The Professionals - Northland Women Doing Extraordinary Things

Barbara Elliott’s academic achievements both as a scholar and as a female have broken ground for others at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is also well known in social services, faith, business, medical, leadership and prominent social circles.

Her soft-spoken, gracious personal style belies the image of the professor

she is. It seems more typical of a clubwoman, which she also is.

However, the club she heads is not a women’s organization or a bridge club. She is president of the venerable Kitchi Gammi Club in Duluth, a private – some say exclusive – club where important business decisions are

made, deals are sealed and social celebrations are held. In its 126-year history, the Kitch had never elected a female president until last fall.

While it might seem an extraordinary break from tradition, Elliott and others say it’s simply part of the club’s evolution. But even in 2010 the organization prides itself on its landmark building at 831 E. Superior St., its food – and its traditions.

Elliott says she had to be convinced to allow her name on the ballot because she wasn’t sure it was the right time in her life to take on the responsibility. However, it did seem the right time for the club, so she

consented and was elected by the 500 members. She took office in October 2009.

No big deal

“It really wasn’t a big deal that it was a woman versus a man,” says Jon Welles, a Kitchi Gammi Club board member. “She just clearly was the best

person.”

Women were first admitted to the club in 1985. Married to Dr. Thomas Elliott, a long-time Duluth Clinic physician, Barbara Elliott could have joined as a spouse. But Elliott chose to become female member No. 3, with her husband as the spousal member. She says she joined because her

employer at the time needed a place to hold meetings and her membership would allow those gatherings to take place at the club.

Change comes slowly at the Kitch. Today only 10 percent to 15 percent of members are female, Elliott says. Just four years ago the club rules were loosened to allow women to wear pants instead of skirts anywhere in the building, says Joshua Stotts, general manager. (Men no longer are required

to wear coats and ties, either.)

Still, when change comes, it seems to be embraced. As the first woman on the board of directors about seven years ago, and now as president, “I have never encountered a pushback because of my gender,” Elliott says.

“I know what it is to be token,” she says, citing some academic and other experiences. “I know what it is to carve a leadership path and be blamed because of my gender.” Elliott was noticed at the club because of her organizational skills, attention to detail and follow-through as membership chair, Welles says.

‘A slice’

But the club and her role in it don’t define who she is. A native of Grand Rapids, she and her husband moved to Iowa while he finished his training and then came to Duluth in 1977. She earned a Ph.D. in medical and family sociology in 1983 while working and caring for the couple’s two young

children. She now is a professor of family medicine and behavioral sciences at the University of Minnesota’s Duluth medical school.

Her teaching specialty is medical ethics. Her research, focusing mainly

on ethics and social justice in health care settings, has been published in

prestigious academic journals.

She is now studying for a master’s of divinity at The Episcopal Divinity

School seminary in Cambridge, Mass. She doesn’t plan to be ordained, but will use the knowledge in her role as an on-call chaplain at St. Mary’s Medical Center.

She chairs the ethics committee of SMDC Medical Center (formerly Miller-Dwan Medical Center) and sits on the ethics committees at Duluth’s two other hospitals. She also has been active in local and national Episcopal Church efforts and has received the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Research at UMD and the Outstanding Community Service

Award for the University system.

Elliott calls the presidency of the Kitchi Gammi Club “a slice” of her life. “It’s part of the richness,” she says. Her role at the club really is helping run a business with 50 employees, she explains. It takes up three to four hours of her week.

During her one-year term, Elliot’s agenda is to stick to the basics. The departure of two long-time key staff members – the general manager, whose job Stott has assumed, and the head chef – have created new challenges. “My first goal, “ Elliott says, “is for the Kitch to get its bearings as it moves into the future.”

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