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

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.

PHI KAPPA PHI

NEW DEAN ANNOUNCED FOR SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

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.

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.

NEW VP WITH FOCUS ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT

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.

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.

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.

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

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY March 8, 2020 stkate.edu/WomensDay FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH March 10, 2020 stkate.edu/feast SISTER MONA RILEY ENDOWED CHAIR LECTURE April 16, 2020 stkate.edu/mona SISTER SERAPHIM GIBBONS DAY OF SCHOLARSHIP April 23, 2020 stkate.edu/seraphim GOODMAN LECTURE April 23, 2020 stkate.edu/goodman

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.

In 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

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

[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.

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 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.”