A legacy for compassionate care

Award recognizes student commitment to leadership and service in memory of Dr. Susan Hou   

While it’s been little more than a year since the passing of beloved Stritch Professor Dr. Susan Hou, her dedication to patient care lives on in the work of students and faculty. In her honor, the inaugural Susan Hou Humanitarian Scholarship was awarded to Eda Akyar, an M4 who has shown immense leadership during her time at Stritch. “Eda has demonstrated the compassion and altruism that Dr. Hou exemplified,” says Ginny McCarthy, Director, HSC Ministry. “She has shown commitment to advocacy for marginalized populations across many stages of her path.” 

While Akyar did not know Dr. Hou, she’s come to learn about the free clinic Dr. Hou founded in the Bolivian rainforests and how she donated her kidney to one of her patients. “I am deeply inspired by her commitment to serve others,” says Akyar. “Her work has improved the lives of  thousands of families.”  

Akyar demonstrates a similar dedication in her work with underserved communities. A founding board member of the Chicago Refugee Coalition, she recently completed an internship with Heartland Alliance’s Refugee and Immigrant Community Services. She has  mentored and taught refugee children as part of the International Rescue Committee’s Summer Readiness Program. As the daughter of immigrants, Akyar feels a special connection to refugees and the challenges they face. “It has been a driving force in my motivation to serve others, especially people who are underserved,” she says.  

In addition to her work with refugees and immigrants, Akyar holds a Master of Public Health from Yale University and has conducted research around the globe. With funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, she spent a summer researching Hepatitis C transmission risk factors in Ghana at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.  And she helped research chronic disease research in Turkey during her undergraduate studies. 

At Stritch, Akyar shines as a natural leader among her peers. In March 2020, when clerkships were cancelled, she was the first student to show up in Infection Control at Loyola Medicine asking how she could help. In response, Akyar helped create the COVID-19 Student Response team and lead the creation of the COVID-19 hotline, which fielded more than 4,000 calls during the first three weeks of the pandemic.  

After medical school, Akyar plans to go into family medicine, with a focus on community health. “I want to use my background in public health to conduct community-based research that drives policy change to improve the health of underserved communities."