Saying Yes

Dr. Mary Dockter, ’00, ’04, believes in saying “yes” to new opportunities. Although she is only in her third year as dean of the Saint Gianna School of Health Sciences, she is no stranger to the University of Mary. She’s been making the drive up the hill to work each day since 1998 when she started as a faculty member in the physical therapy department.

“I always say that if you get bored here, it’s your fault — there are so many opportunities to do things that are unique and innovative, like international service trips, pro bono clinic volunteering, and research,” she said.

A native of Jamestown, ND, Dockter got her undergraduate degree in physical therapy after being influenced by her brother, who was a PT, and a local athletic trainer. After graduating, she briefly moved home to Jamestown and then relocated to Bismarck with her, at the time, soon-to-be husband, Claude.

She got a job at St. Alexius doing a variety of work — acute care, home health, human performance, sports medicine, and women’s health.

“I loved all of it,” she said. “I have since discovered that I’m very much a ‘say yes to new opportunities’ kind of person.

“I remember I was sitting in the back office at the hospital, and there was a flyer coming around about a new PT program that was starting at the University of Mary, and I had just gotten into women’s health, which was, at that point, a very new area of practice,” she continued. “They were looking for someone

to teach a class on women’s health, so I jumped on that. I started as faculty in the fall of 1998, and it was a new program. I’ve probably never been as challenged, but it invigorated me. The amount of learning was just ridiculous.”

That same fall, Dockter decided to get her master’s in education at Mary. After that, she started her PhD in education and completed that in 2004. All the while she was teaching in the physical therapy program and even started a service trip to Guatemala in 2002.

“That was another thing that I just said yes to. To be totally honest, I didn’t even know exactly where Guatemala was, but I just said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a great opportunity,’” she said. “Every student says that trip is life-changing, and I would agree. I led 13 groups on that trip and have also gone to Peru a couple of times. Service learning is something I’m very passionate about.”

The next opportunity Dockter said yes to was becoming the physical therapy program director in 2010, which she says was another great learning experience. “I think certainly the most rewarding part has been the longterm relationships with students,” Dockter shared.

In the summer of 2020, the opportunity to be dean of the school presented itself, and Dockter said yes again. “I am really, really blessed to have fantastic program directors, so that makes the job pretty easy. But health care is in an interesting place. It is drastically needed in certain areas, so how do we continue to meet the needs?" she said. “And then there is an extra added layer of Catholic social teaching, and how do we infuse that and make sure that our graduates have an ethical foundation and moral courage, which is really needed in health care today?”

In line with the university’s and the school’s mission to form health care professionals with moral courage, the university announced plans to name the school the Saint Gianna School of Health Sciences in the fall of 2019. The official ribbon-cutting and naming ceremony will take place on October 4, 2022, Saint Gianna’s 100th birthday. “When that announcement was made, it was very unconventional, but it really made our school recognize the responsibility that we have to graduate students who are different,” she said. “Right now, it is really hard to have moral courage and conviction in a challenging environment. The name is a dailyreminder of what we are called to do.”

Along with the ribbon cutting, the school will be hosting its first Catholic Health Care Professionals Conference, open to the public, students, faculty, and alumni, on October 4, 2022. More information is to come on umary.edu.

In her free time, Dr. Mary Dockter loves to golf and recently got her first hole in one at a golf scramble with some PT students!

As the school continues to expand in size and mission, Dockter remains grateful to be a part of the innovation and growth at the University of Mary. On top of all her duties at work, she also enjoys golfing, staying active, reading, hiking, and traveling. She and her husband have two children, McKenzie and Grant. They also have two dogs, Sadie and Lucy. Dockter and her daughter have matching “gratitude” tattoos that they got after the Saint Gianna School of Health Sciences’ Lourdes trip, where she first heard Monsignor Shea say, “… You have a choice to make each day: to live from gratitude or resentment. That daily decision makes the difference between a mediocre life and an epic one. Choose gratitude!” She looks at that visual reminder several times a day.

At the end of the day, Dockter is grateful for the opportunity to serve others in various ways throughout her career. “Sometimes we have a student who comes in, and we ask, ‘Why do you want to get this degree?’ And they feel embarrassed to say, ‘Well, I want to help people.’ That’s beautiful! If you keep that at the core of what you do, whether you are a nurse at the bedside, teaching faculty, or an administrator, you will live a good life.”