UNIVERSIT Y MAGAZINE
SPRING 2020
LEARNING BEYOND THE GATES
FEAST OF SAINT CATHERINE, NOVEMBER 25, 2019 Alumni, students, faculty, and community members celebrated the illuminating power of knowledge at the annual Feast of Saint Catherine in Our Lady of Victory Chapel.
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT BETH HALLORAN VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS TOCCARA STARK MAOL’09, EdD EDITOR KAYLA FORBES MBA’17 DESIGNER EMILY MCDANIEL
CONTRIBUTORS JILL BRAUN RUTH HAAG BROMBACH ’60 BETH RIEDEL CARNEY ’82 KARA DEMARIE MLIS’16 SHARON DOHERTY, PhD KATE ELDRIDGE TRACIE FAUTH KATIE HENRY ’19 NATALIE HAMILTON MANDY IVERSON LINDSAY MADRYGA JOAN MITCHELL, CSJ, ’62 JEREMY MORIN MICHELLE MULLOWNEY ’17
MOLLY ORTH LINDSEY FREY PALMQUIST KELLY POVO ’09 SIRI RAASCH JON SCHULTZ SARAH VOIGT PHOTOGRAPHERS NATALIE GROSE ’20 MARA LANDON ’20 REBECCA SLATER ’10
ADDRESS CHANGES 651-690-6666 alumni@stkate.edu mag.stkate.edu @st.kates @stkate @stkates @St. Catherine University
UNIVERSIT Y MAGAZINE
SPRING 2020
FE AT U R E S
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Education Affirmed Through Community Connection St. Kate’s Center for Community Work and Learning connects students with Twin Cities organizations to enhance the academic experience. BY MICHELLE MULLOWNEY ’17
PHOTO/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
St. Catherine University Magazine is published three times a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications. No part of this publication may be reprinted without permission. St. Catherine University was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1905. Learn more: stkate.edu/ourhistory
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Scholars With Heart
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Catalysts for Good
SAVE THE DATE For a special announcement on stkate.edu and social media
MARCH 19, 2020
Interdisciplinary research conducted by nursing students and faculty uncovers a critical gap in care for families dealing with a traumatic prenatal diagnosis. BY LINDSEY FREY PALMQUIST
For Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting just a few Katies who have changed the landscape in education, healthcare, corporate culture, and more.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
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BOOKMARK
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AROUND CAMPUS
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KATIES IN ACTION
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CLASS NOTES
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IN MEMORY
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KATIE DIARY
ABOUT THE COVER
Across all three colleges and schools, education extends beyond the classroom. These are just a few snapshots of those opportunities.
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But always to [Mother Antonia] St. Catherine’s had been a great college. Even when it was only a dream. Never just a building on a hill, it was a growing family of buildings... All of these she planned, built, and peopled in her mind long before the architects were ever summoned... It is that vision for the future, that aspiration for excellence and the creative power to convert vision into reality that has distinguished Mother Antonia’s work in the entire field of education. –Alice Promer ’38 June 1936 Ariston
Mother Antonia McHugh, CSJ (1873–1944) St. Catherine University’s first dean from 1914 to 1929 and first president from 1929 to 1937
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From the President Excellence. It is both an ethos and practice
that has informed the past, present, and future of St. Catherine University. St. Catherine was established as a premier institution for women’s education. As such, it was founded on a model of excellence that emulated the academic rigor found at prestigious universities of the time, such as the University of Chicago. Since then, St. Kate’s has continually evolved to meet the needs of students and the world, while keeping women, our Catholic heritage, and the liberal arts central to who we are. Our growth began with earning full accreditation in 1917. In 1927, we began construction of Mendel Hall to be dedicated to the sciences — a radical idea for a women’s college at that time. Ten years later, we became the first Catholic institution in the United States to be awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. St. Kate’s continued to grow and evolve with the launch of the Weekend College in 1979, the first baccalaureate program in Minnesota for female nontraditional students, and merged with St. Mary’s Junior College in 1986 to link St. Kate’s to the oldest healthcare educator in the state. In 2009, we became a university, which recognized our breadth of degree and program offerings and increased our standing locally, regionally, and nationally. Today, we are the largest women’s private university in the nation, offering more than 90 programs at all degree levels. Our history is proof of our ability as an institution to daily live our mission to lead and influence in a multitude of ways. St. Kate’s students engage in an education like no other because we do not settle for the status quo. Instead, we blaze new trails that continually
set the education bar higher and deliver an academic experience that goes far beyond the classroom, as you will see highlighted in this issue. Each year, more than 1,600 students participate in service learning and internship programs that give them the opportunity to apply their in-class learning while building critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills (see page 4). Many of our students also engage in academic research with faculty, exploring topics that spark their passions, while solving complex problems and contributing to the greater good (see page 16). Delivering this exemplary experience for students requires the dedication of our talented faculty, the compassion and hard work of our staff, the leadership of our trustees and administration, partnerships with community organizations and employers, and the support and generosity of our alumni and donors. Together, we carry forward the legacy of St. Kate’s to provide women with access to a high-quality, liberal arts education and ensure it remains accessible to women for generations to come. And as we start this new decade, I cannot wait to see the next level of excellence we create together.
ReBecca Koenig Roloff ’76
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PHOTO/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY • SPRING 2020
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NAYNI PAUNG ’20 (CENTER), A PUBLIC HEALTH MAJOR, ASSISTS TWO PATRONS OF THE RONDO COMMUNITY LIBRARY DURING AN OPEN LAB SESSION. PAUNG IS EMPLOYED AT THE LIBRARY IN THE COMMUNITY LEADER PROGRAM THROUGH ST. KATE’S CENTER FOR COMMUNITY WORK AND LEARNING, ONE OF THE MANY SERVICE-LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED TO STUDENTS.
Education Aff irmed Through Community Connection St. Kate’s Center for Community Work and Learning connects students with Twin Cities organizations to enhance the academic experience. BY MICHELLE MULLOWNEY ’17
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isit Rondo Community Library in St. Paul on nearly any day of the week and you might see a St. Kate’s student leading a community workshop for adults, a conversation circle for youth, or tutoring elementary age students. What you may not see is that these roles are actually a part of the St. Catherine University undergraduate or graduate curriculum, or possibly a paid position, and they appear throughout other libraries and organizations across the Twin Cities. Community-focused student employment and servicelearning opportunities are where critical inquiry skills meet tangible application within an often complex world. Nayni Paung ’20, a public health major, works at both the Rondo Library and the George Latimer Central Library. She has a paid position through the Center for Community Work and Learning’s Community Leaders program, which also fulfills a capstone practicum. She helps facilitate Open Lab sessions, where she assists library patrons with a range of technology resources like email. But Paung also assists with some of life’s various challenges, such as identifying job opportunities or crafting résumés. Watching her interact with Rondo patrons, you would hardly guess Paung calls herself shy. A semester’s worth of work in the Open Lab sessions has fostered both her self-confidence and her professional skills.
