Fellowship Program Administrator, Department of Pathology

Here is what Suria’s nominator had to say about her: 

I am nominating Suria Sadat to be featured by Women of UCSF Health because of recent events that have led to Suria taking on a huge additional amount of work for the Department of Anatomic Pathology. She has managed to take on this additional responsibility with poise, elegance, and an impressively positive attitude that I know few could manage. While Suria was previously in charge of the fellowships within the Anatomic Pathology Department at UCSF, she additionally took on the role of being our interim residency coordinator, a role that requires her to become the first point of contact for an additional 25-30 residents. This means a constant onslaught of emails, questions, problems to solve, and so much more I could probably not imagine.

Nominated by: Nikka Khorsandi 

Not only has Suria excelled in this role, she has even gone above and beyond to offer the resident class extra training in how to use various administrative tools. She organized a fantastic graduation event for the department last year and pulled it off in an impressively short amount of time. Clearly, Suria is organized, dedicated, and adaptable, but the real reason that she deserves to be highlighted by Women of UCSF is her constant cheerful attitude. Every time I interact her, I am met with a huge smile, lots of laughs, and a magnetic personality that only uplifts the people around her. Her optimism is infectious and she is always a warm and essential part of the Pathology team at UCSF.

Suria's Bio: 

This month will mark ten years at UCSF and I just think back to all the orientations where the associate dean would tell the new residents and fellows on their first day, “Welcome to UCSF, we say UCSF stands for you can stay forever.”  And here I am, my first, and only, “big girl” job right out of college and I’ve experienced true professional growth with enough confidence that I have some idea about the world of graduate medical education. I majored in political science and I have always considered myself a people’s person and so I envisioned myself in a line of work that had to do with people, something for people.  I worked for a general contracting company that would set up and facilitate tradeshows, conferences and that included research poster sessions and UCSF was one of our consistent customers but the cliental was diverse because everyone was from various departments across the schools with different budgets and requests, I would send many quotes to a range of different UCSF employees.  And it took one client, one woman, to see something in me, to give me a shot at the education team she was responsible in assembling because she felt that someone outside the UCSF pool could offer something different, even if it’s just objective and she valued that; she practiced diversity and inclusivity.  Now I’m a part of and a contributing factor to UCSF’s diverse community.  She became my first professional manager and I consider her a mentor and friend today, she showed me firsthand the importance of women supporting women in that she gave me an opportunity and now I have ten years of experience in graduate medical education and there’s still more to learn and continue growing.

I’ve been an administrator in the school of medicine throughout my time at UCSF, first in the Department of Pediatrics, then in the Graduate Medical Education office, and now in Department of Pathology. I’ve received the Star Achievement Award four times, grateful to have been a part of and completed both the Leadership Development Program and the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program (DICP) and it was thanks to my group’s final capstone project about creating a group at UCSF for women who work in technology, WIT began. Women in Tech at UCSF or WIT@UCSF came into fruition because of the incredible women I was able to meet and collaborate with in DICP and I served on the leadership team with them for almost four years and shortly after, I have returned to graduate school after a ten-year break in hopes of receiving a Master’s degree in Public Administration. I have the support and encouragement of my department including faculty, colleagues, the residents and fellows, and my supervisor, who continues to lead, manage, and mentor me.  I never would have imagined that a career in graduate medical education would be my expertise and it is not my passion, but the people I get to work with, those that I commit to my work for, have become my passion and how my career at UCSF has had meaning within my life.

What advice would you give yourself early on in your career? To a woman entering your field today? 

Apply love to what you do.  You don’t need to love your job or your work responsibilities, but if you can find some way to incorporate love into work, you will feel more purpose and apply overall good energy in your life.  Becoming aware and caring about one aspect of your work, whether it be for a colleague’s reliance on you or resolving a problem for a learner, can make part of your day a little meaningful, and that matters because more love in the world is a good thing.

Can you tell us about a significant role model or mentor in your life? 

I can easily write run-on sentences here about the incredible mentors in my life, I do not have just one, and they are all significant, and I’m sure I have missed some, but to name a few…Brittany Boznanski, Twinkle Patel, Brittney Augerlavoie, Andrea Moulton, Kelly McNeill, Jennifer Vogt, Sarah Umetsu, Marta Margeta, all smart and compassionate women who exemplify UCSF’s PRIDE values and continue to positively impact my life.

What has been an important success in your career? Have you had a key breakthrough moment 

I can honestly say it has been all the amazing friendships and people I have had the opportunity to meet being an employee at UCSF. I’ve grown professionally, practice self-reflection, learn about accountability and the amount of time passed and spent learning from all these diverse individuals within UC, the more confidence I’ve gained in myself and my experience in my work. If it wasn’t for the relationships I’ve gained throughout my career, my career would feel dull and stagnant.  Relationships and bonds are what makes a community, it gives me a lot of purpose in caring about my career because of all the people it can touch and may impact.

Meet other outstanding women of UCSF through Our Spotlight.