UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #755
KRUSE-ELLIOTT, KRIS

KRUSE-ELLIOTT, Kris (1958- )
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology 
At UW: 1993- 

Interviewed: 2006	 
Interviewer: Sandy Pfahler
Length: 1 hour

Early life and interest in veterinary medicine. Educational background. Degree programs. How she came to Wisconsin. UW School of Veterinary Medicine and its national reputation. Research with cranberries. Professional organizations for veterinarians. Women on campus. Application process for School of Veterinary Medicine.

Interview Session (March 31, 2006): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:45	Kris was born and raised in Oregon. Did her undergrad and grad school work in Oregon. Went to public school. 

00:01:22	Description of father and mother, careers. KKE worked in the local vet clinic from early junior high until she graduated from medical school.

00:02:14	Fourth grade teacher gave KKE her first exposure to veterinary medicine. 

00:02:46	Grew up in a farming community, fairly small. Knew when she was in grade school that she wanted to be a vet. 

00:03:29	Undergraduate work at Oregon State University. Agriculture school in the state. Best place to go for pre-vet. Veterinary work at Oregon State, description of the program. Partnership with Washington State and University of Idaho. 

00:06:27	Favorite professors in undergraduate, one a history professor and the other was organic chemistry. Honors research program.

00:07:54	KKE received her Ph.D. at North Carolina State.

00:07:58	Graduated from vet school, moved to Seattle, and worked in private practice.

00:09:24	Four years for vet medical school. Residency is optional.

00:10:17	Mentors in vet school, large animal surgery and anesthesiologist. How turned on to anesthesiology. Moved to east coast after a year working in private practice. Residency at NC State. 
	
00:10:54	Combined residency-Master’s degree program. Ph.D. mentor encouraged her to work towards Ph.D. after Master's instead of taking a job. 

00:12:35	Came to Wisconsin after Ph.D. Position opened here and knew Wisconsin's reputation for clinical anesthesiology and develop a research program.  Applied and interviewed a year early. 

00:13:32	Research in North Carolina. Mentor had developed a model to look at acute lung injury using animals to study human health. 

00:14:54	Interview process at Wisconsin. Quirk in the system, school does not pay for the tab. North Carolina offered her a job a year after being at Wisconsin. 

00:16:31	Hardest decision KKE has ever made to stay here. KKE describes the decision making process. 

00:18:19	KKE describes what she had heard about the program at Wisconsin. Hard to get tenure but supportive research community. National reputation of the vet school. Speculates that the school is best known for oncology program and individuals in the clinical programs. 

00:22:39	Facilities of the program. Out grown the facilities, new technology. Small lecture halls. Mineral Point Road facility, large animal surgery, dairy management, housing for some animals. 

00:25:47	Collaborative work encouraged. Clinical trials. KKE has collaborated with the animal science department and medical school. 

00:28:58	KKE describes her schedule and what she is currently working on. Description of being on clinic. 
	
00:31:28	End of side. 

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:48	KKE describes the course work of an anesthesiology student. Weekly surgery labs. 

00:33:08	Tracy Gaulkman, persistent student that stands out in KKE’s mind, wanted to do her master’s in KKE’s lab. KKE gives more details about Gaulkman. 

00:35:30	Research with pigs, work with cranberry juice powder extract and high cholesterol. Also supplemental products from companies to see the effects of those. 

00:37:41	Relationship to companies, funding, technology transfer to that company. Ocean Spray, Pom Wonderful, Standard Process. 

00:39:02	Grant writing aspect of KKE’s job. No in house funding for running her lab/research, outside funding is crucial.  A lot of writing: for the grants, papers about the research. 

00:40:18	Discussion of Ocean Spray and why they want to be involved in the project. 

00:42:04	Most significant advances in field of study. Micro nutrients and benefits of them. Popularity of molecular biology. 

00:44:30	KKE was on admissions, had too much work so decided to drop it. Enjoyed choosing the incoming class but a big time commitment. Biological Sciences Divisional Strategic Planning committee will be chair next year. Enjoys seeing what is going on around campus and with the undergraduates. Dean’s review committee member. Some rewarding others painful.

00:46:41	Chairman for an FDA committee. Panel decides who is funded and who is not. 

00:49:29	Climate for women on campus. KKE has not personally experienced any type of discrimination but feels somewhat sheltered in vet school. Heard from peers about some discrimination. The majority of students in the vet school are women, need more male admissions. Problems attracting students into academic veterinary medicine. 

00:52:37	Admissions into vet school, a few individuals who had a career and now are choosing another. Would advise undergraduates to get more liberal arts education than she had. 

00:53:53	Professional organizations KKE is involved in: board certified anesthesiology, on the credentials committee. Does not really have the time to be very active in any organizations.

00:55:23	KKE explains how writing fits into her schedule, has many papers in the works, but it takes her a long time to actual get to the writing. 

00:56:44	Awards and honors of her profession. Does not feel she will win awards for teaching or research. 

00:58:16	How KKE balances work and family. She has no children and her husband travels a lot for his career of roller coaster engineering. Pets: 3 cats and 2 birds. Not much life after work. Trains for iron man triathalon, and in the winter teaches downhill skiing. Relaxing and stress relieving.

01:00:41	Describes some of the interesting cases she has had, cataracts surgery on an ostrich. Usually involve her almost being killed. Baby giraffe. 

01:02:58	End of tape. 

Tape 2/Side 1

01:03:08	Vet school gets patients from all over. A cat from Singapore. Partly because the vet school offers some unique procedures. 

01:04:11	UW vet school take about 80 students in a year. Receive about 1500 to 2000 applicants, mostly out of state. 

01:05:30	End of interview. 

END