By Nicole Hamilton
Enquirer staff writer

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Dr. Helen Ackerman-Stokinger, a pioneer in tuberculosis research and treatment methods who herself battled the disease as a young adult, died Tuesday at her home in Mount Washington of heart disease. She was 90.

"She was way ahead of her time," said her niece, Emily Gottlieb of Chicago. "Not only was she one of the only women in her graduating class in medical school, but she went on to become a dedicated wife and mother. She did it all."

Born in Auburn, N.Y., Dr. Ackerman-Stokinger earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., in 1936, and then was a research assistant at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

She earned her medical degree, specializing in pulmonary disease, in 1948at Washington University, St. Louis.

In 1951 she became a staff physician at Dunham Hospital in Price Hill and eventually became assistant medical director of the hospital, which treated tuberculosis patients.

The hospital was closed in 1971 and she became the assistant tuberculosis controller in Hamilton County as well as an associate clinical professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The recent comeback of tuberculosis cases meant Dr. Ackerman-Stokinger remained busy even in her later years.

Her niece said that younger health professionals, many who had never worked with tuberculosis cases, sought out Dr. Ackerman-Stokinger's advice.

"She had seen the history of TB and so she was a source of knowledge," " her niece said.

Devoted to her daughter, Janet Stokinger, who has cerebral palsy, she was also "like a mother and staunch confidant" to her daughter's caregivers.

Dr. Ackerman-Stokinger's interests included beekeeping, sewing, snowshoeing, gardening and bird watching.

Her husband, Herbert Stokinger, died in 1998.

Services have been held. The body was cremated.

Memorial: United Cerebral Palsy Organization, 3601 Victory Pkwy., Cincinnati, 45229.

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E-mail nhamilton@enquirer.com