“This position has helped me work my way out of my comfort zone,” says Paung. “I’m able to connect this Community Work and Learning experience to the public health theories I learn in class and help patrons get access to health resources. Working with them builds my understanding of social determinants of health — such as physical environment, genetics, and coping skills — that can affect their well-being. I think it’s important that students have classes and hands-on experiences.” Paung is also observing first-hand how powerful values like dedication and resilience can be. “There are times when a patron will come in to apply for a job, but doesn’t get hired, and you can see the frustration on their face. They may say, ‘I need to get this job now so I can provide for my family,’” Paung says. “The determination they show in coming back and applying again and again for different jobs is inspiring.” Paung’s experience with Open Labs in the Saint Paul Public Library (SPPL) system demonstrates the symbiotic power of Community Work and Learning (CWL) at St. Catherine University. Each term, CWL matches hundreds of students with service-learning opportunities at organizations across the Twin Cities and facilitates meaningful community engagement through curricular service-learning and paid employment opportunities. Each project exemplifies the University’s
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PHOTO/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
I’m able to connect this Community Work and Learning experience to the public health theories I learn in class and help patrons get access to health resources. –NAYNI PAUNG ’20
mission framework instilled by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, whose mission was to live and work within the community, not separate from it. “St. Kate’s is part of the community. Because of our founding by the Sisters of St. Joseph, social justice is in our DNA,” explains D’Ann Urbaniak Lesch, director of the Center for Community Work and Learning. “We have the opportunity and the responsibility to be deeply involved. The more we can do that, the better it is for our students, our community, and the people who participate in our partner organizations. For us, it’s an opportunity to both learn from and work with them.” And with eight years of partnership between SPPL and CWL, Paung is just one of many St. Kate’s students engaged in this reciprocal learning at the libraries. SPPL’s 13 locations are well situated to provide St. Kate’s
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students with opportunities to develop and practice their professional skills while supporting library programming for community members. Manny Ibarra ’21, a psychology major, is also engaged in community work with SPPL. On any given Saturday, you can find him sitting in a circle among a group of children and teens. He leads their youth conversation circle, a welcoming place for young people to practice English among a supportive group of peers. Ibarra chose conversation circles as a part of a required service-learning project for his Psychology Engages the World seminar course, but it is more than an opportunity to practice what he’s learning. “It’s broadened my education,” Ibarra says. “My previous year at St. Kate’s, I felt very segmented between on- and off-campus. This year, it clicked that I’m actually taking my knowledge, skills, and everything I’ve learned in lectures out into the world.” The growth experienced by students like Paung and Ibarra is something Wendy Neurer, volunteer coordinator for SPPL, has observed over the past eight years. “The students are seeing in real time what works and what doesn’t,” Neurer says. “This experience gives them a kind of road map they didn’t have before. For example, Nayni [Paung] is working within the Open Lab framework and she’s learning what fits her professional style as she works with a diverse population.”
CURRICULUM INFUSED WITH SERVICE-LEARNING Whether it’s a one-time collaboration or an ongoing internship, these community-oriented projects can vary widely in format and substance. Many students will complete at least one course with a service-learning component during their time at St. Kate’s as a part of University curriculum. It might be a weekly engagement, like Ibarra’s, or project-based, like a course taught by Sarah Rand, PhD, associate professor of business administration (pictured right). Rand connects service-learning into her curriculum in the form of a new project each semester. She has her
Buyer Behavior and Market Research students develop an ongoing research project throughout the term to help a partner-organization solve a marketing need. For instance, in 2016, one of Rand’s student groups collaborated with the Arlington Hills Community Center, an SPPL location seeking support with their youth program. For Rand, the quality of the connection between her marketing students and their SPPL project was tri-fold. “St. Kate’s mission is centered around social justice, and nonprofits are usually under-resourced and would love the opportunity to get help with marketing — plus, a lot of our students are interested in nonprofit work.” In their partnership with the Community Center, Rand’s students focused on the center’s Createch Studio, a digital technology space for teenagers to create and learn. The group collected data through a survey asking how the studio’s teenage patrons were utilizing the space and how it could better serve them. Lindsey Klein ’16, business administration alumna, was part of this group. Now a national sales representative at APi National Service Group, she credits the Createch Studio project with helping her develop valuable professional skills for her career. “You may picture these different scenarios in your head, but until you actually experience them you don’t know,” she says. “Critical thinking is such a big piece of it — looking at a set of data and putting together a solution. Being able to listen and understand a client’s business is a skill that I’ve definitely transferred over to my work at APi.” Rand has observed that the skills developed by community-engaged students like Klein play key roles in their post-graduation opportunities. “Students can take this market research framework and transfer it to corporate in any way. And they see that,” she says. “Some alumni have come back and told me that their ability to understand and articulate their experience working on client research projects helped them get hired.”
LEFT: MANNY IBARRA ’21 AND NAYNI PAUNG ’20 STAND OUTSIDE THE RONDO LIBRARY. ABOVE: IN 2018, BUSINESS PROFESSOR SARAH RAND (BACK, CENTER) AND HER STUDENTS COLLABORATED WITH COOKIE CART, A NONPROFIT, ON ITS MARKETING PLAN AS A PART OF A SERVICE-LEARNING COURSE COMPONENT.
Klein recalls that the project was meaningful beyond career preparation. “The experience of putting together a plan for a company and seeing its actual impact on the community is so important,” she says. “I’ve never been so fully involved in a project.”
COMMUNITY-FOCUSED EMPLOYMENT In addition to the Community Leaders program that Paung participates in, CWL offers students paid tutoring opportunities through America Reads, a literacy program in which students tutor children. Vishana Jaipat ’19 remembers her time working with the America Reads program with gratitude and fondness. As both tutor and student coordinator for America Reads, Jaipat’s dual role helped her not only develop new skills, but also build confidence in those skills. “Being able to influence and create gave me a sense of leadership, whether it was interacting with other tutors and students or creating resources to support the program,” she notes. Her experience has had a lasting impact on her current position as a case manager for Lutheran Social Services. “With America Reads, I learned to identify the needs of the students I tutored and the needs of the program itself,” says Jaipat, who graduated with a degree in social work. “I was able to think creatively in my work within a diverse population, which fits really well with social work.”
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ST. KATE’S STUDENTS CAN FIND REWARDING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH COMMUNITY WORK AND LEARNING. SHOWN HERE ARE THE STUDENTS WHO WORKED AS AMERICA READS TUTORS AT RONDO PUBLIC LIBRARY IN FALL 2018.
Community Work and Learning The Center for Community Work and Learning facilitates meaningful community engagement through service-learning and paid student employment, connecting more than 100 Twin Cities organizations with students and faculty each year. Working with America Reads “opened up a whole new world for me,” she continues. “I didn’t expect to find work that I was so passionate about and a community that I was so happy to be part of.”
WHERE LEARNING, CAREERS, AND COMMUNITY INTERSECT Academic excellence at St. Kate’s has always extended beyond the classroom, preparing students for their future in any setting. Last year CWL counted participation of more than 1,656 students and 35,017 hours of student engagement in service-learning or community-focused work across all three colleges. In University surveys, students report that the service-learning components integrated into curriculum enhanced their course learning and strengthened their ability to work with others. Students leave prepared to lead because they have gained and applied a myriad of skills — communication, collaboration, planning, critical thinking — throughout their time at St. Kate’s. “Applied learning and leadership practice can make all the difference,” Urbaniak Lesch says (pictured left). “We educate women to lead and inf luence, but that doesn’t just happen because they’re here [at St. Kate’s], we make those opportunities possible through Community Work and Learning so that students can start seeing themselves as a leader and become that leader through these types of experiences.”
SERVICE-LEARNING COURSES Students and faculty partner with community organizations to engage in collaborative work that enhances course learning. • 1,509 students • 16,986 student hours
PAID STUDENT EMPLOYMENT America Reads Students tutor youth to achieve math and reading goals. • 38 students • 5,248 student hours Assistantship Mentoring Program (AMP) Students collaborate with faculty or staff mentors as teaching, research, and program assistants. • 66 students • 6,223 student hours Community Leaders Students engage in paid positions at local community organizations. • 45 semester-based positions • 7,251 student hours Data is from the 2018–19 academic year and retrieved from the Community Work and Learning Annual Report 2018–19.
