Rickey R. Dellit Endowed Scholarship
EST. 2024
Please address your letter to:
Dr. Dellit and Ms. McNamara
This endowment was established by Timothy H. Dellit, MD and Elizabeth McNamara in memory of Rickey R. Dellit (1946-1992) to support medical students at the UW School of Medicine. Rick grew up as the son of a Methodist minister in rural Iowa. He knew at an early age that he was gay at a time when expression of his self-identity was not accepted. After graduating from Westmar College in Le Mars, IA, with a degree in mathematics, he spent most of his years in Philadelphia, PA before moving to Wilton Manors, FL in 1987. Dr. Dellit also grew up in rural Iowa spending time visiting his father in Philadelphia with a strong appreciation for his father as a proud gay man and the closeness of the gay community that embraced his father, while also witnessing the discrimination and harm his father and others experienced.
During the 1980s, Dr. Dellit experienced first-hand the devastating effect of HIV with the death of his father and most of his father’s friends while those communities most impacted by HIV were marginalized. Rick Dellit died in 1992 prior to the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy that potentially could have led to a different outcome. This experience had a profound impact on Tim, shaping his interest in infectious diseases and the intersection between medicine and communities we serve. After graduating from Northwestern University, he went to New York where he learned how one could combine activism with system transformation to address a public health crisis and give voice to those marginalized members of our community. He graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1997 followed by residency training in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Cornell Medical Center.
Dr. Dellit came to the University of Washington in 2001 for his fellowship in Infectious Diseases and rose through the ranks of faculty to become a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases. He has had the privilege of serving in a variety of different leadership roles including Associate Medical Director for Harborview Medical Center, President of UW Physicians, Chief Medical Officer for UW Medicine, and Executive Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs for the School of Medicine. He currently serves as CEO, UW Medicine, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, and the Paul G. Ramsey Endowed Dean for the School of Medicine, University of Washington. He is committed to transforming health and healthcare through collaborative discovery and education, creating just, equitable, and healthy communities in the WWAMI region and beyond.
Liz received her master’s in nursing at the University of Washington. She spent many years caring for patients initially at University Hospital in medical oncology and then Harborview Medical Center in the medical ICU before moving into leadership. “Being able to care for the most vulnerable in our society was an absolute privilege,” Liz shared.
Tim and Liz share a passion to support future physicians and healthcare professionals that reflect the communities we serve and to address healthcare inequities. They recognize the impact of the increasing cost of medical education and the importance of supporting our students so that they can pursue their interests in medicine and serve all members of our communities, especially the most vulnerable.