N. Lynn Eckhert, director of Academic Programs at Partners Healthcare International, was awarded an alumni citation from her alma mater, Denison University in Granville, Ohio. In a ceremony that took place in June, Denison President Adam Weinberg presented Eckhert with the highest honor conferred on a graduate or friend of the college.
Eckhert, a member of the Denison class of 1964, has been fascinated by global health issues since her first trip as a medical student to a hospital in Liberia. Eckhert has earned a master of nursing in New York, a doctorate from SUNY at Buffalo and a master and a doctorate of Public Health from Johns Hopkins. Attracted to start-ups in medical education, she and her husband, Louis Fazen III, joined the then-new medical school at the University of Massachusetts. During her 27 years at UMass, Eckhert served as a pediatrician, as associate dean of admissions, as a professor of Family and Community Medicine and as dean and vice chancellor for International and Public Health Programs. Working within the academia, Eckhert is past chairman of the Association of American Medical Colleges and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Eckhert and her husband have brought their talents to bear on global health initiatives, working with their children in the Indian Health Service in Arizona; in the Bon Samaritan Hospital in Haiti; and for a sabbatical year in Zimbabwe. Named the first William Walsh Fellow, Eckhert worked with Project Hope on numerous primary care programs in Central America and Europe.
Her global health work led her to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates and as its chairman. In 2012 Eckhert was appointed to the National Committee for Foreign Medical Education Accreditation.
Eckhert’s work in developing a new medical school with the Lebanese American University included a two-year role as the interim dean from 2010-2012. In February-April of this year, she was a Fulbright Specialist advising on the development of a Master of Public Health Program at a new medical school in Saudi Arabia.
“One of my most enriching endeavors,” says Eckhert. “Has been a one woman play I wrote, “A Lady Alone” about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman physician.” The play was performed throughout the United States, and received a Sloan grant.