She Knocked Down Roadblocks to Navigate Her Medical Physics Route
By Rodney Campbell, ABR Communications Manager
2024;18(2):10
As a youngster, Alisa Walz-Flannigan, PhD’s keen interest in math and science was strongly encouraged by her mother, who emphasized that studying those subjects was a path to intellectual and financial independence.
“It burned into me a passion and resilience to pursue my interests in science,” Dr. Walz-Flannigan said.
She said she and her mother found roadblocks in the field because they were women.
“Classes, labs or other opportunities to build skills valuable in science could be really unwelcoming,” said Dr. Walz-Flannigan, who has served as an ABR medical physics oral examiner. “I heard explicit messages as a teen about how my success in math was temporary, that my female brain wouldn’t be capable of advanced abstract thinking.”
She showed her commitment by participating in math and science programs offered by the University of Minnesota when she was a high-school junior. Dr. Walz-Flannigan went on to earn a bachelor’s in physics from Carleton College in Minnesota. According to the American Physical Society (APS), only 25% of physics graduates are women.
During her summers in college, she participated in research internships through the National Science Foundation and Bell Laboratories, where she found the experience, mentorship, and friendships that helped to build her confidence and interest in pursuing graduate study in applied physics at the University of Michigan.
Though she loved her graduate studies in “table-top atomic physics,” she was also interested in how her work would impact her community. Her graduate work felt too esoteric and she wanted a new direction. She had exposure to academic medicine through her mother, who pursued advanced degrees as a nurse practitioner and earned a master’s in public health when Dr. Walz-Flannigan was a teenager.
“I used to browse my mom’s medical journals and hang out after school at the clinic where she worked,” she said. “I wanted to serve my community like my mother had.”
Nearing completion of her PhD, Dr. Walz-Flannigan attended APS meetings for medical imaging lectures. Duly inspired, she had a new direction.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is really cool,’” she said. “I could understand what was going on and from my PhD training, I knew I had skills to contribute to these pursuits.”
All her work and determination paid off. After residency, she joined the medical physics staff at the Mayo Clinic Department of Radiology in Minnesota. With her leadership skills and sense of purpose, she led the medical physics section at the Marshfield Clinic Health System. Last October, Dr. Walz-Flannigan was named chief of the University of Wisconsin’s Section of Clinical Imaging Physics. She also serves as the imaging physics residency program director within the University of Wisconsin Department of Medical Physics.
“I was really excited about getting back to a place where I’d be able to work with medical physics residents and graduate students” Dr. Walz-Flannigan said of her current position.
Ashley Tao, PhD, met Dr. Walz-Flannigan in 2016 when she started her medical physics residency at Mayo. Now a senior diagnostic medical physicist/radiation safety officer for Emplify Health System in Wisconsin, she found Dr. Walz-Flannigan to be an excellent role model. The two remain in touch professionally and as friends.
“One of the things I admire about Dr. Walz-Flannigan is how she treats everyone as an equal,” Dr. Tao said. “There was much I still needed to learn at that time, but she treated me like her colleague and not just a resident. She went out of her way to ensure residents were included in projects and day-to-day activities. I remember wanting to get involved in a radiography project, and she was immediately receptive to providing the resources needed for me to do the work.”
Dr. Walz-Flannigan remembers the challenges she faced in her career. Her path through the field motivates her to create opportunities for physicists like Dr. Tao to thrive.
“I had experiences that were limiting but also had some really great mentors and people who gave me opportunities,” she said. “I’m very passionate about paying that forward.”
