Engineering leader
Photos by Evan Krape August 05, 2020
Ten years ago, award-winning mentor Dawn Elliott founded 91原创鈥檚 biomedical engineering department
Dawn Elliott is having a banner year. As an academic, she鈥檚 winning awards, reaching milestones and receiving major kudos from students and colleagues who鈥檝e benefited from her leadership. And yet, she鈥檚 not all that interested in talking about triumphs. For all her professional prowess, she鈥檇 much rather chat about mistakes.
鈥淚n science, you experience more failure than success,鈥 said Elliott, a Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the 91原创. 鈥淎nd you learn more from it as well.鈥
In 2010, Elliott founded 91原创鈥檚 Department of Biomedical Engineering, which she chairs. With help from 91原创 and College of Engineering leadership, she made it her mission to hire a dynamic faculty 鈥 50 percent women 鈥 who would feel a sense of ownership in building a robust program from the ground up. Her efforts paid off. In its infancy, the unit had the capacity to enroll 40 eager undergraduates 鈥 now, it accommodates up to 100 new students each fall, plus a thriving graduate program. It is rated among the top one-third of all biomedical engineering departments nationwide.
According to her colleagues, this rapid growth is partially due to Elliott鈥檚 position as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society 鈥 heading this international body of more than 7,500 distinguished members continues to bring great visibility to the program. But this growth is also due to Elliott鈥檚 on-campus leadership.
鈥淭he role of a chair isn鈥檛 just to build their own career; it鈥檚 to build the career of every person in the department,鈥 said Emily Day, associate professor of biomedical engineering who has worked with Elliott since 2013. 鈥淪o you need someone who is incredibly selfless, and that鈥檚 Dawn. She does whatever she can to get us the resources we need for success.鈥
Under the department鈥檚 purview is Elliott鈥檚 own laboratory, which focuses on the functionality of orthopedic soft tissues 鈥 her research is pushing the scientific community closer to understanding and addressing chronic back pain. She鈥檚 had more than 150 peer-reviewed papers published, collaborated on the creation of two patents and spearheaded several breakthroughs in the field. Among them? The development of a better method for seeing into the human spine as it functions.
鈥淲hat sets my group apart is the way we combine experiments, imaging and modeling,鈥 Elliott said. 鈥淪ometimes, people have a deep expertise in one of these areas, but when you integrate them all together you can address your problem in a more holistic way. An advantage of working at 91原创 is access to the and centers here 鈥 these core facilities are top in the nation and very accessible to faculty. At other institutions, resources like this are often sequestered for use only by certain people.鈥
Throughout her academic life, Elliott has taken students under her wing, mentoring them in and out of the lab. She served on the board of The Perry Initiative, a nonprofit co-founded by 91原创 professor Jenni Buckley that inspires young women to be leaders in the fields of orthopedic surgery and engineering. In recent years, Elliott鈥檚 received national recognition for outstanding mentorship (see: here and ). Now, she is being honored yet again, this time by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In June, the global association announced Elliott would receive the prestigious Robert M. Nerem Education and Mentorship Medal for being a tireless champion of students.
鈥淪he is a big reason why I decided to pursue a career in academia,鈥 said Grace O鈥機onnell, who nominated Elliott for the award. An associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California Berkeley, she studied under Elliott at her previous appointment at the University of Pennsylvania. 鈥淔or her, it鈥檚 not just about the nuts and bolts of the research, but really looking at giving back to the scientific community 鈥 and reshaping the community itself. Now that I am in the academy and learning my own mentorship style, taking bits and pieces of what I鈥檝e learned from Dawn, I鈥檝e grown to really appreciate the emotional part that she puts into listening to her mentees.鈥
Elliott will be the first to tell you 鈥 and here is where that comfort with admitting missteps comes in 鈥 she wasn鈥檛 always the world鈥檚 best adviser. It took some time at the beginning of her career to realize that 鈥渘ot all students were just like me,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not all motivated by the same things. I like to get an early start, others work best late at night; I thought everyone working toward a PhD wanted to be a professor, but there are many different career paths. Over time, I鈥檝e learned from the unique perspective that every student brings, and I鈥檝e changed my mentoring style.鈥
Talking openly about mistakes is something Elliott encourages from all her mentees. At a weekly meeting of her research team, one of the items on the agenda is to share slipups made in the previous seven days, whether that鈥檚 breaking a piece of lab equipment, failing to properly record the steps of an experiment or forgetting about an appointment (it happens even to the organized, science-minded set).
