of Washington in 1974 as a senior investigator and, upon the sudden resignation of the chair, was asked to take over the management of the Department of Surgery. Thus began his third chairmanship which lasted eight years until his retirement. His first responsibility was to recruit faculty to fill the many vacancies, a task he achieved after several stormy years. Upon his retirement in 1983, he had recruited 41 new faculty members and graduated a total of 40 chief residents.

His career in academic surgery was marked by a devotion to patient care and teaching, as well as research. Despite his commitment to the profession, Dr. Schilling still found time to engage in other activities. From his early childhood he enjoyed the outdoors and had become an expert tennis player, skier, and fly fisherman; he always believed that one’s life work should be punctuated by intervals of travel and recreation.

Helen Schilling shared with her husband both the non–academic as well as the academic side of his life. They first worked together in Rochester and continued their professional association through the years in Oklahoma and Washington. They were married in 1979. Mrs. Schilling had a career in newspaper work and administration after graduating from Oberlin College. This dual background enabled her to be his close associate and administrative assistant for 40 years.