Momentum - University of Mary

Momentum
THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF MARY SPRING 2015
Tradition, Innovation
Benedictine Values
Sister Virgilia Kuhn, right,
making her famous borscht in
the 1950s. Left, Sister Lucilda
Fried, supervisor of the kitchen
at St. Alexius Hospital.
Bottom left, Jackie
Grunefelder, Family Nurse
Practitioner. Story, page 4.
Clara Barton (1821-1912) Pioneer nurse
prominent during the Civil War who
founded the American Red Cross.
Major Walter Reed, M.D. (18511902) U.S. Army physician who in
1901 led the team that postulated
and confirmed the theory that
yellow fever is transmitted by a
species of mosquito.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
The founder of modern nursing.
During the Crimean War, she
became known as “The Lady
with the Lamp” after her habit of
making rounds at night.
Right, Dr. Billie Madler on
her wedding day in 1995
with her brothers, Dennis
Randash, left, and Phillip
Randash, right. Story, Page 6.
Far right, author Jill
Kandel. Story, page 13.
Momentum
The Magazine of the University of Mary Spring 2015
FEATURES
STAFF
2
Letter From the President
Editor
Karen Herzog
3
The God String
Art Director
Jerry Anderson
A PIONEERING SPIRIT
4
Not Just a Career
Assistant Art Director
Holly Schaeffer
Alumni Director
Paul Keeney, ’04
6
A Celestial Nudge
Photographer Jerry Anderson
7
Students Speak
From the day they arrived in Dakota Territory in 1878,
the Benedictine Sisters have been pioneers in serving the
healthcare needs of this region. Over the decades the Sisters
have brought innovative techniques and technology to their
communities, and selflessly served the wellbeing of others.
8
Meeting the Demand
10 Friends of Mary: Robert & Jan Bury
13 Act of Faith
14 Alumni News
16 Faculty Profile: Moran Saghiv
Vintage cover photo of Sister Mary Lou Bleth, left, on the stair at
St. Alexius Hospital, pictured with Molly Nolan, LPN to BSN program
coordinator and assistant professor of nursing at Mary. Images on
cover, page 1 and page 3 courtesy Annunciation Monastery archives.
Contact Momentum
Editorial (701) 355-8013
Circulation (701) 355-8262
The blessings of the Sisters’ dedication have spread far in the
years since they arrived. Today, University of Mary graduates
practice values-based health care in every region of the world.
The University of Mary remains dedicated to bold innovations
in health care, with new programs such as a master’s degree
in bioethics and a doctorate of nursing practice.
In this issue of Momentum, see how University of Mary
graduates are continuing the Sisters’ tradition of service.
www.umary.edu
1
FRO M T H E P R E S I DE N T
‘the God string’
By SISTER MARIAH DIETZ
T
During their years at the
University of Mary, our
healthcare students are taught
that each person they will care
for is to be respected as an
infinitely complex, precious
and irreplaceable member of
the human family.
Today, we remain determined
not just to sustain the topquality healthcare programs
we have created, but boldly to
innovate new programs to meet
the needs of our age, such as our
new master’s degree in bioethics,
and a new doctorate of nursing
to meet the health care demands
we see on the horizon.
The words of the Rule of
Benedict accompany our
graduates as they go into
the world – “Let all be
received as Christ.”
he silk produced by the Darwin’s
bark spider in Madagascar is 10
times tougher than Kevlar. It is the
world’s toughest known biological
material.
Scientists have so far identified 200,000
distinct spider silks, sophisticated
proteins of stunning elasticity and
strength. Woven together, these silken
strands become the web, a marvel of
engineering — home, hunting ground
and nursery.
can begin to think of ourselves in terms
of bolts and batteries, conductors and
wires, hard drives and software.
The gentlest touch on a single strand
will shiver down the entire web, rippling
throughout its intricate geometry to
the center. The strength of the web is its
integrity, its wholeness.
Tinkering at such an esoteric level
tempts us to trespass into unknown
territory, where we can create something
blurrily like humanity, but is only a
simulacrum of humanity, a Frankenstein
creature of parts.
Humans are also builders. Tinkerers
and toolmakers, driven by unquenchable
curiosity, we erect cathedrals and dams,
design cell phones and sailboats.
From our earliest days, we have also
been driven by a compulsion to take
things apart — deconstruct them to
see how they tick. We include ourselves
enthusiastically in this fascination with
dissection.
Momentum
To divide the human person into
separate parts, to fragment the creation
that works in such a miraculous and
interconnected way, risks mechanizing it,
moving it from life to non-life.
In Benedictine thought, wholeness,
health and respect for persons are not
separate values. Like a beautiful Celtic
knot, they are seamlessly interwoven.
Can one truly be whole without
respecting others? Can one be truly
healthy as a compartmentalized creature?
Can respect for others thrive in a sick and
shattered soul?
As our tools become more complex,
our ability to deconstruct ourselves has
accelerated. We are able to tease out
smaller and smaller strands of our being
and put them under microscopes or
through chemical analyses.
This is the essential reason that
the University of Mary weaves the
Benedictine value of ‘respect for persons’
into all aspects of its student experience.
The human is an awe-inspiring wonder,
to be respected and reverenced.
Through our lenses we discover, as
the Psalmist writes, that we are “fearfully
and wonderfully made.” In various
biblical versions, ‘fearfully’ is translated
as ‘strangely and delicately formed,’
‘remarkable,’ ‘amazing,’ ‘miraculous,’ and
‘awesome.’
