As one of few women who attended medical school in the late 1940s and a prolific pediatric blood disorder researcher, Virginia Donaldson, M.D.’51, was a pioneer in medicine. Her many groundbreaking contributions continue even after her 2013 death with a bequest to the University of Vermont College of Medicine that supports the first full-tuition scholarship at the school.
The inaugural recipient of the four-year scholarship, which recognizes a student who demonstrates a commitment to translational science and the integration of the biological sciences into clinical care (as Dr. Donaldson possessed), is Class of 2018 medical student and Ohio native David Arsanious. A graduate of Ohio State University (OSU) with a degree in molecular genetics, Arsanious was selected based on his undergraduate work as a Pelotonia Fellow working in the OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center with Yuri Pekarsky, Ph.D., and Carlo Croce, M.D., on chronic lymphocytic leukemia research.
He started on his path towards medicine early, following his father’s death from a brain tumor. “That event and its effects instilled a strong awareness of the burden of disease on families in me even as a child,” shares Arsanious, who is deeply grateful for Donaldson’s generosity. “The Donaldson Scholarship was central in my decision to come to UVM, and is a testament to Dr. Donaldson’s continuing legacy in the advancement of this school and the practice of medicine,” he says.
Donaldson enjoyed a distinguished career as a pediatric hematologist who was particularly known for her work in identifying a key, inherited deficiency involved in the cause of hereditary angioneurotic edema – a potentially fatal disease that causes swelling of the face and airways. At the time of her death, she was professor emerita of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. In 1981, she received the Distinguished Academic Achievement award from the College of Medicine’s Medical Alumni Association (MAA), and in 2006, was awarded the A. Bradley Soule Award, the MAA’s highest honor.
In the 1990s, Donaldson created an endowment at the College to promote the impact of the biological sciences on clinical medicine. In addition to the scholarship, her bequest and estate gifts also include funding for a Virginia H. Donaldson, M.D.’51 Professorship and an endowed fund for distinguished faculty and total more than $3.5 million.
