Chapter 12: Leaving a Legacy of Visible Women

Chapter 12: Leaving a Legacy of Visible Women

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Description

Dr. Travis talks about the legacy she feels she will leave at MD Anderson: more women in leadership roles and communities of women who feel visible and recognized. She is particularly gratified by the community building and gives an example of how the Office supports growth of community. She also feels she has had an impact on male colleagues who are now aware of gender issues. Dr. Travis shares some milestones she would like to see accomplished before she retires.

Dr. Travis says she has no immediate plans to retire. She is “having too much fun” and she has worked since she was twelve and would need to have an outlet for her energy. She talks about Dr. Margaret Kripke, who retired for a time, then took on another position.

Dr. Travis makes some final comments about MD Anderson, where “what we do is truly remarkable.”

Identifier

TravisEL_02_20140325_C12

Publication Date

3-25-2014

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - View on Career and Accomplishments Career and Accomplishments Contributions to MD Anderson MD Anderson Culture Institutional Mission and Values Personal background

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What legacy do you feel you will leave when you leave this particular office?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

I think it’ll be a legacy of a community—communities—plural—of women, that women feel visible, recognized, that there will be women leaders, more women leaders. I think it’s the communities that’s very important, building those communities. I also think a legacy is that our male colleagues are cognizant and have now picked this up, too, in terms of recognizing their own women faculty, that they deserve awards, you know, being more cognizant of it.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

A real cultural change.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

I hope so, you know, but I think just building the communities of women, that women feel that this is a place for them, that there are women here, there are a lot of women here. We just had a group—they started—it was grassroots. It didn’t start from this office. And I think that’s really what this office should be about, is they wanted to start a moms’ group. I said, “What can we do to help you?” So when somebody comes to me, I say, “You know, great. What do you want us to do? Tell us what you would like us to do, and we will do it.” And they said, “Well, not very much. We want to keep it informal, etc.” I said, “Okay, it’s up to you. You want to do this.” The two of them came to me, the two women who were running it, and now it’s really gained some momentum, but it started out as a total grassroots. So they have this group of moms, women faculty, and they share things, like who’s a good babysitter, just all the kind of things that moms need to know about. They’re doing it, and I think that’s great. I mean, I think that—and I think I have to credit the fact that we have this office helps facilitate that. It helped not only facilitate it, but it plants the seed that you can do this and it will be supported, and I think women feel that they can do these things and that it doesn’t have to come from up here, that they, too, can do this. “We’re behind you, we got your back, and we’ll help where you need us and where you want us.”

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

What would you like to accomplish before you leave this office and/or the institution?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

I’d like to see at least one more woman as division head. I mean, that is a goal. (laughs) One more woman division head. We only have one at the present time, and it’s kind of lonely there. I’d like to see two, but I’m working, we’re working hard on—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And her name is?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Genie Kleinerman, pediatrics. So working hard on that, you know, making sure to bring really talented women to the search committees, and we have a number of division-head searches going on. Place more women in department chairs in the clinical side of the house. We’re doing pretty well in the basic science side. Some departments we could be doing better. We have a lot of women in the pipeline. Surgery has a lot of women. We have a lot of gender-balanced departments here, and they’re ones that you wouldn’t think would be, like surgery. And the chairs of the departments are just quite pleased with themselves that they’ve managed to recruit women. One of the things we do, because we think you should give credit where credit is due, and so if it’s a gender-balanced department, we feature that department with the department chair, whether it’s a man or a woman. So we feature the men and we get a little statement from them, and they can tell us about it, and, you know, again, that’s a way of recognizing and of, I think, changing the culture. So having more men do this as well, but certainly positioning women into higher leadership positions, starting with division head, continuing to increase women in chair positions and hopefully even up the ladder, because we are not looking very—we have an associate or we have a vice provost, who is Dr. Helen Piwnica-Worms, but we don’t go any higher than that. Either gender or race, it kind of stops there. So, looking for those opportunities, and all you can do is bring the best of the best forward and hope that somebody looks around the table and says, “Hmm.”

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yes, “There’s a place here.”

