For Ellen Ritz, medicine is a family affair.
Her father, David T. Dresdale, was on the Nobel Prize-winning team of Columbia University doctors that developed a technique for cardiac catheterization.
Dresdale himself discovered a condition called primary pulmonary hypertension, the first disease ever to be found through the development of a treatment for it, Ritz said.
It was her father’s love for medicine that moved Ritz to get into the field as a registered nurse.
The East Willison resident and recent village trustee candidate’s passion for the field — and for helping others — got her onto the Town of North Hempstead Women’s Roll of Honor this year.
“It’s never about the awards,” she said. “It’s very nice, but it’s really not about that. It’s about making a difference in the world.”
Ritz graduated from Columbia University, her father’s alma mater, with a bachelor’s degree in nursing before starting her career in the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital Center on Manhattan’s east side.
She eventually became the head of the trauma unit and helped start the first “trauma bus” in New York City to treat mass casualties at a disaster site.
She then started working as a “diabetes educator” before diabetes education was a recognized practice, she said.
In that role, Ritz helped medical students, social workers and patients learn about the role of diet, blood sugar and insulin to help them better understand their treatment.
“One thing I learned is when you truly understand a subject and you have the gift of being a teacher, you make it simple — simple language that people understand,” she said. “When you use too big terms, people don’t understand it.”
That was the start of a connection for Ritz between medicine and education. She currently works as a school nurse, and was president of the East Williston school board for six years.
She also conducts breast cancer awareness workshops for high school senior girls, teaching them about the disease and how to examine themselves for signs of it.
Teaching moments often come when students come into Ritz’s nurse’s office, she said — she’s there to help them learn about the treatment for whatever ails them and listen when they need to talk.
“I feel that the more one knows about whatever it is in life — in this case it happens to be your physical and medical conditions — the more you can make positive choices to take care of yourself,” Ritz said.
Ritz is also the vice president of the board for the Queens and Nassau National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She heads its FaithNet committee, working with clergy across religions to organize events about how they handle mental illness issues.
Twice a year, she teaches Family to Family, a 12-week class for family members of people with mental illness.
The class changes lives, Ritz said, and gives people the skills and understanding to best care for their loved ones.
“Everybody really comes into this class afraid and alone, because they don’t understand, and we give them the tools and the empathy and the understanding to help the people they love,” she said.
Ritz was one of 13 women named to this year’s Town of North Hempstead Women’s Roll of Honor, an annual honor held to mark March as Women’s History Month.
Ritz said she considers herself a role model for girls and women, and loves to “help women find where their passion is and then tell them whatever I can do to help them.”
She’s also driven largely by equality and treating all people the same, she said, regardless of who they are or where they come from.
“When people walk into my classes, they’re just people — they’re people who have a need, and I really appreciate being in a position where I can impart some knowledge, some kindness and some empathy,” she said.
