With sadness, the Department of Medicine notes the passing of two former staff members. Lora Bram, MBA, who held a variety of senior administrative roles in the department over a 25-year span, died on December 1, 2017. Patrick Heinritz, former administrative director of the Inner City Asthma Consortium, died on November 10, 2017.

Bram was a graduate of Madison Business College, UW-Madison, and the University of Phoenix. She worked in specialized administrative roles within the Department of Medicine, as well as the Department of Surgery and Department of Human Oncology. One of her responsibilities was to oversee the relocation of nearly all Department of Medicine offices for more than 400 members from the Clinical Sciences Center to the Medical Foundation Centennial Building when the latter structure was completed.

“She worked very closely with architects and contractors, ensuring every detail of every office or lab was built out to specification, including where each outlet should be and which gas lines needed to be piped where,” said Sheri Lawrence, MBA, department administrator. Bram also provided pre-award and post-award support to research investigators, assisted with faculty development, served as spokesperson for several division chiefs and department chairs, and held a Quality Improvement and Project Manager role at a critical time when the department faced staffing shortages due to six senior administrative positions being unfilled. “Lora had a smile and approach that gave everyone the personal attention they deserved.  She had an unbelievable skill of managing tiny details, making sure everyone had their needs met, whatever they were,” said Lawrence. In her free time, Bram applied her expertise as an interior designer to restore her historic home. Read more: obituary for Lora Bram

As administrative director of the Inner City Asthma Consortium, Patrick Heinritz was responsible for operational logistics of a nationwide, multi-center research team led by William Busse, MD, professor, Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. When the center received renewed funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2014 to continue its work on identifying environmental factors leading to increased risk of asthma among children residing in inner cities, the $70M award was the largest ever received by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Heinritz was responsible for managing finances, resources, materials, and communications shared between the nine clinical sites, three basic science laboratories, and the Statistical and Clinical Coordinating Center in the consortium.

"Pat Heinritz was a valuable member of our Inner City Asthma Consortium team. Not only did he carefully manage our finances, but he was always helpful in meeting our research objectives and finding ways for us to add key mechanistic studies to take our findings to the next level. Pat understood and helped make team research happen and succeed," said Dr. Busse. In 2016, Heinritz was awarded the “distinguished” prefix, an honorary designation bestowed by the university on academic staff members for exceptional experience, knowledge, and skills. This prefix is held by fewer than 100 individuals on campus. Read more: obituary for Patrick Heinritz