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Yeah.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, I haven’t asked you, do you have specific plans to retire?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

No. (laughs)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, imagining that future time, what do you visualize yourself doing?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

I don’t know, and that’s probably one of the reasons—first of all, I’m having too much fun here, so that’s an issue. Secondly, I’m having too much fun now that I have the UT—you know, working across the UT System. I’d really like to see that initiative up and at least really embedded and going, so that when you take your eye off the ball, that it’s going to be passed on to others. So I have to get it to a point where it’s passed on to others. Then you can step back from it. So I don’t know. I mean, I think that’s a problem. In fact, this friend of Jerry’s we just had dinner with last evening, retired a few years ago, and he was in medicine, and he was saying, “You have to have something, something to do. You have to—.” I mean, I can’t imagine waking up, “Okay, I’m retired. What do I do today?” I’ve worked since I was twelve. That’s one thing. So for me, I mean, I was kind of like my mother, and I guess I took some lessons from her, and my dad, but, you know, I was always doing something, selling Christmas cards to make money to buy Christmas gifts for people. So I was always—so I can’t imagine not doing that. And the question is, so where do you take that energy? I mean, Margaret Kripke retired in two thousand—I can’t remember. Maybe it was 2010. I can’t remember exactly. So she stayed retired for a couple years, but she is now chief scientific officer for CPRIT. And why did she take it? First of all, it was an opportunity to make a difference, it was a challenge. You know, so even she couldn’t stay retired. (laughs)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Now, you’ve mentioned Jerry.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Uh-huh.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Do you want to share—

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

My significant other, if you will. (laughs) We’re not married. We were just talking about this last night, seventeen years.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Wow.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

And helped raise each other’s kids.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

His last name?

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Hyde, H-y-d-e.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Okay. Yes, thank you.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

So I don’t know when that will be. I mean, you think about it and you think there are other things you want to do in your life. I love to travel. We love to travel. We travel really well together. We’re good travelers, love going places. He’s retired, which makes it a little interesting and challenging in some ways. [[[1:00:00

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Sure. [[[1:00:01

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

It’s not yet, and I keep—and I talked to my best friend from high school. I was there in Pittsburgh not long ago. She just retired. And I said, “Ah, Sheila, tell me how you did this.” And she said, you know, she was ready. She said, “You’re not ready.” She said, “I know you. You know you. You’ll know when you’re ready. So when you’re ready, you’ll retire.” And I think that’s true. I think it’s like having my son. When I look back on it, it was like just thinking—listening to what that inner voice is saying to you, you know, and really listening to that and making sure that it’s correct. You can never be sure, but you can have some pretty good ideas. And then acting on that. I haven’t heard that inner voice say, “You know, it’s really time for you to do something.” You see, I’m not even saying “retire.” I’m saying, “Do something else.” (laughs)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Do something else. (laughter)

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Telling, isn’t it? That’s a very telling comment. (laughter) That might be the end of the interview.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I was kind of thinking that, too, though I did want to ask you if there was anything that you wanted to add.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Yes, only that this is—my intention was never to be at MD Anderson as long as I have been. I always, you know, wanted to go to California. Maybe I’ll retire there. (laughs) But it’s been a great place to be. It’s been a great career, actually. I mean, it’s not been without its ups and downs, and I’ve talked about those. Nothing’s perfect. But, you know, when I look back over it, the opportunity to be in this organization and to—I mean, just—this is a marvelous institution. I’ve had a number of family members here, and what we do is truly remarkable. And to work in a place with such talented and committed physicians to what they do is really a privilege, you know. And, I mean, there are benefits. Sometimes, you know, you live in a bubble, we all do, and you don’t realize how lucky you are. People don’t have healthcare, they don’t have insurance, people have to work, they’re sick, they need surgery, whatever, but they can’t not—they don’t have insurance or else they can’t not work, and you realize what a privilege it is to have some of those things. Now, granted, yes, you work for them, granted, you got a degree, and there are things that come with that, but nonetheless, recognizing that so many people don’t have those things. And I think it’s, I guess, if I look back, would I have thought this is what I would be doing or what I would be doing, I had no idea, but I probably would not have envisioned this. [My] undergraduate university a couple years ago—I was named the distinguished alum, and it was really quite an honor. It was so much fun. But I really was sad because my mother had just died in November and this happened like right after Christmas. And she would have been just so proud, you know, so proud. So, yes, I’m glad I’ve had this opportunity, continue to have this opportunity, and think this is a great organization. I’m sure it will continue to be great.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, I want to thank you for your time.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

My pleasure. It’s been a lot of fun.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

It has been. And I’m turning off the recorder at 11:58. Thank you so much, Dr. Travis.

Elizabeth Travis, PhD:

Great. (end of Segment 12)

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Chapter 12: Leaving a Legacy of Visible Women

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