Olga Jonasson

Olga Jonasson was born in Peoria, Illinois on August 12, 1934.^[1] During her childhood she moved with her family to Chicago, where her mother worked as a nurse and her father served as a Lutheran minister at Ebenezer Lutheran Church. Jonasson's family moved to Connecticut briefly when she was 16, but Jonasson remained in Chicago and began her studies at Northwestern University.

In 1956, Jonasson started medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. While in medical school, Jonasson was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, a national medical honor society. Jonasson completed her residency at the University of Illinois. After her residency, Jonasson spent a year at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington D.C. where she had a postdoctoral Fellowship under Dr. Elmer Becker^[1] in which she studied immunohistochemistry.^[2] She then had another year long research and clinical fellowship under at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where she studied transplantation immunobiology^[2] under Dr. Henry J. Winn and Dr. Paul S. Russell.^[1]

In 1963, Jonasson was named an instructor in surgery at the University of Illinois.^[3] In 1965, she was certified by the American Board of Surgery. She was the 37th women to be certified.^[1] In 1968, she developed the department of transplantation at the University of Illinois.^[4] In 1969, she performed the first kidney transplant in the state of Illinois. In 1974, she became a founding member of the National Tissue Typing and Histocompatibility Organization.^[1] In 1977, Jonasson was named chief of surgery of Cook County Hospital. This appointment made her the first woman appointed chief of surgery of a major hospital. In 1987, she left Cook County Hospital when she was named Robert M. Zollinger Professor of Surgery at the Ohio State University.^[2] This appointment conferred her as the first woman to head an academic department of surgery at a coeducational medical college.