As told to Stephen Schenkenberg
Photograph by Mark Gilliland
It was 1953, and Patricia Monteleone was one of just five females in Saint Louis University’s 286-person pre-med program. The others dropped out. Monteleone, 41 years later, became dean of the whole medical school. (She was one of the country’s first women appointed to such a position.) How else has she spent the last half-century? As a pediatrician with an expertise in medical genetics; as a Cardinal Glennon VP; as a teacher and chairperson; as a wife (to another M.D.), a mother and a grandmother. Now 71, Monteleone talks about her work, her life and her imminent retirement.
It was not very common those days for women to go into medicine. So there were questions I got from various teachers: “Why don’t you become a nurse?” Or, “Why don’t you become a schoolteacher?” I said, “No, I want to become a physician.”
My parents strongly encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do. They were very education-oriented.
Once I got into college, I didn’t really experience any barriers at all. I felt I had the same opportunities as the men.
The approach now is to prepare medical students to be active lifelong learners, rather than just giving them information to cram in. In medicine you have to constantly read and keep learning, because things change by the day.
You must be able to ask for help with a patient when you don’t know all the answers. Nobody’s going to have all the answers, so you’ve got to be able to look at other disciplines or specialties to help with a patient’s care.
The malpractice crisis has caused changes in the way you practice, in that sometimes you will order tests just to be sure you’ve covered all bases, because of liability issues.
The electronic health record will change the way we practice.
The physician must respect the patient, and must try to understand, multiculturally, what their background is. Where are they coming from?
The reimbursement for medical care is a big issue. Medicare/Medicaid—these are major. We may even be challenged by the whole terrorist thing, in that we have to be ready for anything.
I never thought I’d be dean. I had not planned to be dean. This was not my goal.
I enjoyed the job [of vice president of medical affairs at Cardinal Glennon]. When I was in meetings with these people, I began to realize that there was a lot of information I didn’t have. So I went back to school and got my MBA and MHA—master’s of health administration—just so I could compete with these folks. I wasn’t even able to understand what they were saying, much less ask decent questions. So I learned a lot. Going back to school at SLU was one of the most fun times of my life.
I feel very strongly that the spouse plays an important role in being able to have a balanced career. And my husband was extremely supportive. He has pulled his share of the load from day one. He shared everything—the child-rearing things—so that I never missed anything. And we always had one of us with our child.
It’s the quality of the time you spend, when you are home with your children. Every minute that I was at home, my total attention was focused on my son. And my husband’s attention, too.
A mentor has to be a good listener. Not tell the individual what to do, but listen—give them guidelines to go about how they can make their decision of what they want to do next.
I love Saint Louis University, and I love the city of St. Louis. It’s a great place to raise a family. We have all the amenities of a very large city, and yet we can get from one end of the city to another in 30 minutes.
The St. Louis BioBelt will be great for jobs. It will be great for our reputation in scientific discovery. It will signify that we are looking toward excellence in science. And it will be good for students in all the colleges and universities in the region.
I’m excited about retirement. I’m going back to some of my hobbies I set aside 13 years ago when I became dean. I love antiques. I love art and piano. I’d like to travel—somewhere where I won’t have to deal with the phone ringing.
