UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #758
DAHL, JUNE

DAHL, June (1930-)
Professor of Pharmacology, School of Medicine and Public Health
At UW: 1973-

Interviewed: 	2006	
Interviewer: 	Sandy Pfahler
Length: 	1 hour, 34 minutes

Early years and education; Macalester College; Sexism in the science field; Graduate study at Iowa State; UW department of pharmacology; Teaching; Tenure; Controlled Substances Board; Wisconsin Cancer Pain Initiative.

First Interview Session (April 12, 2006): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	[Begin Tape 1/Side 1] Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:23	June Dahl was born in 1930 and grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin.

00:01:33	Early education in a three-room schoolhouse.

00:04:27	Family life.  Her father would take her to the public library in Hudson.  Although her family was poor, she enjoyed her childhood.

00:07:34	JD describes her high school education and extracurricular activities.

00:09:35	Her Presbyterian pastor helped her choose Macalester College.  There she joined the college choir and choral readers.

00:12:23	She worked in a canning factory during the summer.  She also worked for a lawyer and for a company in St. Paul.  

00:14:33	Undergraduate career at Macalester.

00:19:33	She majored in chemistry and a professor encouraged her to pursue graduate study at Iowa State.  

00:22:21	She was the only woman in her undergraduate and graduate chemistry programs; she recalls experiences of sexism. JD felt insensitive to sexism because the women’s movement had yet to emerge.  She does not feel discriminated against but thinks that nobody expected much of her. Assistance to her husband’s career.

00:26:17	She felt her academic training was inadequate.

00:27:24	Teaching experience in graduate school.  She also taught basic chemistry to nurses at Macalester.

00:29:03	Life in Ames, Iowa, during graduate school.

00:31:15	Clearance to do research with her major professor in a classified lab.

00:34:28	Context of political protest on campus.

00:36:39	Her husband got a job at the University of Wisconsin and she came to Madison with him after completing her PhD in physical chemistry.  JD had difficulty finding a job and ultimately was hired as a post-doc in pharmacology.

00:39:20	She taught a course on diuretics and a pharmacology course for first-year students.  She was a part-time instructor teaching introductory chemistry for the chemistry department.

00:42:08	JD was never formally hired.  In 1970 she went with her husband to Munich when he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.  At this time she realized she didn’t want to be a housewife.

00:43:34	Upon returning to UW she was appointed as a half-time assistant professor.

00:45:11	She received a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and received two graduate students with whom to work.  Molly Carnes worked in her lab.

00:47:17	[End side 1; begin side 2] June Dahl describes her appeal to get a part-time appointment and her achieving tenure.

00:50:18	The governor appointed JD to the state’s Controlled Substances Board in 1977.

00:54:02	Wisconsin Cancer Pain Initiative.	She describes her efforts to write standards for treating pain.  The standards for all facilities were approved in 1997 but not implemented until 2001.

01:04:23	The next phase of her work is writing a manual to guide nurses in the treatment of specific pain problems.

01:05:11	JD achieved tenure in 1979.

01:05:39	She describes the culture of the department.

01:06:43	Course on “People, Chemicals and the Environment.”  She talks about changes in teaching and the curriculum. Mentoring activities.

01:09:19	JD describes her sources of funding for pain initiatives.

01:11:51	Status of the Wisconsin pain initiative.

01:17:25	JD considers her most important contribution to this field to be her work as a catalyst in bringing people together to act.

01:18:59	She began to work full-time in the early 1980s.

01:19:37	Service on search committees and the medical student promotions committee.

01:22:17	Campus climate for women in science.

01:28:24	Professional organizations.

01:29:29	Leisure activities.

01:30:30	JD reflects on her career.

01:34:12	End of First Interview Session	

End of Interview #758