When we educate our students, among
them the next generations of health care
professionals, the Benedictine value of
respect for persons goes with them.
If, however, in our fascination with
manipulating the parts, we forget that
they are elements of a whole being, even
with the best of intentions, we have
chosen a fraught road.
Because we are able take ourselves
apart, shake the pieces and rearrange
them, we risk considering ourselves as
things that can be reduced to parts. We
2
Focusing on these individual strands
can blind us to the higher reality — the
wholeness of the web.
They carry forward the conviction
that each person they meet is not
a construction of parts, but a soul,
indivisible and whole.
We endeavor to teach them during
their time here that their every touch
plucks the strand of a marvelous web that
carries an infinite reverberation.
Monsignor James P. Shea
President
Before all things and above all things, care must
be taken of the sick, so that they will be served as
if they were Christ in person; for He Himself said,
“I was sick, and you visited Me” (Matt 25:36).
— Rule of Benedict, Chapter 36
“We have a value called the healing presence
— the connection that you and I have that has
nothing to do with whether I’m a nurse or not.
It’s ‘the God string’ that goes between us.”
the God string means …
“… that from the beginning of the Benedictine Sisters’ presence
in North Dakota, the women were innovative and forward
thinking, risking so much.”
the God string means …
“… the Sisters constantly innovated, starting programs in
physical therapy, anesthesia, labs and X-ray, LPN programs,
rooming-in maternity and child-friendly spaces.”
the God string means …
“… when we’re hiring someone , we try really hard to make sure
it is understood that the task is not just when that person is in
the bed, but goes beyond that. The commitment to ‘walking with’
is a long one. It was from monasteries that the idea of hospitals
sprung. The Rule of Benedict says that care of the sick must rank
above all others.’ ”
the God string means …
“... the more high-tech we become, the more touch is necessary.
We try to look at the person as a whole person.
We rely on technology so much, that a nurse could read a chart
and scan a bracelet and conceivably never have to look at a patient.
But the patient doesn’t really care about the computer.”
the God string means …
“... we will walk with you. We will walk with you through the
fear of ‘what will they find?’ I’m going to be there before surgery
and when you come out.”
the God string means …
“… Sister Angel, an administrator at Garrison Memorial
Hospital, once told me, ‘never pass a light. If you are walking by
and you see a light on, never walk by. You never know what that
patient needs.’”
Sister
______________
____Mariah
____________Dietz
______
Vice President for Mission Effectiveness
CHI St. Alexius Health
www.umary.edu
3
R
ural practice is not for everyone.
Those who do it, those who love it,
often have a personal connection to these
places, she said.
Jackie is one such person.
“Having grown up in the rural setting,
you have this bond,” she said. “You
understand.
“You have to understand the farmer who
says, ‘I can’t do this (procedure) now; I’m in
the middle of harvest.’ How this community
- some of whom were in the Depression how they feel about certain things.”
It’s hard to overstate the importance
of having a clinic or a hospital in a small
town, Jackie said. Without it, patients who
are elderly, or unable to drive, but want to
stay in their homes, face a painful choice —
uproot themselves or take the risk of being
far from health care.
“We offer many services to keep them
comfortable and safe and meet their health
care needs,” she said. “We are able to offer
MRIs, CT scans and emergency care.”
Jackie Grunefelder’s
philosophy of care is
based on what is taught
at the University of
Mary, citing all the years
with Sister Thomas and
what the Sisters were
trying to teach.
‘not just a career’
Of all the numbers that add up Jackie Grunefelder’s
work week — 80 hours on the job, 350 miles on the road,
patients ages 2 to 102 — there’s another number that
matters more — “how many hugs do you get a day?”
That’s the question that health care
students regularly ask Jackie, a Family
Nurse Practitioner who has been caring
for patients in the Linton, Strasburg and
Hazelton areas since 1995.
Jackie, a graduate of the University
of Mary with a bachelor of nursing
degree and a master’s as a Family Nurse
Practitioner, is a lifesaving link to health
care in rural North Dakota.
She works out of Linton Hospital and
divides her 350 commuting miles a week
among Hazelton Monday mornings;
Linton Monday afternoons; the nursing
home in Strasburg on Wednesday;
Thursday in Hazelton, and Friday, back in
Linton, “and a couple of nights as well.”
P
roviding health care to rural and
small town North Dakota has always
had its challenges. Before the oil boom,
the sharpest dilemmas were the state’s
4
Momentum
declining population and struggling
to meet the needs of the aging in rural
areas.
To maintain their credentialing,
hospitals, clinics and care centers found
that attracting the necessary professionals
to small town and countryside North
Dakota was a hard sell.
In Linton, the hospital also is one of the
county’s largest employers, providing more
than 100 jobs.
“We are fortunate we have county
support, ambulances staffed by paramedics.
We still have a hospital. We are a critical
access hospital.”
“We have the same standards of
care, the same regulations as any larger
facility,” Jackie said.
T
he personal connection with
patients is the reason Jackie’s
students tell her they want to come to
rural North Dakota.
In this tight-knit place, “people trust
you,” she said. “They know you.
“And so you can ask them that
personal question about their life or
family. When test results come in, we
already have a relationship with them.
That is key.
Education in the whole Benedictine
values is so important, Jackie said.
“It’s not just a career,” she said, “it’s
trying to instill the idea of being a steward
of one’s community, to be involved.”