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ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY • SPRING 2020
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Bookmark
River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey by Sister Helen Prejean REVIEWED BY JOAN MITCHELL, CSJ, ’62
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nergetic and full of Cajun zest, Helen Prejean always connects the river and the fire that flowed through her with God. “Call it Mystery. Call it Grace,” she writes in her memoir River of Fire. Helen describes feeling “aflow with yes” as her parents drive her to New Orleans to enter the Sisters of St. Joseph. That call persists across Sister Helen’s 60 years in religious life and transforms her into a world leader in efforts to end the death penalty. Her memoir provides a lively record of one Sister living through the Second Vatican Council’s modern turn 1962– 1965. The religious life Helen enters had not yet left behind medieval practices of penance and humility, nor does she find a wise and kind Sound of Music-style temperament in every religious superior — but Sr. Helen remains irrepressible. After a lecture about faults and foibles, her reaction is not to improve her behavior, but
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instead to write “foibles” in her journal as a new word. Helen’s resilience is born of a close, loving family, which includes her athletic sister Mary and her brother Louie — a family she recognizes as privileged when in her later years she moves into an impoverished housing project. After making vows, Helen begins several years of teaching in a traditional classroom of seventh graders who delight in her exuberance. As the Catholic Church turns toward the modern world and solidarity with the afflicted, Helen’s community sends her to study the new theology at Notre Dame. She fills her journals with insights, explores and later ends a close relationship with a priest, moves out of schools and into parish religious education, and is then elected director of novices. When she takes her novices to hear Sister Marie Augusta Neal, SND, speak, it is Helen who takes to heart the social justice message, “Integral to that good
Women’s History Month Must-Reads A recommended reading list from the Abigail Quigley McCarthy Center for Women. Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillian Cottom Essays on race, class, gender, media, beauty, and culture from the perspective of sociology and the lived experience of a black woman. Recommended by: Nancy A. Heitzeg, PhD, professor of sociology
The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Lê Thi Diem Thúy news is that the poor are to be poor no longer.” “Poor no longer.” These three words send Helen into free fall and haunt her for a year, until she moves to St. Thomas housing project in New Orleans and begins working at Hope House. It’s there she volunteers with the Prison Coalition and agrees to write to an inmate, which ignites her protests against the death penalty. Her memoir ends where her bestseller, Dead Man Walking, begins.
A novel about a young Vietnamese refugee/immigrant girl that reads like a memoir with rich details and vulnerable language. Recommended by: Anh-Hoa Thi Nguyen, poet, lecturer, and administrative assistant for Core Curriculum
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli A novel about a family road trip reinventing the American travel narrative. It encourages thought about the desert landscape, our sound environments, and how we might best document the past and present. Recommended by: Francine Conley, PhD, professor of international languages and literatures, English, and creative writing; and Allison Adrian, PhD, associate professor of music and women’s studies
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love By Xinran Stories about the complex one-child policy in China, Chinese women and girls, and love. Recommended by: Jewelly Lee ’10, assistant director, Abigail Quigley McCarthy Center for Women
Anything of Which a Woman is Capable: A History of the Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States, Volume 1 By Mary M. McGlone, CSJ Joan Mitchell, CSJ, ’62 is a partner and publisher of Good Ground Press publishing house. She is an accomplished writer, theologian, and is a member of the Board of Trustees.
Sr. Mary McGlone traces the history of the Sisters and their values through a sociopolitical lens back to Le Puy, France and to their establishment in the United States. Readers will be inspired by the biographical stories and their passion for service. Recommended by: Anita Jones Thomas, PhD, executive vice president and provost
Read the full book list at stkate.edu/whm. stkate.edu
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Around Campus $1 MILLION DONATION FROM JAMES J. HILL CENTER PAVES WAY FOR DATA SCIENCE The James J. Hill Center (left) made a $1 million gift to St. Catherine University, honoring the memory of the nonprofit’s first board trustee and philanthropic leader, Mary T. Hill. The Hill family and St. Kate’s have held a connection of service since very early on, when Mary T. Hill and Sr. Seraphine Ireland were schoolmates in St. Paul. The donation will support a new director position in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences that will lead the data science program at the University. Monica Brown, assistant professor and department chair of the mathematics department, has been named to the role. As the Mary T. Hill Director of Data Analysis, she’ll lead a program that includes data-related research conducted by faculty and students in collaboration with community partners and businesses. PHOTO/JAMES J. HILL CENTER/GRADDY PHOTOGRAPHY
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NEW PHI KAPPA PHI CHAPTER INDUCTS FIRST MEMBERS St. Kate’s new Phi Kappa Phi chapter welcomed 32 current students and 51 alumni at its first ceremony this fall. Phi Kappa Phi is one of the first honor societies established in the United States, and is the oldest U.S. honor society to welcome members from all disciplines. Membership is invite-only and is granted to students within the top 10 percent of their class. “I’m grateful to be here today to recognize the academic excellence of people throughout our community,” said chapter president Rafael Cervantes, PhD, associate professor and department chair for honors, at the event. “That is, at its heart, the purpose of Phi Kappa Phi — to recognize the academic achievement and excellence happening throughout our University [and] to bring those people together to form a community.” St. Kate’s has more than 24 honor society chapters, including Phi Beta Kappa (PBK). The PBK chapter was established in 1938, and St. Kate’s was the first Catholic institution of higher education to earn this honor.
NEW DEAN ANNOUNCED FOR SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
NEW VP WITH FOCUS ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Benson K. Whitney, JD, has been named the dean of the School of Business. Whitney brings 30 years of experience as an ambassador, venture capitalist, business attorney, and community leader.
May Thao-Schuck, MBA, has been named the new Teresa Rolling Radzinski Vice President of Career and Professional Development at St. Catherine University. She was previously director of the workforce development employment and training programs division for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Whitney was most recently an education activist and consultant, dividing his time between Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., working on education reform efforts. He helped found Great MN Schools, a $15 million venture philanthropy fund to develop high performing schools for children from low-income backgrounds in Minneapolis. Prior to that, Whitney served from 2005 to 2009 as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway during the Bush Administration, where he oversaw all aspects of bilateral relationship with Norway and managed the U.S. embassy.
At St. Kate’s, Thao-Schuck will make career development central to the student experience from the moment students step onto campus. This means engaging students, parents, and families in career awareness and planning. She will also partner with faculty on integrating career readiness into the classroom experience and connecting students to internships, service-learning, and other career-related opportunities. She will also grow the partnership between the career center and alumni relations office to offer additional support and services to alumni. This new leadership role is funded in part from a gift from Teresa Radzinski ’86 and her husband, Michael.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CHOSEN FOR THE O’SHAUGHNESSY Paul Organisak was hired as executive director of The O’Shaughnessy. Organisak, a 30-year veteran of arts administration, assumed his role in November. Through his relationship with the dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Organisak will support collaboration with faculty, students, and staff to create partnerships that integrate the venue’s programmatic focus into academic and student life. This includes developing, implementing, curating, and evaluating all programming that speaks to the mission, vision, values, and positioning of the venue on campus, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Organisak most recently served as president and CEO of the Harris Theater, a 1,500-seat indoor venue located in Millennial Park in Chicago. Prior to that, he was vice president of programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and executive director of the Pittsburgh Dance Council, which became a division of the Trust in 2002. In all roles he oversaw programming across multiple performance disciplines, including dance and music. Earlier performance administration positions include the American College Dance Festival Association and Dance Umbrella in Boston.
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FACULTY MEMBER TO KEYNOTE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Pa Der Vang, PhD, associate professor of social work, Alberta Huber, CSJ Endowed Chair in the Liberal Arts, and director of the Evaleen Neufeld Initiative in the Liberal Arts, will keynote the University’s International Women’s Day event. Vang will be joined by several contributing authors who will be featured in her new book, Staring Down the Tiger: Stories of Hmong American Women. This book shares captivating stories of the courage, resilience, and everyday brilliance of Hmong American women. Vang recently organized the Hmong Studies Consortium International Conference, which brought scholars from all over the world, including China, Nigeria, Laos, and Thailand, to St. Kate’s. The 160 attendees participated in topics such as Hmong identity, war and memory, disparities in education and health, and arts and performance.
