On February 27, 2025, Phil Pizzo, David and Susan Heckerman Professor and former Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, treated an audience of emeriti/ae community members to an absorbing lecture entitled “The Threads That Connect a Life.” Pizzo narrates his story along two dominant themes – discovery and social justice – that have animated his life and career choices. Deciding to commit to education as the only way to escape a difficult early life in the Bronx, he is fascinated by experiments, studies philosophy and marine biology at a Jesuit college, makes his way through medical school, and pursues a passion for microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Marrying very young and coming of age in the tumultuous 1960s, he joins peace marches and becomes involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy and treatment especially for children. Never having been interested in academic administration, he is nonetheless enticed to become Stanford Medical School dean in 1995 and embarks on strategic planning and new thinking about education, research, clinical care, and physician-scientist training. Partial to entirely new beginnings, Pizzo next creates Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, a new model for higher education focused on intergenerational learning, community, and opportunities for impact throughout the lifespan. And in his most recent life transition, he and his wife convert to Judaism, and he begins rabbinical school, later adding a program of spiritual care and counseling. Following the path of tikkun olam, “repairing the world,” Pizzo continues to seek social justice.
On February 27, 2025, Phil Pizzo, David and Susan Heckerman Professor and former Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, treated an audience of emeriti/ae community members to an absorbing lecture entitled “The Threads That Connect a Life.” Pizzo narrates his story along two dominant themes – discovery and social justice – that have animated his life and career choices. Deciding to commit to education as the only way to escape a difficult early life in the Bronx, he is fascinated by experiments, studies philosophy and marine biology at a Jesuit college, makes his way through medical school, and pursues a passion for microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Marrying very young and coming of age in the tumultuous 1960s, he joins peace marches and becomes involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy and treatment especially for children. Never having been interested in academic administration, he is nonetheless enticed to become Stanford Medical School dean in 1995 and embarks on strategic planning and new thinking about education, research, clinical care, and physician-scientist training. Partial to entirely new beginnings, Pizzo next creates Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, a new model for higher education focused on intergenerational learning, community, and opportunities for impact throughout the lifespan. And in his most recent life transition, he and his wife convert to Judaism, and he begins rabbinical school, later adding a program of spiritual care and counseling. Following the path of tikkun olam, “repairing the world,” Pizzo continues to seek social justice.