UI at 150 & Beyond: ‘The Quad was the best no matter what the weather’ – Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

Among the 2,002 former students and faculty members featured on our Gies College of Business-powered UI at 150 & Beyond website: 1976 biology grad Julie Freischlag, CEO of North Carolinas Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Long before she was Dr. Freischlag world-renowned chief of surgery at top-ranked hospitals, glass ceiling-shattering dean of two medical schools and CEO of a health system with an operating budget of $3 billion she was Julie from Second Chance on South Sixth Street.

I was a member of Pi Beta Phi and lived right there on Wright Street looking at Lincoln Hall. I worked at Second Chance as a waitress for a couple of years my shift was 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., and I remember listening to great music, especially the song Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles, as I worked, says the CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and dean of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

I also remember writing a check for $5 to cover expenses for the week at the Illini Union. The Quad was the best no matter what the weather, says Freischlag, who spent fourth through ninth grade here while her dad was circulation manager for The Courier.

A biology major at Illinois, Freischlag went on to earn her medical degree from Rush University in Chicago and embark on a career filled with first female surgeon to ... milestones.

Among them: first chief of vascular surgery at UCLA, first chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins, first president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and first CEO appointee of a medical institution.

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UI at 150 & Beyond: 'The Quad was the best no matter what the weather' - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette