Duquesne Names Jennifer Elliott as First Fritzky Family Chair

Duquesne President Ken Gormley has named Dr. Jennifer Padden Elliott the inaugural Ed and Karen Fritzky Family Chair in Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing. The new role is effective immediately.

Created by a gift from loyal Duquesne supporters Ed and Karen Fritzky, the new endowed Fritzky Family Endowed Chair of Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing is designed for a medical practitioner and member of Duquesne’s faculty who embraces a holistic approach to health care.

Through teaching, research, and service, the Fritzky Chair holder will amplify the University’s holistic health philosophy of providing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual patient care. Duquesne’s philosophy focuses on the total integrative health and wellbeing of patients. Integrative health considers the medical practitioner and patient as partners not only in healing but also in prevention and general wellbeing.

Elliott’s career has focused on many aspects of wellbeing and prevention. An alumna of Duquesne’s PharmD program, Elliott has created and implemented programs in pursuit of health equity. She has developed cross-sector collaborations to improve the health of children, families and communities through education, research, outreach and advocacy. Elliott serves as director of Duquesne’s Center for Integrative Health (DUCIH). Committed to improving the health and wellness of the University’s campus and its neighboring communities, the DUCIH provides chronic disease prevention and management programs from pediatrics through adulthood while training students, all in an interdisciplinary teaching, research and service model.

Elliott leads a team that developed a community-based screening model to identify children with undiagnosed and uncontrolled asthma and connects them with appropriate care. The free service is offered in underserved schools and communities throughout Allegheny County. Elliott also created school-based asthma clinics in six underserved schools throughout the county, as childhood asthma rates in and around Pittsburgh remain alarmingly high. This school-based, interdisciplinary model has resulted in meaningful improvements in asthma control and asthma-related quality of life as well as significant reductions in asthma-related emergency department visits.

“Jennifer Elliott’s work learning together with students and community members, addressing wellness from a comprehensive and multi-faceted perspective, reflects Duquesne’s heritage and our future,” says Duquesne University Provost David Dausey. “She and her students are in communities, committed to equitable access to healthcare and to better outcomes, living our mission of helping others.”

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