Elnora M. Gilfoyle, PhD

Elnora Gilfoyle’s interests in art, science, and social services led her to pursue a career in occupational therapy at the University of Iowa. Wanting to help handicapped and ill people maintain their dignity with independence and self-sufficiency, Gilfoyle went on to work with developmentally dysfunctional and battered children at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and developed family-involved rehabilitation programs for the Occupational Therapy Department. During the 1970s, she worked to draft the law that ultimately gave all children, including those with disabilities, the right to an education. Later she became a professor and head of the Occupational Therapy Department at Colorado State University. Gilfoyle was appointed provost and academic vice president in 1992. Three years later she established the Institute for Women and Leadership at Colorado State University to provide research, education, and outreach on women’s leadership and gender cultures. Now retired, she is actively involved in the community.