For more St. Kate’s news and to read full announcements, visit stkate.edu/news.
(LEFT) ST. KATE’S MIAC ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM MEMBERS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: SYDNEY BRANDT ’22, SYDNEY BROWN ’23, AND KATHRYN TAYLOR ’22. (RIGHT) JORDAN AMELON ’21.
GOLFERS SET SEASON RECORD BY LINDSAY MADRYGA The Wildcat golf team capped off a record-setting fall season with the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Women’s Golf Championship in September. At the three-day event, the team combined for program-low rounds at the championship, highlighted by the first day of the tournament when the team combined for a program-best championship round of 312. Sophomores Sydney Brandt ’22 and Kathryn Taylor ’22, along with first-year Sydney Brown ’23, earned AllTournament Team honors after finishing in the top 10 and leading the team to a second place finish and a program-low 54-hole score of 943. Brown led the team through each round, finishing in fourth place as an individual, shooting a program-low 54-hole score of 232. Taylor finished in eighth overall, carding a 237 after 54 holes, ranking her in the third spot in program history at the conference championship. Brandt was two strokes behind Taylor, finishing in the tenth spot with a 54-hole score of 239 and the sixth-best finish on record from a Wildcat.
Senior Maddie Weinman ’20 and junior Jordan Amelon ’21 also competed in the championship, finishing the tournament with personal-best scores. Amelon’s score of 246 resulted in 17th place, while Weinman came in 21st place, shooting 247 after 54 holes. Leading up to the fall championship, the golfers rewrote the record books, finishing as a team in the top three at each tournament appearance. In the second tournament of the season, the Wildcats collected a first-place title, three top 10 finishes, and seven career-best 18-hole scores. After finishing the first 18 holes with a programbest score of 297, the team concluded the 36-hole tournament with a program-best finish of 602. The team started the season with a third-place finish and rounded out with a second-place title plus another third-place finish, which is the best fall season since the inaugural season in fall 2011. Read Wildcat news at stkatesathletics.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SISTER MONA RILEY ENDOWED CHAIR LECTURE April 16, 2020 stkate.edu/mona
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY March 8, 2020 stkate.edu/WomensDay
SISTER SERAPHIM GIBBONS DAY OF SCHOLARSHIP April 23, 2020 stkate.edu/seraphim
FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH March 10, 2020 stkate.edu/feast
GOODMAN LECTURE April 23, 2020 stkate.edu/goodman
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Scholars With Heart Interdisciplinary research conducted by nursing students and faculty uncovers a critical gap in care for families dealing with a traumatic prenatal diagnosis. BY LINDSEY FREY PALMQUIST
PROFESSOR KATIE CAMPBELL, PHD, FLANKED BY NURSING MAJORS MEGHAN LANDRY ’21 (LEFT) AND MEGHAN KATERS ’21 ARE IN YEAR THREE OF A COLLABORATIVE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT, WHICH HAS ENGAGED MAYO CLINIC AND RECEIVED HIGH ACCOLADES FROM THE UNIVERSITY. 16
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PHOTOS/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
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n the face of great tragedy, having the courage to publicly share our personal experiences of loss and healing can have an impact far greater than we could ever imagine. Not only does sharing provide a means to soothe others who are suffering through related experiences, but our stories have the power to inspire individuals and unite communities in pursuit of a solution to our pain. It’s a heartfelt truth that nursing student Meghan Landry ’21 can confirm. As she was growing up, Landry’s family kept a copy of the book Waiting With Gabriel: A Story of Cherishing a Baby’s Brief Life (2003) close at hand. The book was authored by Amy Kuebelbeck, a close family friend, who wrote about her son’s diagnosis in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare congenital heart defect. Fatal without surgical intervention, care decisions for parents of children with this condition include perinatal hospice or multiple open-heart surgeries performed during the first few years of life. Surgical survival rates are often unclear and the children face lifelong medical implications with increased need for cardiac transplantation in their future. While recent surgical advances continue to bring hope to some families with HLHS diagnoses, Kuebelbeck’s family chose perinatal hospice and palliative care for their child. Her book describes the family’s experience with his impending birth, subsequent passing, and their cherished time with him.
CALLED TO SCHOLARSHIP Landry read the book when she was 10 years old, and the story stayed with her. In the spring of 2018, her first
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year at St. Kate’s, she was attending an interprofessional education forum with fellow nursing student Erica Olson ’21. During a presentation by Katie Campbell, PhD, assistant professor of interprofessional education and director of the Women’s Health Integrative Research (WHIR) Center, Landry heard that Campbell’s doctoral research had focused on HLHS at Mayo Clinic. With this common interest established, Landry and Olson approached Campbell after the event to ask about applying together for Summer Scholars, a 10-week, collaborative undergraduate research program. Faculty and students jointly prepare and submit an application. Their proposal must demonstrate that the project will provide meaningful, rich experiences for students, and allow them to make a significant contribution to scholarship. Approved projects receive funding through the Collaborative Undergraduate Research program. Campbell and the students promptly applied for the Summer Scholars 2018 program with a focus on conducting a quality improvement study around the parental experience with HLHS. “It felt like it was meant to be,” Landry says. “I felt such an immediate connection to this project. It was perfect, and I wanted to help.” Campbell had previously studied the biomedical side of HLHS at Mayo Clinic, and — as a new mother herself — was motivated to learn more about the maternal experience with HLHS and hopefully improve support for families. “I was extremely excited because I really wanted to dive deeper into how new mothers experience the interprofessional care team,” Campbell says. “This really gave me an opportunity to have time and student support
MEGHAN LANDRY ’21 (LEFT) AND ERICA OLSON ’21 (BELOW) APPROACHED PROFESSOR KATIE CAMPBELL, PHD, WITH INTEREST IN HER DOCTORAL WORK ON HYPOPLASTIC LEFT HEART SYNDROME (HLHS).
in broadening that line of scholarship at St. Kate’s. It also connected back to my work at Mayo Clinic but with a different approach to the same issue of HLHS.” That cross-disciplinary and collaborative origin story brought the project to prominence for Cynthia Norton, PhD, professor of biology and women’s studies, and director of Collaborative Undergraduate Research and the Summer Scholars Program. “The fact that the students were involved from the very beginning is special here. They brought a passion for the topic. Dr. Campbell brought her expertise and connection to Mayo Clinic. It all came together very collaboratively.” Their application was accepted into Summer Scholars for 10 weeks of funded research and professional development. The project also was awarded supplemental funding through an Academic Excellence Grant from the Minneapolis-based GHR Foundation, founded in 1965 by Gerald and Henrietta Rauenhorst ’49.
