As the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) recognizes Women in Medicine Month in September 2026, MSMS is proud to highlight Louito Edje, MD, MHPE, FAAFP, an MSMS Board member whose career has spanned private practice, academic medicine, medical education and national leadership. Throughout each chapter, Doctor Edje has demonstrated a willingness to embrace change, pursue growth and create opportunities for the physicians and learners who follow her.
Doctor Edje began her career with 13 years in a large private practice, balancing patient care with leadership roles as chief of staff and department chair, as well as responsibilities in peer review and credentialing. Education was also an important part of her work, and she regularly returned to her former residency program to teach residents.
Eventually, a desire to continue growing as a leader led her to make what she describes as a “full pivot” into academic medicine. She returned to her former residency program as program director, a position she held for eight years, and earned an additional degree in health professions education through the University of Michigan Medical School’s Department of Learning Health Sciences.
Her leadership was tested when her Ohio health system began closing residency programs. Determined to preserve the primary care base in the community, Doctor Edje wrote an application for a new program and successfully transferred all 62 residents, faculty and staff to a new program nearby.
That experience was one of several major transitions in a career defined by continual growth.
“I need to constantly grow in my work,” Doctor Edje said. “As soon as growth was no longer happening, I moved.”
She later joined the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as designated institutional official, supporting more than 100 program directors across specialties. Four years later, another opportunity brought her career full circle: returning to her alma mater, the University of Michigan Medical School, as Vice Dean for Medical Education.
Today, Doctor Edje helps lead an educational mission encompassing approximately 800 medical students and 1,300 residents and fellows, along with continuing medical education, global and simulation education, and medical education at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Despite the scope of her leadership responsibilities, she continues to maintain her clinical practice and sees patients every week.
Returning to the institution where she trained three decades earlier has been particularly meaningful.
“I am forever grateful for the education this school gave me and the belief it had in me in my formative years,” she said. “I am delighted to be back.”
Leadership Beyond Her Institution
Doctor Edje’s commitment to service extends beyond the University of Michigan. Since returning to Michigan, she has been actively involved with MSMS and was recently re-elected to the MSMS Board of Directors.
“It has been a fundamental part of my fulfillment as a physician to be connected to something larger than my home institution,” she said. “Advocacy for patients, learners and my fellow physicians as the academic director on the Board has been a way for me to give back to a profession that has given so much to me.”
Through MSMS, Doctor Edje also serves as a member of the MSMS Delegation to the American Medical Association and is chair-elect of the AMA Council on Medical Education, allowing her to connect her work in Michigan with conversations shaping medical education nationally.
Her leadership philosophy is grounded in growth, delegation, adaptability and a willingness to receive feedback. One lesson she has carried throughout her career is that effective leaders must focus their energy on the work only they can do while empowering others to lead alongside them.
“Delegation is not a choice; it is a responsibility,” Doctor Edje said.
That philosophy is particularly relevant as medicine faces rapid change. Doctor Edje is passionate about preparing today’s learners not simply for what medicine looks like now, but for careers that may extend into 2060 and beyond. Advances in technology, artificial intelligence and precision education are transforming both what physicians need to know and how they learn.
“Change is our biggest challenge in medicine. Proactively making it, reacting to it, anticipating it,” she said. “Growth happens more robustly when you acknowledge your gaps and then work to fill them.”
Beyond Medicine
Outside of medicine, Doctor Edje loves acrylic painting and considers herself an early adopter of technology—but she also carries gold-rimmed cards and calligraphy pens wherever she goes. When she meets someone new, she writes their name in calligraphy. For medical students, she often adds an aspirational “Dr.” before their name.
It is a small gesture that reflects a larger theme throughout Doctor Edje’s career: recognizing potential in others and encouraging the next generation to envision where their own careers might lead.
As MSMS celebrates Women in Medicine Month, Doctor Edje’s career illustrates the many ways women physicians are shaping medicine, not only through the patients they care for today, but through leadership, advocacy, mentorship and the education of those who will practice medicine tomorrow.
Her advice to future physicians and emerging physician leaders captures that spirit:
“Be bold, be brave, be you! Always keep learning.”
MSMS is always looking for members to spotlight! If interested please contact Lacey Tarantino, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, at ltarantino@msms.org or 517-336-5716.