I
n addition to her role as a family
nurse practitioner, Jackie is also in
the National Guard, able to wield an
M-16 and a 9mm pistol as well as a
stethoscope. Jackie’s husband, Jon, is a
rancher. The couple has four children
and three grandsons.
“It’s not just a job. They put their hand
over mine and they’ll say, ‘I trust you.’”
Jackie’s philosophy of care is based on
what is taught at the University of Mary,
she said, citing all the years with Sister
Thomas and what they were trying to
teach us as servants and leaders, she said.
“Be compassionate.
“It’s not just taking care of — it’s
caring for,” she said.
Jackie’s patients tell her their trust
comes because they know she will be
there: “It’s knowing you are going to
stay,” she said. “People want somebody to
know them, to know their background.”
St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
German abbess considered Germany’s
first female physician.
“I feel very privileged.
Very few people get to
practice in family care.
I love it.”
Even now, Jackie said, “it can be hard to
get people when they can go west and get
twice the money. You almost have to have
a connection to this community.”
But the impact of the oil industry has
also filtered eastward to North Dakota’s
central counties, she said.
“People are coming here; some are
retiring from small communities from
the western part of the state,” Jackie said.
These people still want to live in a rural
setting, but not such a frantically busy one.
“Life here is still affordable,” she said.
www.umary.edu
5
STU DENTS SPE AK
COMMUNITY I HOSPITALITY I MODERATION I PRAYER I RESPECT FOR PERSONS I SERVICE
a celestial
nudge
“Respect for persons is critical to the
function of nursing.
We intersect with people and families
and the community at their most
vulnerable times: when they’re afraid
of the unknown, in unfamiliar
surroundings or in disaster.
You can’t care without having respect
for persons, and caring is really the
essence of nursing.
Billie, left, with her sister, Patty Morris, on Billie’s wedding day.
F
ive years ago, April 1, Maundy
Thursday, it was raining in Baker,
Montana, when Billie Madler and her
family got there.
Billie and her husband and two children
had wavered about whether to drive to her
hometown of Baker for Easter that year.
when their parents needed to spend
time caring for their own aging parents.
Patty was Billie’s matron of honor at her
wedding and Billie had been Patty’s flower
girl. She doesn’t remember a time when
her brother-in-law wasn’t part of her life.
Maybe she was touched by heaven —
she’s still grappling with what the ensuing
experience means to her life — but they
finally decided to make the drive.
I
“We decided to go,” she said. “I say ‘we,’
but I think there was a celestial nudge to go
home that night.”
“At that moment, I had the most visceral
feeling blanket over me, to the tips of my
toes, deep in everywhere,” Billie said.
This would be the first time the whole
family would be together at ‘home’ since
Billie’s mother had died 10 months before.
Billie sprang into action. She pointed at
her husband, grabbed her shoes and ran for
the door. Her husband ran after her, grabbing
her dad’s shoes as he ran.
Pulling into Baker, they drove past the
home of Billie’s older sister, Patty, and her
husband, just as the two were walking home
from church.
P
atty was 16 years older than Billie.
She’d never minded when Billie got
into her makeup, little sister-like. Billie
often stayed with Patty and her husband
6
Momentum
t was a lively gathering at the home of
Billie’s father when the phone rang. It
was Billie’s brother-in-law. He asked for
Billie; Patty’s not feeling well, he said.
Patty resisted because she didn’t want to
call people away from home on Maundy
Afterward, he said, “Billie, you were a
machine.”
How many celestial nudges had
been part of this night? Why
did her brother-in-law call
her at her dad’s. Why had she
felt that deep inner sense that
something wasn’t right. Why
couldn’t she be talked out of
taking Patty to the hospital.
P
atty had veins so hard to find that
sometimes scans were needed to find
them.
“I didn’t see a vein. I didn’t feel a vein,”
Billie said. “But I just dropped an IV. And it
went in.”
Health Careers,
BENEDICTINE VALUES
KIRBY GREGER
Mobridge, SD, Junior in Nursing
At 16, Kirby Greger became a certified nursing
assistant (CNA) and started working at a nursing home.
Seeing the nurses at work there, Kirby found that he
liked “the intimate feel, the personal touch,” he said. “I
like being the one who every day knows I’m making a
difference. I love working with patients, getting to know
them,” he said.
Because of the need for nurses, Kirby could have his
pick of places to work after graduation. His plan right
now is to move to the Black Hills area around Spearfish,
where his family now lives.
A great nurse needs compassion, because caring for people is a huge part of
the job, being a good listener, receptive and intuitive, hard working and be a good
time manager.
“I could see myself being a nurse practitioner,” he said. “I also like to teach, to
pass that experience on. I could see myself being an educator.”
I say that as a nurse, I was born and
raised by the Benedictine Sisters.
At this point Patty was in ventricular
fibrillation; her heart was just quivering. By
medical standards, Patty was dead.
The challenging part of nursing is that you can’t save everyone, he said. His
faith helps, it comforts him, he said. It helps to have a good group of people to talk
things out with, to walk and think.
— Billie Madler
Billie applied the paddles, delivered the
shock. “We have to shock her again,” Billie
told the student next to her.
“The nursing home prepared me,” he said. “I’ve never been afraid of the dying
process as something scary. It’s a part of life.”
Thursday. Billie was adamant. They were
going in to check things out.
At the hospital, Patty had her vitals
checked. Billie had asked for oxygen for
her. Standing behind Patty, Billie looked
back over her shoulder. By the moment
she turned back, Patty had gone into full
cardiac arrest.
