”I got to know Dr. DiLullo first when I was in the biomedical sciences program. She was like a mother to me at PCOM. And there were some striking similarities to
my own mom in that they’ve both experienced hardships in their lives, gone through
a lot of things, but that’s never been an excuse for them to stop or to stall. You
just keep moving forward. She was an amazing woman, and when she passed away, it was
like losing a confidant and a best friend. … Dr. DiLullo was maybe five feet tall,
quite petite. She was grace and mercy and strength and beauty. Being a woman in medicine,
a woman in a mostly male academic department for a very long time, she had to speak
up. If something needed to be addressed, she was going to address it. She thought
things through and wasn’t going to change her mind. … At times, I questioned her decisions,
and she just looked at me, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll go ahead and do the work instead
of questioning what you’re telling me to do.’ She was trying to convey to me, ‘I know
it’s getting rough, but you’ve got to push through.’ And that’s what I needed. … The
number one thing Dr. DiLullo cared about was the person. She conveyed that to us,
when we became medical students, always stressing how your patients come first. …
As an educator and researcher, she was demanding, yet, she was very patient. So she
touched a lot of us as mentees because you knew that even though she was pushing you,
it’s because she cared about you. … When I was an osteopathic medical student, she
helped me start the nonprofit Medicine for Education to teach high-school girls from
underserved communities how to get into medical school and succeed once they get there.
She was unyielding in her commitment to training and mentoring women and inspired
my work. … We also shared a love of fashion, and looking your best and presenting
your best to the world. She always did. Dr. DiLullo commanded the whole room—and she
was the smallest thing in there.”
Digest, the magazine for alumni and friends of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications. The magazine reports on osteopathic and other professional trends of interest to alumni of the College’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and graduate programs at PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia.
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