Elias Tannous and Priscilla Tannous

WashU connections, alive and well

Priscilla Duncan-Tannous, BSBA ’05, MBA ’09, JD ’09, and elias Tannous

By Ginger O’Donnell

Elias Tannous and his wife, Priscilla Duncan-Tannous, BSBA ’05, MBA ’09, JD ’09, are busy professionals in the Bay Area. In addition to their demanding careers in drug development at Merck & Co. Inc. and corporate governance at Levi Strauss & Co., respectively, the couple is raising two daughters, Vivian and Isabelle, ages 2 and 4.

Though life has taken them in many promising new directions, the roots of their story together will always remain at WashU and in St. Louis, where they met at Sasha’s Wine Bar in the Demun neighborhood. Elias, who is originally from Lebanon, was conducting postdoctoral research at WashU Medicine. Priscilla, who grew up in Van Buren, Missouri, a small town of roughly 800 people, was working at several different companies, including Peabody Energy and Express Scripts, as an Olin Business School and WashU Law graduate.

“I would remind people to reflect on their college years. Think about how that time shaped who you are, and where you are now. Then think about how you can help others have that same experience.”
Priscilla Duncan-Tannous, BSBA ’05, MBA ’09, JD ’09

The couple’s fondness for their meeting place is showcased in an illustration of the city skyline by well-known artist John Pils, which hangs prominently on the wall of their San Mateo, California, home. “We had some of the best years of our lives at WashU,” Elias says. “Maybe they didn’t overlap exactly, but WashU and St. Louis are some of the main things we have in common. They brought us together, and they keep us excited.”

Owing to this excitement and heartfelt bond — even though roughly 15 years have passed since Priscilla completed graduate school — the couple recently decided to join the Eliot Society, a group of WashU supporters who give $1,000 or more each year to the university’s Annual Fund. As a former scholarship recipient during her undergraduate years and graduate studies, Priscilla is motivated to pay that gift forward. “For me, WashU would not have happened without scholarship support,” she says. “It just wasn’t in the picture for my family. As many still struggle today, I try to do my part to open those same doors for the next generation.”

As a rural high school student, she discovered the university nearly by chance when a guidance counselor mentioned a special WashU scholarship established by a local benefactor. She applied, and WashU filled the gaps with a generous additional financial aid package. (This magnanimous offer occurred long before WashU started focusing more intentionally on the recruitment of rural students.) Having grown up with her mom as the town treasurer, Priscilla’s goal was to become a certified public accountant. During her undergraduate studies, however, rules and regulations changed, requiring CPAs to hold graduate degrees. “I decided that if I was going to go to grad school, I was going to do something bigger and different,” she says.

She ended up enrolling in Olin and WashU Law simultaneously, and the rest is history. Throughout her already formidable career, she has shepherded large corporations through bankruptcy filings and megamergers and provided legal counsel to clients across the globe, all while lending her time and talent to corporate philanthropy.

Looking back on how she benefited from her opportunity to attend WashU, Priscilla credits WashU with teaching her how to think and exposing her to cultural diversity. These skills inform her day-to-day activities as chief counsel and corporate secretary at Levi Strauss & Co., where she was recently promoted. “The WashU education is superb, right?” she says. “But beyond that, the diversity of people and of thought really helps me — my day can go in any direction at any point in time.”

Eliot Society 101

Eliot Society members give $1,000 or more to the WashU Annual Fund each year.

Together, more than 4,500 Eliot Society households contribute roughly 80% of total Annual Fund dollars, year after year. Their immediate, flexible support covers everything from scholarships to lab equipment to paid internships, facilities, books, and more.

In recognition of their generosity, Eliot Society members receive a variety of benefits, including:

Reunion registration discounts
Subscriptions to university publications
Invitations to special events
Library and parking privileges on the Danforth Campus
Access to the Athletics Complex
And more.

Learn more about annual fund vs. endowed giving

Elias, too, extols the positive culture of WashU in reflecting on his stint as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Peter M.J. Burgers. The university’s “secret sauce” of congenial cross-disciplinary collaboration continues to inspire him as a scientist at Merck. “The people I interacted with in the lab at WashU; they all shared a deep interest in understanding the basic science and maintained a certain curiosity,” he says. “They were open to sharing their knowledge and even learning from young scientists who were 40 years younger than them.”

Today, he is leveraging what he learned in the Burgers Lab to develop new drugs for a variety of illnesses as a protein engineer for Merck & Co. After he references antibodies, biologics, and other advanced scientific terms, Priscilla succinctly captures their shared impact: “Elias keeps people alive, and I keep companies alive,” she says.

Together, and through their generous Annual Fund support, the Tannouses are also helping to keep WashU alive. As Eliot Society members, they help to cover 80% or more of the Annual Fund’s dollars each year, benefiting things like classroom technology, lab equipment, scholarships, textbooks, and much more.

“The people I interacted with in the lab at WashU; they all shared a deep interest in understanding the basic science and maintained a certain curiosity. They were open to sharing their knowledge and even learning from young scientists who were 40 years younger than them.”
Elias Tannous, former WashU Medicine postdoctoral researcher

They hope other alumni will join them, whatever their stage in life, in increasing their philanthropic support and engaging with the university more actively. “I would remind people to reflect on their college years,” Priscilla says. “Think about how that time shaped who you are, and where you are now. Then think about how you can help others have that same experience.”

With you, we can make an immediate impact today. Join us. Make your gift today or email if you’d like a staff member to contact you.

Annual Fund

Giving from the heart

Mandee Polonsky, AB ’00, and her husband, Jonathan Polonsky, AB ’98, are both proud Chicago natives with deep family roots in the Windy City. Their story, however, begins in a different Midwestern city: St. Louis, and at WashU, specifically, where the two met at a fraternity party through Jonathan’s identical twin brother Daniel Polonsky, AB ’98. They were both students in Arts & Sciences — Mandee was studying political science and anthropology, and Jonathan, economics.

Mandee Polonsky, AB ’00, and Jonathan Polonsky, AB ’98

View full profile