The nurse in Billie went into action,
calling for help, for an oxygen bag. Pointing
to the nurse nearby, she told her, ‘you
breathe for her,’ hooked up the bag, called
for a hard board, ripped open Patty’s shirt
and started chest compressions.
The next shock brought Patty back to a
normal heart rhythm, but she didn’t wake
up and she wasn’t breathing on her own.
MARY PANKRATZ
Billie worked hard against projecting all
her fears; “Dear God,” she prayed, “I hope
she wakes up.”
Mary Pankratz is graduating this spring
into a job market that is wide open for
nursing majors.
During the gradual rewarming period,
the family left briefly. They hadn’t been
gone 20 minutes when the intensivist called
and said, ‘she’s alive.’
The aging population of the U.S. is
responsible in part for the high demand
for nurses, since nurses who are part of the
enormous Baby Boom generation are beginning to retire.
“It is amazing what you can do when you
put your mind to it,” Billie said. “It was an
incredible time of faith formation for me.
“It’s about letting God guide you where
your life is supposed to be.”
Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001)
South African surgeon who performed
the world’s first successful human-tohuman heart transplant in 1967.
Those intimate moments you share with
patients are hard but the most rewarding, he
said: “You know you’re helping them.”
Patty was transported to Bismarck, where
she was put into therapeutic hypothermia,
“like a corpse,” for 24 hours.
Billie says that although her sister still has
no memory of those few days, Patty is now
perfect.
They were there in a flash, but by then,
Patty was insisting that she felt fine.
“I’ve spent my entire nursing career in
critical care and I had this deep intuition that
something wasn’t right. We’re going in to the
hospital,” Billie said.
Her mind took a snapshot at the moment
of her brother-in-law, moving as though
through quicksand and white-faced.
________Dr.
_____Billie
___________Madler
____________
Chair, Online and Distance
Nursing Education
Billings, MT, Senior in Nursing
Because it is the nurse who spends most time with them, it is to the nurse that
patients turn for explanations, information, concerns and reassurance, she said.
That’s why the quality of compassion is a must for a good nurse, Mary said.
“You are able to care for patients of all different backgrounds and in all stages of
life,” she said. “Nurses enjoy that patient contact.”
Critical thinking skills are vital for a good nurse, she said, to be able to assess
patient needs and make correct judgments. Nurses also need to know when to step
back, when they’ve done all they can. Then, she said, “we’re going to have to let God
handle it.”
Eventually, Mary would like to end up in the ER (“as a nurse, not a patient,” she
quipped). She could imagine going on to get her master’s degree and perhaps even
eventually to teaching.
“That’s the great thing about nursing,” Mary said. “There are so many options.”
www.umary.edu
7
UN I V ER S I T Y O F M A RY C H I S CHOL A RS HIP S
‘meeting
the demand’
“Today’s nurse must have a perfect blend
of compassion, critical thinking, and the
ability to be technologically savvy.
“As a nurse educator, I am honored to
be able to facilitate such professional
growth and feel privileged to be a part
of each student’s ultimate goal —
to be the best nurse they can be.”
— Molly Nolan
Molly Nolan is the LPN to BSN Completion Program Coordinator at the
University of Mary and serves as faculty in the areas of Simulation, NCLEX
review, and Leadership and Management in Mary’s Division of Nursing.
T
he average age of a nurse today is around 47. Fifty-five
percent are age 50 or older. One million nurses will hit
retirement age in the next 10 to 15 years.
These retiring nurses will be leaving an already-short
nursing workforce just as their fellow aging Boomers will
needing more health care.
The U.S. shortage of nurses is expected to grow past a
quarter-million by 2025. This shortfall is twice as large as any
shortage experienced in the U.S. since the 1960s.
Furthermore, in 2010, the Institute of Medicine released a
report that called for increasing the number of baccalaureateprepared nurses to 80 percent and doubling the population of
nurses with doctoral degrees.
The demand and rigor of health careers is only increasing,
said Dr. Glenda Reemts, chair of the Nursing Division at the
University of Mary.
So when Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) announced
a gift of $10 million to the University of Mary for nursing
scholarships, the reaction from the university’s Nursing
Division was ecstatic: “We were thrilled,” Reemts said.
Three new scholarship options will be available to students
due to the partnership with CHI, a faith-based national
healthcare network.
Through these generous incentives, students can earn
awards ranging from $3,000 up to a tuition-free senior year.
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Momentum
Monsignor James P. Shea, University of Mary President,
believes the scholarships are a “game-changer” for North
Dakota and the region.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” Shea said. “It turns
college dreams into reality, expands the pool of well-trained
healthcare professionals and raises the standard of living for
North Dakotans and residents of the upper Midwest region
alike.”
Dr. Jodi Roller, Dean of the School of Health Sciences
and Professor of Physical Therapy, said the CHI Scholarship
Program is a timely one as the need for healthcare workers
continues to grow.
“As a recent study from Georgetown University
demonstrates, the market for healthcare workers is expected
to grow at twice the rate of the U.S. economy by 2020,” Roller
said. “The CHI Scholarship Program positions the University
of Mary to meet this need while fulfilling our mission of
providing a serious and affordable education.”
The CHI
Scholarship
program
incl udes:
Dr. Karen Rohr, Director of Bioethics
The CHI Nursing
Scholarship:
Nursing students with a start date of fall 2015 or later
can complete their senior year tuition-free.
The CHI Commitment
Scholarship:
Current and transfer nursing students who complete the
nursing program in spring 2018 can receive up to $3,000 of
additional scholarships their senior year.
