COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — It is often said life isn’t just about yourself, it’s also about the folks you help along the way.
The Remarkable Women nomination we received for Carol Whitacre proves helping others is a way of life. From her professional career in research to a second career in politics the change Whitacre is making in her community and for the greater good is worth talking about.
“A postdoc is a time when you sort of set your career, you know, aspirations and what you’re going to work on for your career,” said Whitacre. “And so that’s where it sort of started, you know, was at Northwestern.”
At Northwestern, Dr. Caroline Whitacre began what would become a focus spanning nearly five decades, a focus working to uncover more on the disease multiple sclerosis.
“So, MS is something that is a disease that strikes, you know, predominantly young people in the ages of like 20 to 40,” said Whitacre. “And so there are, it’s much more prevalent amongst women than men.”
Whitacre says the disease is the body’s immune system attacks the central nervous system. That attack causes damage, which slows or stops nerve transmission.
“It’s hard to plan a vacation,” said Whitacre. “It’s hard to, you know, plan a family, you know, so, so that’s kind of the background of, you know, of what means is it sort of inhibits your ability to move. I mean, in the later stages, people can be completely paralyzed. They can be in a wheelchair. They can just have trouble walking.”
And it was her dedication to researching this potentially debilitating disease that moved her through the ranks of research and academia at the Ohio State University. After years of working in labs and studying the disease on animals came a request for her to move to a more leadership-based role.
“And then I got asked to be department chair of that department, which is a little unusual,” said Whitacre. “Well, you know, it’s the department you graduated from. So being a chair of that department was a little strange. “
From there Whitacre was tapped to become the associate dean for research in the College of Medicine which would require her to lean into her leadership skills all while breaking barriers. She says she always knew the world of STEM was male-dominated but her professional growth opened her eyes to the vast disparities.
“But then when you start to get to, like the full professor rank and the chair rank, I’ll never forget going to a meeting of chairs of microbiology chairs and walking in the room,” said Whitacre. “And they all had white hair and they were all men. You know, there may have been one or two and they were probably 60 or 70 people in the room.”
After leaving her mark on the institute’s research and fundraising efforts, Whitacre would later retire from OSU. But her desire to help others wasn’t done. She continued to advocate and contribute to national MS organizations all while trying her hand in an entirely different type of work — city government.
“Well, I mean, I like solving problems,” said Whitacre.
Whitacre, having an innate desire to solve problems, did just that in her hometown of Morrow, Ohio, about 45 minutes outside Cincinnati. She said in recent years her quaint hometown had started to slow down, schools were closing and the population was shrinking and she knew there was something she could do.
“What was a real surprise to me was when I started this deal in Morrow, you know, this kind of city, I didn’t know anything about a city manager,” said Whitacre. “But as a city manager, even, do you know and it struck me that what I have done in my research career was to solve problems.”
And solving problems, she has done. She is working to attract new businesses and revitalize the economic development of an area she once called home.
“I mean, like listening, listening to people and, you know, just trying to dissect a problem,” said Whitacre.
Listening and problem-solving, skills Whitacre has utilized throughout her career.