Dana Connolly:
CLASS OF 1986
Wayne Valley H SClass of 1986
Wayne, NJ
Dana's Story
I graduated from Wayne Valley HS in 1986. I was supposed to go to Boston College, but my dad was afraid it was too expensive, even with help from my family, so I went to Rutgers instead. Rutgers made a big deal out of their General Chemistry course and called it a "weeder". They gave me a run for my money on that one. I did minor in Italian studies and did a summer abroad at the University of Urbino. So I finished Rutgers in 1990 and on the advice of my teachers, I went to work at NYU Medical Center. It was between NYU, New York Hospital/Cornell, and Columbia. I chose NYU because I could live close to my Aunt Margie, who lived in Tudor City. NYU also offered tuition reimbursement as a benefit, so I went to Columbia University for my Master's Degree in Family Practice under Elizabeth Hall, FNP, an awesome person. At that time, AIDS was in full swing and protease inhibitors had not yet been discovered. Dr. Anastasi at Columbia was into alternative therapies for HIV patients. I had seen AIDS while working as a nursing assistant at Wayne General Hospital, and I wanted to help those people. I tried to study Chinese medicine in China, but it was more of a factory tour than anything else. I did get to see the inside of some alternative hospitals, pharmacies, and ICU's in Bejing. As I graduated from that, I wanted to do Peace Corps work, but my parents were against it because my cousin died in the Peace Corps when his Jeep overturned. I considered Save the Children, but I was recruited to work as a nurse practitioner for pediatric cardiology at NYU/Bellvue. My boss and mentor there was Dr. Michael Artman. He guided me in finding answers to my questions because he listened to me. I soon became a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner as well as a Family Nurse Practition...Expand for more
er. I ended up with a PhD from NYU in Research Design and Analysis in Nursing under Dr. Sandee McClowry, another awesome person. Then I got married to Dr. James Chao and moved to Dallas. I tried to do my work but couldn't because my mother-in-law was very controlling. Dr. Lynn Mahoney, a super-awesome person, tried to help, but my husband & I were soon on our way to San Diego because he changed jobs. I worked in San Diego at Rady Children's Hospital first with Dr. Dave Bischell, then he left and I worked with Dr. Frank Ing. Then he left and Dr. Paul Grossfeld and I had similar research interests, so he helped me get a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology through the University of California San Diego. It was great! I learned all about what others were doing in studying inherited forms of heart disease, how to make a construct, murine models, drosophilia models, electrophysiology on a cellular level, PCR, DNA, RNA, transgenic mice, candidate genes, how to make gels, how to cut tissue samples and make slides, staining techniques, awesome stuff. Then I had twin boys, Spencer & Connor. I was afraid they might have too many heads because of all the teratogens I worked with in the lab, but they turned out okay. I tried to continue my professional work whenever I could while raising them singlehandedly (because my husband was busy operating by day and sleeping by night) and dealing with my overbearing mother-in-law. Ugh. Anyway, we all survived. Now I am hoping to be a volunteer at their school as they start Kindergarten so I can keep an eye on them and help out the teachers. They are only 4 years old. Once they get settled, I hope to return to my work. I still owe Drs. Artman, Auslender & Rutkowski and Dr. Mohan & the Cleveland Clinic, manuscripts.
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