Congratulations to Elaine Chow for promotion to Education Programs Specialist

Elaine Chow earned her BA from UCLA and joined our Division in 2009.  Before coming to UCSF, Elaine worked at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics providing executive level support to Dr. David Reuben (Division Chief).  With her excellent customer service and superb organizational skills, Elaine came highly-recommended by Dr. Reuben and was quickly hired by our Division, under then Division Chief, Dr. Seth Landefeld.  As a part of the core admin team, Elaine played a vital role in the day-to-day operations of the Division.  She arranged and coordinated many successful Division events, was the Division Buyer & PCard holder (still is!) and managed our Division’s office supplies inventory.  In addition, Elaine has been our Division’s Education Coordinator since 2010.  She single-handedly managed the day-to-day aspects of the fellowship, from beginning to end, troubleshooting a myriad of issues independently.  Our fellowship has grown over the years.  With growth comes unique and unprecedented challenges.  Elaine has always been there to overcome these challenges and make the fellowship a great success!  At our Fellowship Graduation Dinner, Dr. Eric Widera (Geriatrics Fellowship Program Director) introduced Elaine as “the Unofficial Geriatrics Fellowship Program Director”.  This introduction particularly stood out to me because it was true!  Although Elaine is primarily known for her fellowship coordination role, she’s actually involved in many other education-related functions such as organizing the MSTAR program, as well as coordinating other visiting interns, residents and students.  She also manages Grand Rounds and Visiting Professors, both of which furthers UCSF’s teaching mission.  Finally, since 2013, Elaine has assumed a partial Research Finance Analyst (RFA) role and oversees the post award functions for the T32, HRSA Fellowship, and other grant funding furthering Geriatrics education.  Since 2017, Elaine also became the RFA for the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program.  Over the years, Elaine’s portfolio has grown from $1 million in direct costs per year to over $1.5 million.  I am thrilled to announce her well-deserved promotion to Education Programs Specialist!  Congratulations Elaine!!