UNCOVERING A CRITICAL GAP IN CARE Campbell’s previous work in HLHS at Mayo Clinic provided the team with connections and resources to jump start the project, including the addition of her former mentor, Timothy J. Nelson, MD, PhD, director of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for HLHS. The students and Campbell made regular trips to Mayo Clinic over the summer to meet with Dr. Nelson and his team, and they took turns conducting interviews with 12 clinicians and two mothers of children with HLHS. “We did many practice interviews. We were all really nervous, especially because we knew we would be talking to doctors that treat children with HLHS and families of children with HLHS — people we wanted to be sensitive with,” says Olson. “We did a lot of practice with Katie
PHOTO/MARA LANDON ’20
[Campbell], and Summer Scholars mentors had us give practice presentations to them, too. That really helped us by the time we got there.” Landry encouraged the team to each read Waiting With Gabriel , and Olson and Campbell found the first-hand perspective extremely moving and valuable insight for the project. Campbell cited the book’s critical importance in informing interview questions and the shared understanding the team built together throughout the work. “Amy [Kuebelbeck]’s book helped us learn what trigger phrases we should be listening for in our interviews,” Campbell says. “With her perspective, we were able to readily recognize when the clinical staff used these phrases and pick up on their emotional impact on families.” The interviews the team conducted began to reveal common themes: families were often feeling confused, unsupported, and — at times — emotionally abandoned by the care team while their children were being treated for HLHS or going through palliative care. The team presented their findings, “Identifying Gaps in Parental Support for Families With Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome,” to Dr. Nelson and his colleagues at Mayo Clinic. They were surprised by what they’d heard and motivated to learn more. “I think this research really highlighted that families feel neglected once we’re done with surgeries, and yet there are lifelong wellness and follow-up needs of these families that perhaps we underestimated as a healthcare team,” says Dr. Nelson. “That was the specific, meaningful, actionable knowledge that we received through this dedicated effort.” Lisa Dutton, PhD, dean of health sciences in the Henrietta Schmoll School of Health, oversees the GHR grant that funded their work. “This [research] provides students with a unique lens into what it’s like for a family — that’s something we really value at St. Kate’s — thinking about the whole person, their family, and how social context and systems impact health. This particular project really brought that forward by looking at how we can better support these families.” Not only was the team at Mayo Clinic intrigued by the results of their research, but Campbell and the students received high accolades when they presented at the closing session of Summer Scholars in August 2018. Students present their research to each other for peer review and also to the program’s community of scholars, including faculty, staff, administrators, parents, alumni, and more.
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MEGHAN KATERS ’21 JOINED THE RESEARCH TEAM IN FALL 2018. KATIE CAMPBELL, PHD (RIGHT) TALKING WITH AN OBSERVER IN FRONT OF THE RESEARCH TEAM’S POSTER.
Both Dr. Nelson’s and Campbell’s teams realized the importance of validating these themes on a larger scale and continuing the work beyond the 10-week Summer Scholars project. With the generous added support of a GHR Innovation Scholarship grant, the project’s funding was extended, and Campbell was able to invite another talented nursing student, Meghan Katers ’21, to join the research team in September 2018. Throughout the 2018–2019 academic year, Campbell and all three nursing students worked closely with Dr. Nelson and the Mayo Clinic team to develop an electronic survey that would confirm gaps in parental support identified through the Summer Scholars work. The students also traveled to present their work at regional research conferences at both Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. While Olson left the project in Spring 2019, she credits the inspiration and energy she found in presenting the work with pointing her education toward public health research. “Through this project, I was able to identify that I love the sense of community and togetherness I felt at conferences where people could relate to one another over common disabilities and diagnoses in their kids,” Olson says. “And I absolutely love conducting research. It’s a really fascinating part of the science world, and you do a lot of research in public health.”
CONNECTING PERSPECTIVES Impressed with the students’ findings and the survey instrument they were developing, Dr. Nelson and the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for HLHS generously agreed to fund Landry and Katers for another 10 weeks of full-time collaboration over the summer of 2019. The continued support allowed Landry and Katers
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to shift from a qualitative, interview-based study into quantitative research with a goal of further substantiating their findings. For Dean Dutton, this extramural funding spoke to St. Kate’s values and was the natural progression from the GHR funding that she hopes to see. “This is a great example of a couple of things: being centered on women’s health is in line with our mission, and it’s interprofessional,” Dutton says. “Our intent is that we are giving students and faculty a start on some of these projects and hopefully that will provide a foundation for future external funding, which was the case in this particular example.” The students soon distributed a detailed survey to families of HLHS patients through social media. Survey questions focused on the parents’ experience with and perceptions of support from the HLHS interprofessional care team. The expectations were low, as most of the current family-focused research in the field of HLHS had gathered feedback from between 200 and 400 respondents. “We were hoping for 100 participants,” Katers recalls. “Dr. Nelson pushed us to try for more, maybe 200.” They received 690 total responses. The implications were huge for the entire field of HLHS study and other medical research relying on parental feedback and participation. “When they came back and told me they’d received nearly 700 [responses], I was thoroughly impressed,” Dr. Nelson says. “I was blown away by their ability to use social media to engage families across the country and move them into filling out the survey. That’s a testament to the students’ ability to craft clear questions and frame them in a way that got people engaged even though it’s a vulnerable topic.” Campbell was also thrilled by the results. “It was incredibly heartwarming to picture families compelled to contribute back to research so we can support parents going through this process. We had all types of parents, too — mothers who are currently pregnant, parents whose children are deceased, some who chose surgical intervention, and some who chose perinatal hospice care — a variety of perspectives we could learn from.”
For the students, it revealed they were making a difference in the world. “It’s been mind-blowing to see that things that were just hypotheses — like ‘this population isn’t supported’ — now we actually have statistics to back it up,” says Landry. Katers agrees, “We got so much wonderful information from that. Now we can look at publishing our work to disseminate those findings to the general public or create some kind of intervention to help them.”
CHANGING THE FACE OF HEALTHCARE Over the past two years, the team has presented their work eight times (and counting), including presentations at a pediatric cardiology conference in Kansas City, the 2019 National Conference for Undergraduate Research in Georgia, and Cardiology 2020 in Florida — where their work was selected for an exclusive evening poster session — a podium presentation as one of the top eight nursing abstracts, and as a finalist for the Nurse Scientist Award. Katers’ and Landry’s attendance, registration fees, and travel has been funded in part through additional GHR travel scholarships and through the generous support of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for HLHS. “It’s impressive how they’ve grown independently,” Campbell says of the students. “And I’ve watched them realize their expertise on this, build their confidence, and present to an audience with authority and clarity. It was a good experience for them to discuss something they were not studying in coursework with professionalism and confidence.” With a continuation of funding from the Wanek Program through the 2019–2020 academic year, the next step in the project will be planning a parental support intervention for families going through the HLHS care process at Mayo Clinic. Landry and Katers are already planning to focus on testing the efficacy of that intervention through the 2020–2021 academic year as part of a joint senior honors project for the Antonian Honors Program. They both hope the intervention will
be an opportunity to affect real change for families on their journey with HLHS. Campbell is proud of the work they’ve done together — but even more proud of the students. “I can’t say enough about these students, their motivation, and their determination to see this through. What I thought was going to be a three-month project has turned into more than two years. I don’t know if I would have had the time or resources to move it forward if the students weren’t asking to continue. Their continued commitment has been really exciting.” Dr. Nelson views student-sponsored research as a potential solution to the many issues facing the healthcare system today. “I don’t think young people firmly realize the impact they can have in research projects like this. This project was a perfect example of student-inspired healthcare that really challenged assumptions and pushed things forward in a way that we wouldn’t have done ourselves, perhaps,” he says. “This program St. Kate’s has created and the leadership of Dr. Campbell and these students makes me optimistic that we can tackle bigger and bigger problems with healthcare in the future. They’ve essentially created a platform that allows us to dream, and I think it’s the tip of a much bigger iceberg of possibilities.”
