Julie Ann Frieschlag, MD 1980
2007 Distinguished Alumna

Julie Ann Freischlag, MD, is The William Stewart Halsted Professor, chair of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. She came to Johns Hopkins in 2003 from the University of California in Los Angeles, where she was chief of the Vascular Surgery Division and director of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Vascular Center. Freischlag is recognized internationally as an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic outlet syndrome. She is the national principal investigator of the VA OVER (Open Versus Endovascular Repair) trial of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

She is editor of the Archives of Surgery and has published over 135 manuscripts, numerous articles and book chapters. Dr. Freischlag completed her surgical residency and post residency vascular fellowship at UCLA.

Stephen L. Ondra, MD 1984
2009 Distinguished Alumnus

Stephen L. Ondra is an internationally known spinal surgeon and health care advisor. In his new role as senior policy advisor for health affairs in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Ondra advises Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki on health care policies and initiatives for veterans. Ondra is a United States Army veteran and served in Saudi Arabia as a military doctor during the first Gulf War.

He went on to become director of spine and skull base surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then a member of the clinical faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before joining the faculty of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in 1996. There, Dr. Ondra was appointed to a number of leadership positions, including residency program director and director of spinal surgery. He was promoted to professor of neurological surgery in 2006.

Widely recognized as an international expert on spinal surgery, Dr. Ondra has been an innovator in the development of new surgical procedures and equipment and has received grant awards in excess of $1 million. In the late 1990s, he helped establish a new school for spinal surgeons in China.

Outside of clinical and academic medicine, Dr. Ondra has worked with the Department of Defense as the past chairman of the Defense Spinal Cord and Column Injury Project and with the Department of Defense Health Services Command as an independent consultant. He served two terms as a member of the Medical Coverage Advisory Committee with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the Department of Health and Human Services and has acted as a health care advisor to members of the United States Congress, cabinet members and foreign government leaders.

Dr. Ondra was awarded a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for his service during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In 2008, he was named distinguished alumnus of his undergraduate alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University.

All Rush Ones (represented by Thomas Glasscock, MD 1942)
2007 James A. Campbell, MD, Alumni Service Award

When forced to suspend educational programs with the onset of World War II, Rush’s early alumni not only kept the school’s charter alive, but solidified its name and reputation by spreading their medical knowledge and skills across the country. Rush Medical College is the medical school it is today because of the continued work and dedication of many our early graduates.

The James A. Campbell, MD, Alumni Service Award was presented to those esteemed alumni who graduated from Rush Medical College before it closed its doors in 1942. Rush alumnus Thomas Glasscock, MD 1942, accepted the award on behalf of Rush’s early graduates.