The CHI Future Healthcare
Leaders Scholarship:
All North Dakota high school graduates majoring in eligible
health sciences, business or behavioral sciences programs can
receive up to $1,500 of stackable scholarship aid per term.
That’s up to $12,000 of savings that can be combined with
other scholarships.
To qualify, students need to be enrolled at the University of
Mary, complete courses on the Bismarck campus, and intend
to seek employment with a CHI Health organization.
For complete scholarship details including which degrees
qualify, visit umary.edu/chi-scholarships.
This gift offers the university a tremendous tool in its
mission to attract and educate top-tier nursing students by
offering generous scholarships for student nurses and other
health care students, Reemts said.
“CHI scholarships have the potential to fill those positions,”
she said. “Mainly because it will draw to us an increased
number of highly qualified applicants and increase our pool of
students.”
BIOETHICS
DEGREE
ADDRESSES THE
CRITICAL ISSUES
T
he University of Mary, in partnership with the
National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) in
Philadelphia, is developing a new degree, Master of
Science in Bioethics, which grapples with contemporary
issues surrounding medical technology and techniques
in the setting of Catholic social teaching.
This makes Mary one of just a few Catholic universities
in the nation to offer a master’s of science program in
bioethics and the first in North Dakota.
“It is exciting that the University of Mary is expanding its
identity to include bioethics,” said Dr. Karen Rohr, associate
professor and new director of Bioethics and Faculty
Formation at the university.
Medical and legal professionals today face many difficult
ethical situations, such as human embryonic stem cell
research, cloning and euthanasia — profound issues of life
and death and the human person.
“We are at a critical time in our culture,” said University
of Mary President Monsignor James Shea. “We need
systematic formation of health care professionals who are
able to supply the Catholic moral tradition to challenging
contemporary issues.”
The program, Shea said, will work toward establishing a
culture of life that respects and safeguards human dignity.
Father Damien or St. Damien
of Molokai, (1840-1889) Belgian priest recognized for his
ministry to people with leprosy medically quarantined on
the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
A degree in bioethics can benefit professionals and
specialists in areas such as churches, healthcare facilities,
ethics committees, biomedical and biological research
facilities, universities, government, and more.
For more information, visit www.umary.edu/bioethics.
www.umary.edu
www.umary.edu
9
FRI EN DS O F M A RY
&
10,000 BABIES
counting
Drs. Jan & Robert Bury, longtime Bismarck OB/GYNs
T
he lives of doctors who work in obstetrics and gynecology
aren’t measured by the tick-tock of traditional office hours
– babies are born on their own timetable.
Between them, Drs. Bob and Jan Bury have delivered more
than 10,000 babies.
But, Jan says, even after delivering thousands of babies, each
new delivery is as rewarding, as joyful, as the first one.
It’s one reason she loves to go to work each day – the chance
to do work that she passionately loves is a blessing, she said.
Bob, a South Dakota-raised farm boy, and Jan, a Bismarck
Catholic Schools girl, have 10 children in their family and are
approaching that number of grandchildren as well.
“Jan is different,” Bob said. Most people in practice as long as
she has been are drifting toward taking more time off, he said.
become a student nurse at Mary, and eventually on to medical
school.
“They don’t give the absolute personal care that she gives.”
The Catholic, Benedictine, Christian base of the university is
something she especially appreciates, she said.
A
fter attending South Dakota State University to earn his
veterinary degree, Bob practiced in Fargo for a year and
then joined the faculty at SDSU. From there he went to Baylor
University in Houston to attend medical school and complete
his residency.
Bob moved to Bismarck in 1979 and the couple has lived here
ever since, except for the years that he and Jan lived in Kansas
City while she finished her medical training.
Even then, so far away from Bismarck, they supported the
University of Mary, he said, without even knowing for sure if
they would return to Bismarck.
It was a Mid Dakota surgeon, Steve Hamar, who called Bob
relentlessly to come back to Bismarck. He was needed here,
Steve said.
Steve succeeded, even if he may have picked the wrong
persuasive approach.
As they talked on the phone one February day, Bob asked
Steve what he was doing. He was shoveling his car out to get to
work, he said.
“Steve,” Bob said, “I’m mowing my lawn.”
Nevertheless, coming to Bismarck was a perfect fit, Bob said.
The lack of OB/GYN practitioners meant that Bob was able
to create a practice that used all his skills. The practice at Mid
Dakota Clinic is now called the Center for Women.
T
he University of Mary is a cornerstone of Bismarck, Bob
said. When recruiting medical staff, Bob always points to
the campus on the hill as an incentive to come here.
Bob said he appreciates the energy with which the school
has pursued its programs, the doctorates it is adding, and its
proactive vision for the future.
10
Momentum
Bob retired several years
ago. With their children
grown, it’s Sawyer, their
sweet-natured 11-yearold dog, who waits for
Jan to come home each
day, reclining on the same
stair in the same position.
“It’s really vital to this community to have the university to
keep us moving forward,” Jan said. “It readies young people.
That’s the future of any community, to have them stay or to
have them come back.”
Jan was a member of the planning committees for the
university’s strategic plan, Vision 2030, in which establishing a
medical school was discussed.
Medical schools are scarce in this region of the country, she
said, “and Bismarck is the hub.”
With North Dakota’s phenomenal growth in the past few
years, births are up 30 to 50 percent, Jan said.
Somebody will have to deliver all those babies.
For herself and for Bob, she said, OB/GYN “feels right.
Nothing else that either of us could do could be one-tenth as
satisfying.
