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The Elam Scholarship: Making Life Better for Doctors
At an age when Sesame Street was must-see T.V. for her playmates, Karen Cross was watching shows about science and technology. When she was 6, Cross told her mother that she wanted to be a doctor.
 Karen Cross, a UW School of Medicine student and Elam Scholarship recipient, is one of many people who have benefited from the generosity of distinguished alumnus Dr. Lloyd C. Elam and his wife, Clara.
Cross has traveled a long way to fulfill her dream. Raised in Trinidad, she moved to Idaho to attend Boise State University. Now she lives in Seattle with her mother and her two daughters.
As a single mother, Cross has to watch her budget. Medical school, which now costs more than $150,000 at UW Medicine, is expensive. Cross feels fortunate that the Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd C. Elam Endowed Scholarship is alleviating some of her financial burdens.
Lloyd C. Elam, M.D. ’57, and his wife, Clara, a graduate of UW’s School of Nursing, established their scholarship in 2001. “Going to the University of Washington was a tremendous opportunity, and we wanted to give back,” says Elam.
Elam has had a remarkable career. He founded the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Tennessee. While maintaining his psychiatry practice, Elam became interested in expanding opportunities in medicine, an ambition he was able to realize when he assumed the position of dean of the medical school, and then president of the college. Under Elam’s leadership, Meharry established a graduate school in biomedical sciences and developed new affiliations with other universities and hospitals.
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