 She was also the first woman to be appointed head of an academic department of surgery at a coeducational school of medicine (Ohio State University) and the first woman to be appointed chief of surgery of a major medical center.Olga Jonasson was born in Peoria, Illinois on August 12, 1934.During her childhood she moved with her family to Chicago, where her mother worked as a nurse and her father served as a Lutheran minister at Ebenezer Lutheran Church.