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Kirchgessner is an alumna with a business degree who is now serving in a health care setting

Serving a Critical Need

Meeting the Demand for Health and Wellness

St. Thomas has studied how it can develop a more comprehensive and integrated approach to the growing demand for health-and-wellness professionals, and now the university’s plans to open a new College of Health are in full swing. The College of Health will include the School of Social Work, the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and a new school of nursing.

Tommies can already can be found healing those among us. The Tommie Network is full of doctors and medical professionals on a mission to help people live better lives.

Lt. Sean Navin '10 Pharm.D. is a pharmicist with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps

Lt. Sean Navin ’10, Pharm. D.

Lt. Sean Navin ’10, Pharm. D.

Lt. Sean Navin is an active duty pharmacist with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where he stands ready to respond to domestic and international public health emergencies. However, “on a day-to-day basis I serve Native American patients and work with other health professionals to solve medication-related issues,” said Navin. He is proud to provide critical health care services to underserved populations, but he also enjoys the opportunity to educate the public and other health professionals on the proper use of medications and healthy behaviors in general.

Lauren Soukup '13 O.D. is an optometrist who specialized in geriatrics

Lauren Soukup ’13 O.D.

Lauren Soukup '13 O.D.

“I got into my current career [in optometry] due to my grandmother's disease that slowly took away her vision,“ said Lauren Soukup, who specialized in geriatrics. She is grateful to be able to help others live better lives. “Vision is highly undervalued, and it is when you work with patients that have low vision that you really value the services that you provide to the population. Above all else, the relationships that I have formed with my patients remind me every day of how attentive and personalized medicine can make outcomes better.”

Bob Maley '83 D.D.S. is a dentist in St. Paul

Bob Maley ’83, D.D.S.

Bob Maley '83 D.D.S.

Bob Maley fondly remembers his days in Ireland Hall, a residence hall known for its strong community. The late Fr. James Lavin would be proud to see the strong community Maley has built in his own life. “To me, advancing the common good is not one big project, it’s meeting every person I encounter where they’re at and being in communion with them,” says Maley, owner of Maley Dental in St. Paul. “Our office is often part of people’s community, their support system. That’s why I love this work so much.” He takes his practice on the road, having gone to Peru three times on medical and dental missions.

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Health and Wellness on Campus

A new Center for Well-Being will integrate counseling, primary health services, wellness and violence prevention for students into one location.

 

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Health and Wellness Entrepreneurs

Meghan Sharkus presents her entrepreneurial ideas

Meghan Sharkus '20

Student, CEO of ExpressionMed

Meghan Sharkus is a St. Thomas junior who is founder and CEO of her own company, ExpressionMed. She started the company while she was in high school to develop adhesives for wearable medical devices such as insulin pumps.

Inspired by a childhood friend who dealt with the struggles and stigma of an insulin kit, Sharkus “thought I could do something about this,” she said. And she did.

Now Megan dedicates a large portion of her business profit to sending children with diabetes to summer camps and to telling their stories. ExpressionMed won the Undergraduate Division of St. Thomas’ 2016 Fowler Business Concept Challenge as well as the 2018 Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge.
Susan and Michael Wuollett show their product

Susan Wuollett '11 MBA and Michael Wuollett '11 MBA

Protege Biomedical

Susan Wuollett ’11 MBA and her husband Michael Wuollett ’11 MBA came to St. Thomas determined to climb their respective corporate ladders, with no intention of following in the footsteps of their entrepreneurial families. But then they entered the Fowler Business Concept Challenge for a shot at a $10,000 scholarship … and won.

Today they lead their company, Protégé Biomedical, which offers a unique and patented line of hemostatic products developed to stop bleeding fast, and keep it stopped, in animals and humans.

“Ninety percent, no joke, of our network of people we work with, have hired, advisers we’ve brought on, have been through St. Thomas, either directly or indirectly. The network is amazing,” Michael said. “Going through the MBA program, the courage it gave us to strike out on our own, I can’t put a value on that.”