Eliza Minnick

Eliza Minnick is a consultant hired by Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital to revamp their surgical residency program.

Childhood
When she was two, her father looked for swimming lessons for her. Instead of getting them, her mother threw her into the pool.

Working at Grey Sloan Memorial
After deciding the residency program needed work, Catherine Avery convinced Miranda Bailey to hire Eliza to come in and shake things up. She first held a meeting with all the residents and asked them about the attendings and what they liked and didn't like about the program. Then she observed several surgeries, giving tips to the attendings on how they could improve their residents' experience and teach them more. At the end of the day, she told Bailey she was fielding a few other offers, but she liked the idea of working there. ("Why Try to Change Me Now")

Building Collapse
While unpacking, she saw on the news that a building had collapsed and rushed to the hospital to help out. ("You Haven't Done Nothin'")

First Day at Work
On her official first day, Eliza re-arranged the surgical schedule so she could be involved in as many surgeries as possible. However, the attendings conspired to work against her and shut her out of their surgeries. She in particular butted heads with Richard, who believed she was overstepping and invited her to fight. ("Jukebox Hero")

Resistance
Eliza butted heads with Meredith when Meredith refused to allow Minnick to employ her teaching strategy in one of Meredith's surgeries. As a result, Bailey suspended Meredith. When Eliza heard about this, she went to Bailey and instructed her not to suspend anyone else, as it was contrary to her method of getting people on board with her program. ("None of Your Business")

Second Phase
When she decided it was time to implement the second phase of her teaching program, Eliza drew two resident's names (Ben and Stephanie's) out of a hat to do start-to-finish surgeries. She followed Stephanie along on her case. Her first intended patient died before surgery, so she and Eliza went down to the ER to troll for cases. They found Matty, a 9 year old with gallstones. Arizona found out and insisted on scrubbing in because Matty was a child. During surgery, Matty died. Eliza was stunned and walked away even after Stephanie asked what had happened. Arizona followed her and told her she screwed up by not talking to Stephanie, who had just lost her first child and was vulnerable to quitting the program. However, Eliza revealed that it was the first child she'd ever lost. Arizona coached her on how to get through it and then they went to tell Matty's parents. However, they found Richard already helping Stephanie tell them. Eliza cried in her car after work. When Arizona found her, she hugged her and told her she could have friends at the hospital if she wanted. ("It Only Gets Much Worse")

Resident Kidney Transplant
Eliza coordinated the residents working on a kidney transplant from Cynthia Daniels to Christopher Daniels. When Cynthia's remaining kidney died, Eliza was part of the discussion about the legality of whose kidney it was. In the end, Cynthia's kidney was put back in her body and Christopher received a kidney from his father. ("Back Where You Belong")

Resident Evaluation
Eliza sat down with Richard and Bailey and evaluated each of the residents. She had concerns about Ben, noticing that he'd started taking safer cases after the death of Gretchen McKay and her baby. She also worried about Stephanie, because she hadn't had counseling after the death of Kyle Diaz. When Stephanie threw a tablet at David Fisher's head, Eliza recommended suspension. Stephanie had a meeting with the three of them, where she was told her surgical privileges were revoked and she would have to undergo counseling. ("Leave It Inside")

Liam Fisher's Tumor
When Liam Fisher came into the ER with a persistent headache, he was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma. They were going to operate, but they had to find his parents first. When they found them, they declined consent on religious grounds. He went home with his parents, but later returned again. Eliza learned he was having surgery and asked Alex how he got the parents to consent. Alex said he didn't need it because the case had become emergent. Eliza was suspicious, so she questioned Stephanie about the case, but Stephanie stood by the chart. After Stephanie threw a tablet at Liam's father's head, Eliza said Stephanie needed to be suspended until she completely counseling. ("Leave It Inside")

Stephanie's Disappearance
When Stephanie returned before completely all the therapy, Eliza was upset to learn that Richard had signed the form to allow her early return. She assigned Stephanie to babysitting duty, having her watch Keith for signs of internal bleeding. ("True Colors")

