Barbara Atkinson, MD

2012 Honorary Medical Alumna

Barbara Atkinson, M.D., was the first woman to lead the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Dr. Atkinson was named executive dean of the University of Kansas School of Medicine 2002, after chairing the department of pathology and laboratory medicine. She added the responsibilities of executive vice chancellor in 2005, becoming the first woman in the United States to serve as medical school dean and executive vice chancellor of a medical center at the same time.

Dr. Atkinson oversaw a dynamic period in the University of Kansas Medical Center’s history. She led the efforts to gain National Cancer Institute designation, one of the most important recognitions for a research university. During her tenure, the School of Medicine opened an innovative new campus in Salina, Kan., and expanded the Wichita campus from a two-year program to a full, four-year program. Research funding made significant gains and a state-of-the-art research building and a new medical office building opened on the medical center campus.

Dr. Atkinson received the Leonard Berwick Award for Distinguished Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. While at the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine), she received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in Clinical Sciences and the Golden Apple Teaching Award for Excellent Science Teaching for Integrated Learning Programs. She was presented with the Helmuth Sprintz Award for teaching while at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Atkinson is a life trustee and a past president of the American Board of Pathology, and she holds the distinction of being the first woman and the first cytopathologist to be elected as a trustee. She was elected to membership in the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1997. In 2010 she was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

The Barbara F. Atkinson Professorship in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine was established in 2011. The professorship is in the field of cytopathology, a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses disease at cellular level.

For her many contributions, the KU Medical Alumni Association recognizes Barbara Atkinson, M.D., with the 2012 Honorary Medical Alumna Award.