Duquesne names Jennifer Padden Elliott to inaugural holistic health care position

Jennifer Padden Elliott, a pioneer in health equity and director of Duquesne University’s Center for Integrative Health, has been named the inaugural Ed and Karen Fritzky Family Chair in Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing.

Created by a gift from the Fritzkys, the role is designed for a medical practitioner and member of Duquesne’s faculty who embraces a holistic approach to health care, providing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual patient care. She is an associate professor in Duquesne’s School of Pharmacy and an alumna of its PharmD program.

The chair will coordinate the development of clinical care programs, research, and medical education curriculum centered on lifestyle change.

As director of the Center for Integrative Health, Elliott provided chronic disease prevention and management programs from pediatrics through adulthood while training students. Her team has developed a community-based screening model to identify children with undiagnosed and uncontrolled asthma and connect them with treatment options. The service is free and is offered in underserved schools and communities throughout Allegheny County.

The school based, interdisciplinary model has resulted in improvements in asthma control as well as reductions in asthma-related emergency department visits.

“Jennifer Elliott’s work addressing wellness from a comprehensive and multi-faceted perspective reflects Duquesne’s heritage and our future,” said Duquesne Provost David Dausey. “She and her students are in communities, committed to equitable access to healthcare and to better outcomes, living our mission of helping others.”

Elliott, who last month was featured in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal “Preventing Chronic Disease,” developed a Community-Based Pharmacist Navigation Program designed to address barriers to accessing health care and high rates of chronic disease in Black communities.

“Throughout the pandemic some of our elderly residents have not had access to health care so we packed up and did health screenings on site in the senior housing communities and provided flu vaccines, sometimes going door to door, apartment to apartment,” said Elliott.

She is currently partnering with multiple federally qualified health centers such as North Side Christian Health Center to host regular covid vaccination clinics at their sites. Elliott is also working with independent pharmacies such as Livingston Pharmacy in Clairton to help expand its covid vaccine reach.

“I’m really honored and humbled to be named the Ed and Karen Fritzky Family Chair in Integrative Medicine and Wellbeing,” said Elliott. “This endowed chair was created to further this legacy of addressing unmet needs in our community, providing holistic health care that treats the whole person in the context of their community.”

Elliott is the first holder of the new Fritzky Chair. Future appointments will be made on a rotating, potentially renewable, three-year term, according to a statement from the University.

In a statement, Ed and Karen Fritzky said they “applaud Duquesne’s ambitious efforts to improve human health through research and community involvement. Innovating approaches to health and wellness is a subject that deeply resonates with out family, as does the emphasis on disease prevention and access.”