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PHOTO/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
ST. CATHERINE UNIVERSITY • SPRING 2020
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Katies in Action
A change leader both as a University Trustee and as a lawyer BY SARAH VOIGT
Margaret Ford ’82, JD, was invited to join the Board of Trustees 12 years ago — during the very same time St. Catherine University was undergoing vast changes. “We were just becoming a University, so we were focused on making sure that the culture and the mission traversed through that whole new system,” says Ford. Years later, the University welcomed a new president and then launched a campus integration strategy to unite the two campuses. A steady, reassuring voice from the Board of Trustees was needed — and Ford delivered. “Margaret Ford is everything you could want in a leader,” says ReBecca Koenig Roloff ’76, president of St. Catherine University. “While her tone is gentle and encouraging, her intellect is incisive, her confidence is unwavering. When she makes a decision, it is thoughtful and she sticks with it. She leads and influences with wisdom, compassion, and a sparkle uniquely her own. I treasure her and all she does for St. Kate’s.” Ford credits her St. Kate’s education with helping her find her voice and path. “We were encouraged to have an opinion in every class we took and be okay with being the first one to talk about something,” Ford recalls. She says that claiming your space as an informed individual was, and still is, a valuable part of a St. Kate’s education. As her graduation approached, Ford knew she wanted to continue developing her skills as an English major in a way that would also benefit others. She decided to pursue a law degree. “Part of the law school culture is to see how students function under stress. Thanks to my St. Kate’s education, I was well prepared for that. I had found my voice, was encouraged to express myself and stand behind what I was saying,” Ford explains.
“I think it is Margaret’s rare combination of high intelligence and emotional awareness of others that has led to her successful leadership and client representation in the law practice,” says Doug Shiell, founder and partner at Smith Gendler Shiell Sheff Ford & Maher, where Margaret has practiced law for more than 30 years. “This skill set allows her to solve complex problems and deal effectively with difficult people. In addition, she is genuinely patient, courteous, and respectful of others while disagreeing with them — an example in conflict resolution other leaders today would do well to follow.” Ford’s approach to each case begins not with a focus on the problems, but by defining the most desirable solution. “There are no winners and losers in the search for an answer,” she explains. By zeroing in on the common cause, it becomes easier to collaborate and ultimately find greater success. “You don’t want to diminish the other person.” Ford puts those same skills to work as Board Chair. “We don’t have a system in a vacuum. The whole success of any group, especially a learning community, is based on our constantly learning together. St. Kate’s is such a strong place for women to excel, and everyone here works hard to make sure we’re a space to support students during their time at St. Kate’s and when they are out in the world.”
“
There are no winners and losers in the search for an answer. –MARGARET FORD ’82, JD
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SUBMIT A CLASS NOTE CONTACT US Online: stkate.edu/alumni Phone: 651-690-6666 Email: alumni@stkate.edu
Class Notes
facebook.com/katiealumni @StKatesAlums
1962
1967
1976
JEAN WINCEK, CSJ, ’62, EdD was elected to St. Catherine University’s Board of Trustees in October 2019. Making her return to the Board, Wincek has been a recurring member since 1983 and was liaison to the St. Paul Province Leadership Team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet from 2009 through 2017. She formerly served as vice chair of the St. Kate’s Board of Trustees. She served on several CSJ Congregational and Province committees, and is currently a member of the CSJ Ministries Foundation Board.
EUDENE LUPINO ’67 published Trouble the Water: A Young Woman on the Edge of Living and Dying under the pseudonym Idina Santino.
MARILYN GORHAM ’76 and her friends from the class of 1976 gathered to celebrate their birthdays together. They have celebrated milestones and birthdays together for years.
1974 MARY DEE HACKER ’74 received the 2019 Health Care Leader Award from the American Academy of Nursing. She is chief nursing officer emerita at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and serves as the executive advisor to CHLA’s Institute for Nursing and Interprofessional Research.
FROM LEFT: RUTH KRUSEMARK CLASEMAN ’76, PAM RENTERIA-RUHLAND ’76, SHARON SCHMID PHELPS ’76, AND MARY VRABEL ’76
1979 SARA BRANDON ’79 began as the finance director at the Winona Community Foundation in May 2019. She previously worked as a VP at Merchants Bank Trust.
JEAN WINCEK, CSJ, ’62, EdD
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MARY DEE HACKER ’74
NANCY ZAWORSKI ’79 is the finance director and interim city administrator of the City of Kasson, and she has been appointed to serve as a member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) Global Board of Directors for a twoyear term through June 30, 2021.
1983
1996
2005
LINDA HEUER ’83, owner and president of 121 Benefits, was a panelist at alumni event Katies Connect: Entre the Katie Way on the topic of entrepreneurship in October 2019.
AMY DEFLORIN CHRISTENSEN ’96, RN, BSN, PHN, was promoted to vice president of clinical services at UCare, an independent communitybased health plan in Minnesota.
ANNE ROACH ANDRUS ’05, the founder and owner of Honey & Rye Bakehouse, was a panelist at alumni event Katies Connect: Entre the Katie Way on the topic of entrepreneurship in October 2019. Andrus opened a second location, Graze Provisions and Libations, in September 2019.
JULIA A. LAMM ’83, PhD, wrote God’s Kinde Love, which was published in July 2019. She was St. Catherine University’s 2018 Sister Mona Riley Endowed Chair in the Humanities Alumna Visiting Scholar and presented a lecture on Julian of Norwich, the topic of her book.
2008
AMY DEFLORIN CHRISTENSEN ’96, RN, BSN, PHN
CARMEANN FOSTER ’08, MSW’12 was the winter 2019 commencement speaker at St. Catherine University. She is a social worker and the founder and executive director of Rebound, Inc. in Minneapolis.
1998 SARAH MCELLISTREM ’98 is the current president of the Ramsey County Bar Association. She is an attorney with Collins, Buckley, Sauntry & Haugh, PLLP.
2001
1984 SUE WOLLAN FAN ’84, founder of MANGO Connects, was a panelist at alumni event Katies Connect: Entre the Katie Way on the topic of entrepreneurship in October 2019.
NANCY JP ANDERSON ’01, MAT’17 had papers published in a book entitled The Lasting Significance of Etty Hillesum’s Writings, published by the Amsterdam University Press.
2004 ANGIE HOWE BASKIN ’04 recently started as the customer support supervisor for First National Bank and Trust in Beloit, Wisconsin. She also joined the board for the Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin.
CARMEANN FOSTER ’08, MSW’12 AMY HORWATH ’08 married Neil Clark at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on May 11, 2019. They are spending their first year as a married couple living in Japan. MARGARET JAMES MEEHAN MLIS’08 married Ryan Meehan on October 19, 2019.
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PHOTO/KELLY POVO ’09
ALUMNAE, FACULTY, AND FRIENDS TRAVELED THROUGH ENGLAND IN SEPTEMBER 2019 WITH THE ALUMNI RELATIONS TRAVELING SCHOLARS PROGRAM. ONE STOP ON THEIR TRIP WAS AT WHITBY ABBEY, THE NAMESAKE FOR WHITBY HALL ON CAMPUS.
2010 RACHEL TOENJES ZANDER ’10 joined the Davis Brown Law Firm as a special counsel in the Business Division based in Des Moines, Iowa. Previously she spent four years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago. She graduated with high distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law. Prior to working for the EPA, Zander clerked for the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Iowa Second Judicial District.
YANSHUO ZHANG ’10, PhD, who earned her PhD at Stanford in East Asian Languages and Culture, published an article on Chinese urban visual culture. The phenomenon described in this article happened in her hometown, Chengdu, China, and it reflects the changes in urban spaces and cultures in China. She is currently an instructor at Stanford University.
KATHERINE (KAT) CURTIS ’12 was featured on aol.com’s In the Know: Profiles for her success with online comedy through TikTok, a social media platform for short videos. She was quoted saying, “That’s what all of us want: To know that we’re doing something positive that isn’t hurting anyone. And I feel like I’m getting to do that, and it’s really cool.”
2011
ANNA MARIE KLAAS BAKER FISCHER ’12 married Garrett Scott Fischer on October 12, 2019.
ASHLEY GILMER AUBIN ’11 married Joseph Aubin on October 6, 2018 in Chicago. KAITLYN MCMULLEN MCCULLOCH ’11, ’19 married Thomas McCulloch on October 5, 2019.