“If you have that calling and that passion,” she said, you think
each day, “I get to go to work today and do what I love.”
Jan doesn’t complain if a baby comes in the middle of the
night because she takes her role beyond the delivery room.
“That’s the nurse in me,” she said. “I think that nursing
education gave me a better compassion for people.”
The compassion encompasses the sorrowful, the hard times
that can come with birth, as well.
When a baby is stillborn, or dies, or
has severe health problems, Jan doesn’t
put on a hard protective shell. In those
profound moments, Jan is sitting at the
patient’s bedside.
Jan gives credit to the Benedictine-guided nursing education
she received at the University of Mary for her approach to her
patients.
“To cry with that person, to just hold
their hand, being there in
their sadness, just sharing
your presence, those are
such meaningful moments.
At St. Alexius (now CHI St. Alexius Health) she started out
as a candy-striper, became a nurse’s aide at 16, and went on to
“Somebody has to do
those things,” she said.
www.umary.edu 11
ALU M N I O F M A RY
WORKING WITH
COMPASSION
T
ony Hollar became interested in physical
therapy as early as the eighth grade,
when he job-shadowed a physical therapist.
“This is fun,” he thought then – to be able
to know people, to interact with them, exercise
with them, improve their quality of life.
Today, in his physical therapy practice,
Tony, a native of Beach, N.D., believes that
one of the best ensurers of success is to
surround oneself with smart people.
In this case, those people also happen to be
fellow University of Mary alumni. Of Tony’s
team of therapists at Advanced Physical
Therapy in Bismarck, Beach and Steele, all
but one is a University of Mary graduate.
Tony gives credit to that team as a huge part
of making his practice thrive, along with his
wife, Kristi, and his partner, Marcus Hieb.
The University of Mary prepared his team
well; they have drive and focus and just good,
good people, he said.
The Benedictine values of the university
infuse their work with the compassion with
which they deal with patients, he said.
Tony works with people with a variety
of conditions, from arthritis to chronic
12
Momentum
pain to injuries and more, and the most
important to-do he offers people is
strengthening exercise, he said.
“The body is a puzzle,” Tony said. Even
patients who come in with the same
symptoms are unique individuals. “We
treat each person differently,” he said.
The goal of the therapists in his group
is to get people to a point where they can
self-manage and then give them the tools
to maintain their health, he said.
In a culture where many people
no longer do the hard physical work
common to earlier eras, and where
lifestyles are more sedentary, anything
that promotes mobility is important, he
said.
Jill Jensen Kandel graduated
from the University of Mary
in 1977 with an RN/BS. After
graduation, she married and
moved with her husband, who
was from the Netherlands,
to Zambia, Africa, where he
taught agricultural practices.
The couple has four children.
Her book, So Many Africas:
Six Years in a Zambian Village,
(Autumn House Press) won
the 2014 Autumn House Press
Nonfiction Award.
Signed copies of So Many
Africas are available directly
from Jill, with free shipping at
www.jillkandel.com.
Books can also be
purchased from Autumn
House Press (www.
autumnhouse.org) or at
Amazon.
Q. How did your years in Zambia change you?
“
Living in Zambia gave me a larger perspective on life. It made me stronger.
In many ways Zambia was my coming-of-age; it made me who I am today.
Q. How do you feel now that your book is written?
“
I worked on this book for 14 years. Winning the Autumn House
Prize and having it published is still kind of a wonder to me. When
you start writing, you hope and you dream. You put in the work. But
you don't know where it will go. Writing is an act of faith.
Q. Has writing about your experiences changed
how you feel about that part of your life?
“
Writing about Zambia changed everything. Words have
always been an important part of my life and I was living in a
village where the act of talking was a daily struggle. When you
lose the ability to speak - to really communicate - there is a
sense of loss and isolation. And something odd happens: when
you stop talking, you stop hearing yourself. You forget who
you are.
When we moved back to America, I needed to find the
words in order to understand the years. When I started
writing about Africa, what I was doing was putting words
into a time that was basically a big silence in my life. I
was allowing myself to say what I hadn’t said. I needed to
articulate both the grief and the glory. I needed to take away
the silence.
Q. Anything else you’d like to share?
“
The body is pretty good at healing
itself,” Tony said. “There’s a saying in the
profession,” he said, “motion is lotion.”
Tony Hollar received his bachelor’s
degree in biology in 1999, and his
Master’s in Physical Therapy in 2001,
both from the University of Mary. Tony
and his wife, Kristi, have two children,
Ava and Pierce.
Jill Kandel’s book, So Many Africas: Six Years in a Zambian Village, has
received critical praise and the 2014 Autumn House Press Nonfiction
Award for its compelling story of a young wife and mother’s experiences
as she adapts to the very different world of Africa from her girlhood on the
prairies of North Dakota.
Her memoir, spare and immediate, takes the reader to the sandy, hot
countryside and villages of Zambia, where Kandel is immersed in a world
far different from the rich soil and the cold winters of North Dakota.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Theologian, organist, philosopher,
physician and medical missionary
in Africa. Recipient of the 1952
Nobel Peace Prize.
The publishing process has been remarkable. It’s like
getting a new job without a job description. There is a lot more to
learn than I realized. I suppose, what has surprised me the most is the
doors writing has opened. Three years ago, I was asked to teach journal
writing to female inmates at a local county jail. I was very hesitant, but
eventually started. I've been to jail over a hundred times now. Many of
the women have lost their voices and have stuffed their own stories.