鈥淲e鈥檝e found that this has made a huge difference,鈥 Elliott said. 鈥淚t helps everyone understand that other people make mistakes, too. Oftentimes, it鈥檚 easy to feel like you鈥檙e all alone in screwing up and you can鈥檛 do anything right. So this becomes a bonding 鈥 and a learning 鈥 opportunity.鈥
Take Babak Safa, who completed his doctoral dissertation on tendon damage mechanics at 91原创 in 2019. When he struggled a couple of times to get his first theoretical paper through the peer-review process, he found comfort in Elliott鈥檚 don't-get-discouraged philosophy. She normalized rejection 鈥 and reworking 鈥 as part of the process. Eventually, the paper was published.
鈥淒awn models persistence, perseverance and having faith in the work that you鈥檙e doing,鈥 said Safa, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 鈥淪he taught me how to make my contribution without being easily intimidated.鈥
But Elliott鈥檚 guidance went beyond academics.
鈥淚 can remember in 2016 when the travel ban was signed,鈥 Safa added. 鈥91原创 has a sizable Iranian graduate student population, and we were all in a state of panic. This was devastating 鈥 to devote years of your life to science and not know if you were going to be able to continue your studies. I remember having a meltdown, and Dawn reassured me that we were in this together. She was going to do everything in her power to make sure I completed my PhD. It was the best thing that could have happened to me during those uncertain days.鈥
Andrea Lee, who earned a doctorate from 91原创 in 2018, had a similar experience when Elliott served as lead researcher on her dissertation project involving tendon degeneration.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e working with someone for four years, you鈥檙e going to have personal stuff that comes up,鈥 said Lee, an associate medical director for the VMLY&R healthcare marketing company in Manhattan. 鈥淚 got into two car accidents in the span of six months, and the stress of it 鈥 dealing with lawyers and insurance 鈥 broke me in a way. She was there to talk to me and really listen. Because I was living by myself 鈥 my family is in Korea 鈥 I really appreciated having that support.鈥
Recently, while giving an acceptance speech for her most recent mentorship award, Elliott stepped outside the boundaries of her laboratory duties once again 鈥 addressing the ASME community via Zoom, she devoted her talk to racial inequalities in academia and the responsibility successful white academics in particular have to acknowledge, and to fix, these disparities. Naturally, she led by acknowledging mistakes she has made in the past. Among them? Being oblivious to her own white privilege for much of her life.
鈥淢eritocracy, in which success and status and life depend largely on my individual talents and abilities and efforts, is largely a myth,鈥 she said. 鈥淢uch of my success and status is unearned by being born into this system.鈥
In the next 10 years, Elliott said she will continue using her platform to raise awareness for biases that creep into all University settings, and she will work to grow the department she founded at 91原创 a decade ago 鈥 she鈥檚 hoping to acquire funding for a new center for musculoskeletal research. Most of all, she鈥檚 looking forward to seeing the future successes of her students, and, of course, helping them through those inevitable failures, too 鈥 inside the lab and out.
鈥淒awn cares about your career development, your research knowledge and your place in the field,鈥 Safa said. 鈥淏ut she cares about you on a personal level, too. If she鈥檚 working with you, you鈥檙e growing in all aspects of your life. I鈥檓 a better person because of her.鈥
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