2012
RACHEL TOENJES ZANDER ’10
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SARAH CLEDWYN MAT’12 is employed with Sacred Ground Center for Spirituality as the director of inquiry and discernment. She will be presenting at the Spiritual Directors International conference in April 2020.
2014 ASHLEY STRUSZ POHLENZ ’14, MPH’19 married Anika Pohlenz ’14 on August 10, 2019 at Eko Backen in Scandia, Minnesota. They met at St. Catherine University during their sophomore year while resident advisors.
KATIE2KATIE Jennifer Koehn ’89 enjoys volunteering with Katie2Katie, a team of alumnae who share with classmates the importance of giving back to support students at St. Kate’s. “I enjoy connecting with other alumni, and asking for their participation instead of a dollar amount. It’s very easy to participate in, and I can connect with alumni when my schedule allows, without pressure.” To learn more about Katie2Katie, visit stkate.edu/k2kteam.
KRISTINA POSS ROTH ’14 married Michael Roth on September 7, 2019.
2016 CHRIS P. RODGERS MAT’16 is working to complete certification through the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. He was recently working as a chaplain at J.A. Wedum Hospice Home (Allina) with the dying and their families. He says it was “such an honor and privilege to do spiritual care work with the dying.”
KRISTINA POSS ROTH ’14 PHOTO/SOPHIA VOGT PHOTOGRAPHY
JENNA THOMPSON SCHULTE ’16 married Jason Schulte on September 28, 2019.
2015
2018
MELISSA BERRYMAN GONIA MPAS’15 married Ben Gonia on September 14, 2019.
BRIANA CLARK MBA’18 recently purchased Holbrook & Associates, an advertising and marketing communications agency based in St. Paul. First established in 1984, Holbrook & Associates is a business-to-business agency serving science, technology, and healthcare clients. Clark serves as principal with partner Mary Dellenbach, and holds responsibility for operations, business development, and creative strategy.
JACQUELINE ROBERTSON STOFFEL MAED’15 won the MNSHAPE George Hanson Award, meant to honor and recognize outstanding services and contributions given by an elementary, secondary, higher education, or other professional worker in developmental adapted physical education profession as exemplified by George Hanson.
AUBREY SMITH DOTTE ’18 married Richard Dotte on July 13, 2019. TAYLOR MILLIKAN WALSH MPAS’18 married Thomas Walsh on September 21, 2019.
2019 ANDREA DUARTE-ALONSO ’19 was interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio for her Phillips Scholarshipsponsored project Stories from Unheard Voices. The project is an online collection of interviews, telling the story of immigrants and their children from her hometown of Worthington, Minnesota. MONICA LOPEZ-GARRY ’19 accepted a position immediately following graduation at Avivo, a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis. She will be continuing her education to obtain a master’s in clinical social work. LEE MOLDESTAD MAT’19 is currently pursuing his MBA at St. Catherine University.
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PHOTO/REBECCA SLATER ’10, BY REBECCA STUDIOS
In Memory w Our deepest sympathy to the families of the following students, trustees, faculty, staff, and graduates of St. Catherine University. Taylor Nicolle Borkon Lieber, student w August 12, 2019 Charles M. Denny, Jr., trustee 1984–1993, and trustee emeritus 1995–2019 w October 4, 2019 Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, DD, trustee ex-officio 1995–2008, and trustee 2008–2015 w September 22, 2019 Lois E. Devereaux, associate professor of nursing 1966–1996 w August 19, 2019 Joel Downer, director of security 2002 w October 30, 2019 Claudian (Eileen) Moore, CSJ, former staff w September 6, 2019 Gary Everett Stoos, director of development 1993–1997 w October 24, 2019 Katherine Maroney Barzen ’37 w September 6, 2019 Patricia LeClair Murphy ’38 w March 30, 2019 Rosemary Kalinowski Maher ’42 w September 5, 2019 Doris Cline Hathaway ’45 w August 26, 2019 (Edith) Elizabeth (Betty) Dolan ’45 w September 15, 2019 Marjorie Buck Haben ’46 w July 30, 2019 Ione McMullen Salmen ’46 w September 26, 2019 Elizabeth Micka Thouin ’46 w August 18, 2019 Ann Michele (Monica Theresa) Jadlowski, CSJ, ’47 w November 6, 2019
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Elizabeth (Rose Agnes) Schoeneberger, CSJ, ’47 w August 25, 2019 Mary Catherine Steinhagen Eidem ’47 w August 29, 2019 Patricia Gill Jeub ’48 w October 3, 2019 Jean Page Maltese ’48 w October 14, 2019 Patricia Vaughan Mullen ’48 w September 30, 2019 Elizabeth (Betty) Bruggeman Young ’49 w October 18, 2019 Marguerite Hessian-Gatz ’49, professor emerita, previous chair of nursing department w October 24, 2019 Helen Reid Kelley ’51 w August 10, 2019 Jane Scheets Kohner ’51 w May 12, 2019 Beverly Friesz Kennelly ’52 w June 12, 2019 Margaret McCarthy Norris ’52 w April 13, 2019 Margaret Miller Rabuse ’52 w September 28, 2019 Marilyn Bouley Hudak ’54 w July 29, 2019 Jane Brunsdale Anderson ’54 w September 3, 2019 Patricia Yankee Blake ’54 w July 22, 2019 Joan Reding Roemer ’55 w August 2, 2019 LaVerne (John) Hudalla, OSB, ’56 w August 17, 2019 Joan Mrachek Hardy ’56 w August 26, 2019 Joan Sommerdorf Klein ’56 w August 12, 2019 Mary Kay Coleman Samuel ’57 w October 30, 2019 Elizabeth Daly Hiniker ’57 w October 29, 2019 Theresa Gillach Miklausich ’57 w September 25, 2019
Margaret M. King ’57 w October 9, 2019 Joan Mahoney Pilney ’57 w November 10, 2019 Jeanne McEnaney Belisle ’57 and Cert’89 w August 10, 2019 Roberta A. Bosch ’58 w July 7, 2019 Mary A. (Mariella) Hasbrouck, CSJ, ’60 w September 20, 2019 Sherry Theisen Bias ’60 w October 29, 2019 Catherine Rathmanner Herrmann ’60 w August 22, 2019 Avis (Mary Jacob) Allmaras, CSJ, ’61 w October 3, 2019 Julia Olmstead ’62 w September 2, 2019 Mary Isaac Trader ’63 w January 25, 2019 Mary Devoy Gilbert ’64 w August 15, 2019 Sharon Koehler Rasmussen ’64 w August 11, 2019 Jean Sykes Burks ’65 w October 11, 2019 Louise Lamb Kolstad ’66 w August 22, 2019 Isabelle Robinson Phillips ’69 w August 2, 2019 Nancy Wurtz Guettler ’71 w August 3, 2019 Jeanne Stanton Kapler ’74 w August 8, 2019 Molly McNamara Henning ’78 w August 9, 2019 Debra Steinert Zabka ’78 w October 21, 2019 Ruby Synsteby Bougie ’79 w November 3, 2019 Kristin Jo Porter Schaitberger ’80 w July 21, 2019 Mary Elizabeth Feldman Schweich ’80 w September 9, 2019 Sheila Marie Prokott ’82 w September 11, 2019 Barbara L. Appleby ’83 w August 24, 2019 Susan Sitarz McSherry ’86 w October 15, 2019 Karen Stromberg Weyandt ’86 w August 23, 2019 Bradley J. Tostenson ’90 w October 16, 2019 Marylee Berhow Haag ’92 w July 26, 2019 Theresa Ploog McArthur ’92 w September 20, 2019 Mary Leonard Bassett ’98 w September 27, 2019 Barbara Vanderpol Tetzloff ’00 w October 10, 2019 Julie Olson Jarvi ’01 w July 21, 2019 Louise Arnold Smith ’02 w September 19, 2019 Cynthia Logsdon MacGregor MAED’07 w August 1, 2019
ARCHBISHOP HARRY J. FLYNN Retired Archbishop Harry J. Flynn passed away on September 22. He was 86 years old. Born in 1933, Flynn was orphaned at age 12. Much of his early education came from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. In 1994, he became the seventh Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and a Trustee at St. Kate’s. Archbishop Flynn was an ardent supporter of education; presiding over the installation Mass for former St. Catherine University president Andrea Lee, IHM, he said, “Few things in this world are more important than working to educate others, and to learn more about the world we live in whether for general knowledge and interest or for a degree and a career; this is all part of God’s plan for us.” When he retired in 2008, St. Kate’s established the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Endowed Chair for Catholic Identity. St. Kate’s also bestowed the St. Catherine Medal of Honor on Archbishop Flynn, recognizing his national leadership in the Catholic Church and his pastoral leadership within the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Would you like to make a memorial or tribute gift? Please contact 651-690-8725 | giving@stkate.edu Contact us to share news of a death 651-690-6666 | inmemory@stkate.edu
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CHARLES “CHUCK” DENNY
MARGUERITE HESSIAN-GATZ ’49
Charles “Chuck” M. Denny, Jr., trustee emeritus and longtime friend of St. Catherine University, passed away on October 4. The Denny family ties to St. Kate’s are strong and deep. Chuck’s grandmother, Mary Rahilly McCahill, was St. Kate’s first lay trustee in 1919; his mother, Mary Eleanor McCahill Denny, graduated from St. Kate’s in 1926. Chuck served on the Board of Trustees starting in 1984, chairing it from 1988 to 1991, and was named a trustee emeritus in 1994. Many gifts shared by the Denny family can be found all around St. Kate’s, including the Eleanor McCahill Denny Prize for Distinction in Writing, the Carol Easley Denny Development Fund, the Carol Easley Denny Award Fund, and the Mary E. McCahill Memorial Prize. Chuck was recognized over the years as a Friend of the Library, McHugh Society member, a President’s Forum member, and he was honored among the “Centennial 100” as one of the most influential people in the first 100 years of St. Kate’s history.