Hospital Fire
In the midst of the chaos caused by an explosion and the subsequent hospital fire, Jackson asked Eliza to inform the police that Stephanie was missing. However, since Eliza was preoccupied with the protocol to get the patients out of the building, she completely forgot to do so. Later, in a meeting with Catherine, Richard, and Bailey, she defended herself, stating that if Edwards had listened to her and gone to counseling, she wouldn't have been in any danger. Bailey countered that Erin Miller wouldn't have made it out alive then, and promptly fired Eliza, explaining that they don't need surgical robots who strictly follow protocols. They need doctors who know when to ditch protocol and save patients, and Richard knows how to train those. Eliza then went to pack up her stuff and told Arizona she was fired. ("Ring of Fire")

Arizona Robbins
When she first came to Grey Sloan, she flirted with Arizona Robbins, telling her she didn't need to write her name down to remember it. ("Why Try to Change Me Now")

When she came to the hospital to help out after a building collapsed, she was surprised that Arizona appeared not to remember their conversation, but Arizona admitted that she did and she was interested, but she didn't like that Eliza talked like she owned the place. They agreed to go get a drink together. ("You Haven't Done Nothin'")

The next day, when Eliza officially started, Arizona had joined the resistance against Eliza's policies. Despite this, Eliza found Arizona at the end of the day and told her that her allowing Leah to take the lead on the Wallace baby was a perfect example of her teaching strategy and thanked her for being on board. ("Jukebox Hero")

As Arizona was leaving the hospital the next day, Eliza found her and when Arizona claimed she'd be happy if Eliza were fired, Eliza called her on it, saying it would scare her because it would mean the two of them could be something. ("None of Your Business")

After losing her first child patient, Eliza was distraught and Arizona coached her on how to get through that loss. At the end of the day, when Arizona was leaving work, she saw Eliza crying in her car and hitting the steering wheel. This caused the horn to honk continuously. Arizona told her to pop the hood and she quickly pulled the horn wire, which she told Eliza she'd need to have fixed. Eliza thanked her and then they hugged. Arizona told Eliza that she could have friends at the hospital if she wanted. ("It Only Gets Much Worse")

Around the hospital, the two continued to pretend not to get along. However, at the end of the night, Arizona said she didn't want to pretend, because Eliza's nice and funny and people should know that. Eliza told her to be quiet and kissed her. ("Back Where You Belong")

Eliza asked Arizona about how big her stove was, because she wanted to make Arizona pierogi. She then flirtatiously said, in Polish, that once Arizona had her pierogi, she'd never want anyone else's. However, that evening, when Eliza went to find Arizona, she was asleep on the couch. They agreed to rest for a minute and then rally, but they both fell asleep and when they woke up, it was morning. They leaned in for a kiss, but Richard Webber interrupted, discovering their relationship. ("Civil War")

After they'd been seeing each other for a while, Eliza told Arizona she was ready for them to have sex. They made plans for that night, but they were cancelled when one of Arizona's patients went into labor, but Arizona told Eliza that she looked for her around the hospital all the time and that the anticipation of waiting one more day wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. The next night, they left the hospital and went to Arizona's house, where they had sex. ("Leave It Inside")

After the hospital fire chaos had settled, Arizona found Eliza and suggested they go back to her place to have overly tired sex before getting some sleep. Eliza told her she couldn't. She needed to pack up her things because she'd been fired. ("Ring of Fire")

Professional
When she started observing surgeries and giving tips at Grey Sloan Memorial, she immediately started to ruffle feathers with the other doctors, leading them to form an alliance against her.

Career
Minnick is a double-board certified orthopedic surgeon, with a specialty in sports medicine, and educational consultant. Minnick initially trained in a surgical residency, attained a board certification, and completed a fellowship in orthopedic surgery. Minnick then received her second board certification in orthopedic sports medicine.

Notes and Trivia

 * She's published 52 papers in the Journal of Surgical Education. ("Why Try to Change Me Now")
 * She's given a TED MED talk. ("Why Try to Change Me Now")
 * She doesn't use caffeine, saying she doesn't need it. ("Jukebox Hero")
 * She speaks Polish. ("Civil War")
 * She claims to make pierogi well. ("Civil War")
 * Her first name originated from the character of the same name of the Hamilton musical, of which Shonda Rhimes is a big fan.