A vision for ‘the life we could build together’

Andrew Hack, AB’95, PhD’00, MD’02, and Anjali Fedson Hack, LAB’85, AB’88, AM’90, MD’99, PhD’99

LIVE IN | Boston

MARRIED SINCE | 2001

Looking at slides ... and each other: In their second-year Clinical Pathophysiology (CPP) class, Anjali always sat in the front row for lectures and Andrew in the back with his Medical Science Training Program (MSTP) cohort. Yet they ended up sitting next to each other in histology lab. Anjali was captivated by Andrew’s curiosity, sense of humor and awareness of the world, while Andrew was impressed by her diligence, commitment and insight. They started dating that summer, when she started clinical rotations and he went into the lab. “If we hadn’t been in CPP together, we might not have crossed paths,” Anjali said.

Long engagement: After Andrew proposed on Dec. 31, 1999, he finished his PhD and returned to clinical rotations in medical school, while Anjali moved to Boston to start her residency in anesthesiology at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. To make time to get married in 2001, Anjali back-ended her two vacations between her first and second years of residency. Having a long-distance engagement wasn’t easy. “We made it work with a lot of commitment, flexibility, mutual respect and a vision for the life we could build together,” Andrew said.

A unique graduation day: During her graduation ceremony in 1999, Anjali sat first with her medical school class in the Biological Sciences Division and received her MD. Then as she left the stage, an usher escorted her to a saved seat in the Social Sciences Division.

“I remember walking up and getting my PhD, my second doctoral degree, and the entire med school class started shouting and cheering. It was a level of welcome and recognition that I’ve never experienced in my life,” she said. “There was such a generosity of spirit at the University of Chicago.”

Pushing her to the PhD finish line: Anjali credits Andrew with encouraging her to finish her dissertation in anthropology. “It would have been easy to say, ‘I’m going off to clinical medicine. I don’t need to finish my PhD. I’ve done all the learning and absorbed the lessons into who I am as a person and how I treat other people in the world.’ But this was something where Andrew’s encouragement made an enormous difference,” she said.

Hyde Park roots: Anjali attended UChicago’s Laboratory Schools from preschool through high school. Her father practiced internal medicine at UChicago Medicine, and her mother, a Fulbright scholar from India, earned a PhD in linguistics. Hyde Park still holds a special place in Anjali’s heart. “It’s a unique community of people who are there because they want to learn or teach and are affiliated with the University.”

Pritzker’s distinguishing feature: What sets Pritzker apart from other medical schools, Anjali said, is that it’s situated within the Biological Sciences Division. “Our basic science classes were taught by people who did that work. Anatomy was taught by anatomists, not physicians who were going to teach you anatomy. Our lectures on G proteins in biochemistry were taught by people who actually did research on G proteins. It was a very exciting place to learn,” she said. Where they work now: Anjali retired from her obstetric anesthesiology practice several years ago. While raising their two children, she went to school part time and earned a master’s degree in bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Andrew is a partner at Bain Capital Life Sciences. He’s also a member of the UChicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association (MBSAA) Alumni Council and represents the BSD on the University Alumni Board.