Alumni Focus

Sarah Donaldson DMS '66: Opening Doors for Medical Students

Sarah Donaldson DMS '66

In 1961, Sarah Donaldson was a talented young RN at the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland who had four reasons why she couldn't attend medical school: she wasn't smart enough; she didn't have enough money; she was a woman at a time there were few female doctors; and at age 25, she believed she was too old to start medical school.

Forty years later, she is an internationally-recognized pediatric radiation oncologist. Hers is a true tale of the power of mentoring.

From RN to MD

Sarah Donaldson was fresh out of nursing school in 1961 when she began working with Dr. William Fletcher, a young cancer surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School who had just eight years earlier finished his studies at DMS. Dr. Fletcher quickly recognized that the young nurse possessed the skill and drive to become an excellent doctor. "She did everything from starting the surgical oncology/chemotherapy clinics to working in the lab, and she became a very competent experimental surgeon," Dr. Fletcher recalls. "It seemed to me that she wasn't going to be content with following orders from doctors who perhaps didn't know as much of what was going on as she did."

But it took a good deal of convincing and a big push from Dr. Fletcher to get the young RN to take the next step in her career. When the grant for the cancer research project the two collaborated on came up for renewal, Dr. Fletcher insisted that Sarah Donaldson go to New York to defend it. And he suggested that while she was back East, she should visit some medical schools, including his alma mater Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Fletcher felt that DMS would be a great match for his mentee because, as he notes, "It's a good school, small and intimate. If you were having trouble with something, the faculty would figure out why and do what was necessary to help you along. I thought it would serve her well."

In fall 1963, Sarah Donaldson flew east to defend her project and embark on a whirlwind tour of medical schools--11 of them in as many days. "The first one I visited was Dartmouth, and I fell in love with Dartmouth," says Dr. Donaldson. Immediately upon her return, she applied to DMS and within two weeks, she had received her acceptance letter.

Sarah Donaldson entered Dartmouth Medical School in the fall of 1964, the sixth female to study at DMS. Though she was one of the few females at DMS at the time, she found the faculty and students at the Medical School welcoming. "Gender was not an issue," insists Dr. Donaldson. "There was a camaraderie, an esprit de corps at DMS that I felt from the very beginning."

It was that spirit that helped to make her first two years of medical school "the best two years of my life," she says. "I was out of Oregon for the first time and in this wonderful collegial environment. It was stimulating. The professors were fabulous; they knew you by name, they invited you to their homes if you were having trouble, they mentored you and tutored you...Dartmouth was a great place to go to medical school."

After completing her studies at DMS, which was then a two-year school, Sarah Donaldson followed in her mentor's footsteps and earned her MD at Harvard. When it came time for her to make her next move into a residency, she sought Dr. Fletcher's advice. Believing that the 24/7 demands of a career as a cancer surgeon would clash with his protege's numerous interests outside of medicine, including competitive downhill skiing, Dr. Fletcher encouraged her to pursue a career in the then-emerging field of radiation oncology, which would provide a more predictable schedule. In addition, recalls Dr. Donaldson, "He said the world of radiation oncology needed surgically-oriented people, which was absolutely true."

Opening Doors

Following a radiation oncology residency at Stanford and a year abroad caring for sick children at the Institut Gustave-Roussy outside of Paris, Dr. Donaldson returned to Stanford as a junior faculty member charged with the task of setting up a pediatric cancer service. She's been at Stanford ever since, caring for patients, engaging in research, and teaching students.

Today, Dr. Donaldson is the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor of Radiation Oncology, Associate Chair, and the residency Program Director for the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford Medical School. Over her nearly 40-year career as a pediatric radiation oncologist, she has become an internationally-recognized authority in her field, renowned for developing innovative treatment approaches for Hodgkin's disease, orbital lymphoma, and rhabdomyosaroma among other diseases. She's been the recipient of numerous national awards and honors, including the American Medical Women's Association's Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, and was the first female president of two professional organizations: the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the American Board of Radiology. Most recently, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Radiological Society of North America.

"I love my job, I love caring for patients who have cancer," she says, noting that during the span of her career, cure rates for childhood cancer have risen from 10% to 80%. "There's nothing more gratifying than being involved in that rise."

Dr. Donaldson clearly relishes her role in academic medicine, especially that of teaching, which has given her the opportunity to mentor students as Dr. Bill Fletcher had mentored her. "It's wonderfully rewarding to see such talented, bright young people enter the field and give them advice and open some doors for them," she says.

"Without having someone open doors for me and encourage me to take a step, I wouldn't have gone to medical school and I wouldn't be where I am today," Dr. Donaldson asserts. "For every reason I had to not attend medical school, Bill Fletcher had a well-though-out reply."

Dr. Donaldson is not only opening doors for students at Stanford, she is also helping to open doors for DMS students by supporting the Fund for Dartmouth Medical School. Gifts to the Fund for DMS support scholarship, curriculum development, the recruitment and retention of the highest caliber faculty, the creation of innovative programs and state-of-the-art facilities, and the overall operation of the Medical School. "Dartmouth gave me every opportunity to succeed," she explains. "I want Dartmouth to always be at the very top in terms of institutions of higher education, so others can profit from the same environment and the same opportunities that I did."

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