Employee Giving - Paying It Forward

When Lynda Bowman joined MetroHealth almost 53 years ago, there were no calculators, computers, CTs, MRIs or automated laboratory analyzers. Bowman is a Technologist/ Training Specialist in the Pathology Department.

One of Bowman’s early assignments focused on researching blood clotting disorders in burn patients. That work put her side-by-side with physicians who were seeking to improve the care they provided, including fellows pursuing advanced training.

Throughout her career, Bowman says she has worked with more than 200 Hematology/Oncology fellows. Many of them were inspired by what they learned from MetroHealth’s culture and sense of mission and instilled it into their own careers. She kept in touch with many of them, and over the years, they occasionally shared instances when something she taught them or a conversation they shared, provided the answer they needed during an exam or a patient consultation.

Realizing the value of sharing that kind of knowledge led Bowman to contribute to the John Harris, MD Visiting Professorship Endowment. Dr. Harris gained national acclaim when he cracked the code of sickle cell anemia, a catalyst to diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In 1952, Dr. Harris became the Director of the Division of Hematology at MetroHealth, advancing the hospital’s academic program and creating a landmark new approach for teaching hematology.

This endowment provides funds to support an annual lecture and dinner that brings experts in Hematology from across the country to MetroHealth. Over the years, the experts attending these dinners and lectures became colleagues, mentors and friends, including physicians like Neal S. Young, MD, who is the chief of the Hematology Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Director of the Center for Human Immunology at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and the late Evan Sadler, MD, PhD, a hematology expert and world-renowned expert in the study and treatment of blood clotting disorders.

“The luckiest day of my life was the day I was hired here. I’m lucky because not everyone gets the career meant for them, and I found it, which is a rare gift.”

– Lynda Bowman
Technologist/Training Specialist, Pathology Department

Bowman said these relationships enhance education and hands-on medical care that ultimately benefit MetroHealth patients. Bowman gives to the Harris Endowment, knowing that the funds are spent furthering education, research and patient care. More recently, she also started supporting the Pathology Residents and Fellows Fund.

“If we don’t keep hearing the latest information, attending lectures and traveling to conferences, we get stale and we don’t learn,” she said. “For me, this is personal. I was offered an opportunity to be part of something that is so special and unique, and giving my support might open the door for others to be a part of this.”