Marguerite HessianGatz ’49, faculty emerita of nursing, known fondly by many nursing students as Sister Joan Arthur, CSJ, passed away peacefully on October 24. She was 94 years old. Marguerite entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1943 and took the name Sister Joan Arthur. She taught nursing for over 30 years, serving as chair of the department and on the St. Mary’s Junior College Governing Board before retiring in 1988. Marguerite continued to support the nursing programs as a professor emerita for an additional eight years. Former students fondly recalled her outstanding leadership, sense of humor, compassion, and visionary commitment to the nursing program that she helped grow from a simple diploma program to a full degree. In 1990, friends and family of Marguerite established the Marguerite Hessian Nursing Scholarship, which provides financial assistance for nursing major students enrolled at St. Kate’s. Marguerite’s dedication to her teaching and students was recognized in 2007 with the Myser Award for Teaching Excellence.
All are welcome at St. Catherine University’s annual Memorial Mass, which celebrates the lives of those who have died. Join us at Our Lady of Victory Chapel on Sunday, October 25, 2020. 30
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PHOTO/UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES • TRANSLATION/MICHELLE MULLOWNEY ’17
Katie Diary BY KATIE HENRY ’19
Antonius Kennelly, CSJ, ’26, PhD, (1901–1995) is known for her role as the third president of St. Catherine University, but she accomplished much more in her lifetime. Sr. Antonius led the then College of St. Catherine natural sciences division for nearly 20 years and also taught chemistry. She held a PhD in chemistry from the University of Munich, where she studied with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Heinrich Otto
Wieland. She studied in Europe just before WWII, and her reputation as a chemist earned her an invitation to Marie Curie’s laboratory, the Institut du Radium in Paris, in 1933 (as seen in this letter). The letter says, “Sir, It goes without saying that Sister Antonius Kennelly will receive a warm welcome at my laboratory and may visit it. However, I’m not sure I will be in Paris at the time she’s supposed to come, and in that case, I will entrust my daughter Mme. Irene Curie-Joliot with her welcome.” The University archives has a large collection of papers from Sr. Antonius. Read more at stkate.edu/KennellyPapers.
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Catalysts for Good There are 58,000+ alumni who are making a mark on the world, advocating for women and social justice. For Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting just a few Katies who have changed the landscape in education, healthcare, corporate culture, and more. Abigail Quigley McCarthy ’36 (1915–2001) In 1972, McCarthy published her critically acclaimed memoir, Private Faces, Public Places. McCarthy was a visionary Catholic feminist whose promotion of equality for all led to prominence in national politics, a regular column in Commonweal, advocacy for women in the church, promotion of Catholic women’s colleges, and leadership in interracial justice and inter-religious understanding. St. Catherine University’s Abigail Quigley McCarthy Center for Women is named in her memory.
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Mary Madonna Ashton, CSJ, ’44 In 1983, Sr. Mary Madonna became the first woman and non-physician commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Health. She served in this position until 1991. During her tenure as commissioner, she worked to protect blood supplies during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and advocated for policies to ban smoking in public spaces. She was president and CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital for 20 years. In 1992, she cofounded Carondelet LifeCare Ministries to address healthcare for Minnesota’s uninsured. In 2016, she was a National Women’s Month honoree.
Anne Joachim Moore, CSJ,’37, ’47, MAT’01, EdD (1916–2010) In 1964, Sr. Anne Joachim founded and served as president of St. Mary’s Junior College, the nation’s first college dedicated to healthcare. She led St. Mary’s Hospital School of Nursing and then its transformation into a thriving two-year college. The college’s guiding plan was to educate the student as a person, not a worker, and to welcome underserved students. In 1986, the college merged with what was then the College of St. Catherine, forming the University’s Minneapolis Campus.
Janet Dolan ’71 In 1999, Dolan was named president and CEO of Tennant Company. At this time she was the first Katie — and among only 22 women — to lead a U.S.-based New York Stock Exchange listed company (out of 3,000+ companies). She now serves on the board of Travelers Co. and is founding president of Act III Enterprises.
Philomena Morrissey Satre MAOL’08 In 2017, Satre was hired as the first full-time dedicated director of diversity and inclusion at Land O’Lakes, Inc. Satre creates important corporate culture shifts, and draws on her deep community network to build bridges that drive change. She also brings her passion for inclusion to the next generation of leaders as an adjunct professor in St. Kate’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) program.
Melissa Reuter Brechon ’77 In 2011, Reuter Brechon was a pivotal player in the successful accreditation of the St. Kate’s Master of Library and Information Science program, which is the only MLIS program based in Minnesota. Brechon has devoted her career to libraries, both locally and abroad. As a librarian and public library administrator, and in her continued work as a consultant, she develops lasting systems and spaces for information access.
Bao Vang ’91 In 2008, Vang was named president and chief executive officer of the Hmong American Partnership (HAP), where she has more than tripled the nonprofit’s budget, allowing HAP to support even more refugee and immigrant families in Minnesota. Through Vang’s mentorship, she diligently encourages women around her to discover their own leadership pathway.
Taylor Harwood ’15 In 2016, Harwood was named a 2017 Marshall Scholar. She is the first St. Catherine University graduate to receive a Marshall Scholarship, which is awarded to fewer than 50 U.S. students annually to study at the graduate level in the United Kingdom. She aims to work as an archivist and ensure that the history we capture represents a wider range of voices and experiences.
To read about more women making an impact, visit stkate.edu/whm.
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