I tell the women a little about my life, and it gives them courage to
begin to tell their own stories. The difficult things I lived through and
wrote about have been redeemed in ways I never expected.
www.umary.edu 13
ALU M N I C O M M I T T E E 2015
A LU MNI NE W S & NOTE S
1980s
SHELDON WELTZ, ’81, received the
2015 North Dakota Choral Director of
the Year award at the American Choral
Director’s Association Conference. Sheldon
is the Choral and Instrumental Music
Director at Park River Area High School in
Park River, ND.
BONNIE (MILLER) BENSON, ’88,
moved to Brentwood, CA and is working
part time as an elementary school counselor
at Krey Elementary. Bonnie earned her
Master of Arts in School Counseling in
1999 from Boise State University, and has
worked as a counselor for the past 15 years.
She is married to Mark Mason and has one
daughter and two stepchildren.
LEMA (LAPOINTE) LEADER
CHARGE, ’88, received a 25 year
TOP ROW: RYAN BARTH, ’04 NICOLETTE BORLAUG, ’09, DUBI CUMMINGS, ’06, ’07, ’08, DALE DINGMANN, ’01, ’03, WHITNEY FAUL, ’08
MIDDLE ROW: RICHARD GEARY II, ’02, ’05, MOLLY HERRINGTON, ’09, DANIEL KEITH, , ’05, KARL LEMBKE, ’94, MATT POWER, ’06, ’09
BOTTOM ROW: SARAH POWER, ’04, JANA RAKOWSKI, ’04, ’10, ARIK SPENCER, ’05, LEE WEISBECK, ’05, PAUL KEENEY, ’04,
T
he University of Mary
Alumni Association is an
integral part of the university
community.
The Alumni Committee
promotes the interest and
welfare of the alumni
association, fosters the welfare
and growth of the University
of Mary, and establishes
mutually beneficial relations
among the university, students,
faculty, parents, friends and its
alumni.
Current alumni committee
members include:
14
Momentum
RYAN BARTH, ’04,
RICHARD GEARY II,
SARAH POWER,
Bismarck, manager, Bill Barth
Ford-Mazda-Kia.
’02, ’05, Bismarck, sales
representative, Lilly USA,
LLC.
’04, Bismarck, medical
dosimetrist, Bismarck Cancer
Center (Secretary).
MOLLY HERRINGTON,
JANA RAKOWSKI, ’04,
’09, Bismarck, government
relations specialist, Kadrmas
Lee & Jackson (President)
’10, Bismarck, family nurse
practitioner, Sanford Health
Center.
DANIEL KEITH,
ARIK SPENCER, ’05,
Bismarck, ’05, orthodontist,
Feil Orthodontics (Vice
President)
Bismarck, executive vice
president, North Dakota
Motor Carriers Association.
DALE DINGMANN, ’01,
KARL LEMBKE, ’94,
LEE WEISBECK, ’05,
’03, West Fargo, IT operations
manager, Border States
Electric.
Bismarck, development
officer, State Historical
Society of North Dakota
Foundation.
Bismarck, market president,
Starion Financial Mandan
location.
NICOLETTE BORLAUG,
’09, Bismarck, marketing
coordinator, Lewis & Clark
Fort Mandan Foundation.
DUBI CUMMINGS, ’06,
’07, ’08, Williston, public
relations and marketing
manager, Mercy Medical
Center, Williston.
WHITNEY FAUL, ’08,
Mandan, instrumental
teacher, Mandan Middle
School.
MATT POWER, ’06, ’09,
Bismarck, sales professional,
BSN Sports.
Alumni Director:
PAUL KEENEY, ’04,
Hazelton, University of Mary
coaching award from the South Dakota
High School Coaches Association May
31, 2014. She spent 21 years coaching at
Todd County School District. Lema was
part of teams that captured district and
regional championships in volleyball,
including the 1993 State “A” Volleyball
Championship. She also won seven Lakota
Nation Championship titles in girls sports.
Leader Charge was the Native American
Representative with the South Dakota
Volleyball Coaches Association and the
State Volleyball Advisory Board.
JAMES MAIR, ’88, Director of the
Kansas City Kansas C.C. Blue Devils Jazz
Orchestra, was invited in 2014 to perform
two concerts at the 30th Annual Havana
Jazz Festival in Cuba. James was the 2013
Faculty of the Year award recipient at
Kansas City Kansas Community College,
and the 2014 Roueche Family Foundation
League for Innovation award recipient.
1990s
DANELLE (GALT) MCBEAN, ’92,
completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice
degree with specialty in Anesthesia from
Barry University in Miami, Florida in
July 2014. Danelle currently works as a
full-time staff Certified Registered Nurse
Anesthetist at Memorial Regional Hospital
in Hollywood, Florida. In addition,
she is a part-time faculty member for
Barry University’s Master of Science in
Anesthesiology program.
MARIA OSWALD, ’99, is now working
as the Clinical Director of the CVICU
(cardiovascular intensive care unit) and
PCCU (progressive cardiovascular care
unit) at a Level 1 Trauma hospital – John C.
Lincoln, North Mountain, in Phoenix, AZ.
John C. Lincoln, North Mountain is one of
five acute care hospitals within the Scottsdale
Lincoln Healthcare Network.
2000s
JASON DUPPONG, ’02, has accepted a
position as Human Resource Manager with
CompNet in Meridian, ID.
MERRETTA (KAHL) ANDERSON, ’03,
is employed by the Dupree Public School,
Dupree SD, as an Athletic Director and High
School Science Instructor.
