Mary Beth Fontana received her BA in 1963 and MD in 1966 from Ohio State. She spent a year at the University of North Carolina Hospital for an internship before returning to OSU to complete her internal medicine residency and a post doctoral fellowship in cardiology.
Fontana’s father was a professor and chairman in the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Ohio State and she has been involved with the university her entire life. In 1971, Fontana became a member of Ohio State’s faculty and since then has been honored repeatedly for excellence in teaching and patient care. She feels that without a doubt, teaching has been the most rewarding part of her career.
Fontana has received the “Outstanding Teaching Award” from Ohio State’s College of Medicine more than 20 times. In addition, she has been awarded the Charles F. Wooley, MD, Transmission of Excellence Teaching Award; the Distinguished Educator Award, and the Alumni Achievement Award. And in 2005 she was named Professor of the Year by the senior class of the College of Medicine.
These honors are the result of Fontana’s enthusiasm and commitment to improving the College of Medicine and helping students. She was an integral part of the creation of the Independent Study Program, which allows students to progress at their own pace during their first two years of medical school. She also served as director of the program for more than ten years and continued to implement creative resources.
Fontana is currently a retired faculty emeritus of cardiovascular medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and serves as the Harry C. and Mary Elizabeth Powelson Professor of Medicine for medical student tutoring and mentoring.
Fontana has supported medical education through her longtime involvement and continuing generosity. The endowment that she established in 2012 will be used to honor faculty through the Courage to Teach program. Fontana is passionate about teaching and established the endowment in order to reward teachers who are dedicated to education.
On October 10, 2012, Mary A. McIlroy, MD ’75, and Paul A. Weber, MD were honored as the first recipients of the Mary Beth Fontana Wise M.D. Master Teacher Award and received accompanying $2,500 grants.
The Mary Beth Fontana, MD Oral History (0.25 linear feet) contains the video of the oral history conducted November 9, 2016 by Linda Stone.
The Ohio State University Archives has placed the audio and transcript of this oral history into the Knowledge Bank.
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[Identification of item], Mary Beth Fontana, MD Oral History, SPEC.201716.FONTANAORALHISTORY, Medical Heritage Center, Health Sciences Library, The Ohio State University.