Elissa Jeanne Santoro, M.D. '60 Mother Xavier Award 1983        Dr. Santoro received an A.B. in Chemistry from the College, with Honors in Theology. She received her medical degree from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) in 1965, where she was awarded the Dr. Marvin Solomon prize for excellence in pathology. She did her surgery internship at the Hospital of the Woman's Medical College, where she served as assistant resident in surgery. In 1967 Dr. Santoro became assistant resident in surgery at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center, New York; she was made senior assistant resident in surgery in 1968, and in 1969 she became the first woman at Saint Vincent's to hold the title of Chief Surgical Resident. At Saint Vincent's she received an American Cancer Society Fellowship in Clinical Oncology, and the following year, while at New York Medical College, Dr. Santoro was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Then she was certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, and in 1972 she received the AMITA Award for Surgery. From 1973-82 Dr. Santoro was clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Santoro is President of the New Jersey Division of the American Cancer Society, which gave her its Volunteer of the Year Award in 1980. In 1983 UNICO of Livingston named her Citizen of the Year, and that same year she received the Mother Xavier Award. Gleason, Sister Mary Ellen, S.C., Joyce, Sister Ellen, S.C., and Sirgiovanni, George. Lives of Achievement and Service: Biographical Statements of Distinguished College of Saint Elizabeth Alumnae. Morristown, New Jersey: College of Saint Elizabeth 1999.