ERIN HILL-OBAN, ’04, was elected
to serve a four-year term in the North
Dakota State Senate on November 4, 2014,
representing the people of District 35 in the
heart of Bismarck, ND.
LEE WEISBECK, ’05, has been promoted
to Mandan market president at Starion
Financial. Lee began his career with Starion
in 2007 as a business banking officer. He
was promoted to assistant vice president of
business banking in 2009 and vice president
of business banking in 2011. Lee has served
on the North Dakota Bankers Association
(NDBA) Agriculture Committee as vice
chairperson and chairperson.
2010s
ALLISON (HAYNES) STREETER, ’10,
is employed as a Team Leader and Staff Nurse
at CHI St. Alexius Medical Center.
KAYLA EMTER, ’10, graduated from
Des Moines University School of Podiatric
Medicine and Surgery on May 23, 2014. Kayla
started a three-year surgical training
residency at Covenant Medical Center
in Waterloo, Iowa in July 2014.
KAYLA (OSTGARDEN) YOUNG,
’14, accepted the Supervisor position
in the Case Management/Utilization
Management Department at Essentia
Health Hospital in Fargo, ND. This
position is going to allow Kayla to build
her leadership skills and develop herself
both personally and professionally. In
addition, there are opportunities for
advancement in the department and at
the hospital, and this position will help
foster that growth.
IN MEMORY
MARGARET (CONNOLLY)
KNOLL, ‘70, Bismarck, ND, on
December 22, 2013
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
NIKKI (FRIGEN) RADEMACHER,
’03, to Jared Rademacher on July 4, 2014
MOLLY (SULLIVAN)
HERRINGTON, ’09, to Jim
Herrington on November 29, 2014
ALLISON (HAYNES) STREETER,
’10, to Steven Streeter on September 13,
2014
LACEY (JACOBS) OLHEISER,
’11, to Casey Olheiser on June 1, 2013
SMALL BLESSINGS
MERRETTA (KAHL) ANDERSON,
’03, & Chance Anderson, a boy,
Augustus Melvin, born November 6,
2014
KEEP IN TOUCH! HERE’S HOW.
We invite you to share your personal news and professional achievements with your
fellow alumni and the wider University of Mary community in Momentum.
Submit your information electronically at:
www.umary.edu/forms/alumni/
… or by mail to:
Please include:
Your name
Your address
Your email address
Year of graduation
Home and work phone number
Alumni spouse’s name and class year
Alumni Office
University of Mary
7500 University Drive
Bismarck, ND 58504
[email protected]
You are welcome to send photos to include with your news, such as baby pictures,
wedding pictures, or professional photos. Photos sent electronically should be
print quality. Sorry, we can’t return photos sent by mail.
www.umary.edu 15
FAC ULT Y P RO F I L E
MORAN SAGHIV HAS
A FOOT IN TWO
different
cultures
M
oran Saghiv, 39, Israeli-born, came to the U.S.
with his family at age 2, living in Chicago and
Madison, Wis., while his father went to school. After
seven years in the U.S., Moran’s family moved back to
Israel.
While at school, Moran was an athlete, playing tennis at the
national and international level. At age 18, he joined the Israeli
Army, since three years of military service is mandatory for
men, and two years for women.
Officers serve an additional year and members, like Moran,
of elite units similar to Navy SEALS or Army Rangers, serve five
years; officers, six.
We instill virtue and character
in the weight room, in the classroom,
and on the field…
VALUES FOR life.
“I can’t offer too many details about my military service,” he
said, but he can say he was released into civilian life as a major,
automatically enrolled in active duty reserves.
Skills required of elite units include weapons training and
specialized skills – sniper training, mining, explosives, SWAT
team tactics, hostage training, parachuting, diving, and handto-hand combat.
The Israeli martial art called krav maga was developed in the
1970s out of those elite units to deal with situations in which
you cannot use a weapon, Moran said.
Two basic things make a good soldier – you always produce a
positive outcome and you never lose control, he said.
Working in groups in the military teaches some important
lessons, Moran said.
It’s not having ‘the best of the best’ people that matters most
– it’s having a group with compatible skills, a group that can
work together, which may include a leader, a secondary leader,
a quiet leader, a joker, a sniper.
“When you are sending people to God-knows-where, you
have to get along, because it can be for years and in the worst
conditions,” he said.
Moran Saghiv, PhD, Associate
Professor, Exercise Physiology
Department
Research Coordinator, Clinical
Exercise Physiology Program
Louis Pasteur (18221895) French chemist and
microbiologist renowned
for discovering the
principles of vaccination,
providing support for the
germ theory of disease.
At the University of Mary, Moran is determined to bring his
cutting-edge specialty of clinical exercise physiology to benefit
the school, he said.
Moran’s PhD is in clinical exercise physiology with extensive
experience in research, and is the author of 34 published
articles.
Moran chose the University of Mary because he felt a good
connection with the program.
“I saw a challenge here,” he said, in being able to offer
a clinical exercise component to the university’s human
performance program.
Human performance, Moran said, is directed primarily at
sports, athletes and exercises. The clinical component adds
population studies of both those who are healthy and those
with renal, cardiac and other conditions.
Adding a clinical component, he said, gives students more
options, another range of positions and possibilities working in
hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
16
Momentum
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Andrea Muller
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(Olympia, WA)
(Bismarck, ND)
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(Ashland, WI)
(Glendale, AZ)
(Kingston, Jamaica)
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