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2009–2010 Donor IssueJudy DeMersStudent Servantand Public ServantDavid AntonenkoUND NeuroscienceSymposium 2010:Building Better BrainsSummer Vacation?Charting a New Coursein Rural HealthHoliday 2010VOLUME 35, NUMBER 5www.ndmedicine.org

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1014181216FEATURESJudy DeMers—Student Servant and Public Servant 10She led the way for thousands of medical students.Retirement? What retirement? 12David Antonenko dedicated his life to teachingthe next generation of surgeons.UND Neuroscience Symposium 2010: Building Better Brains 14Inaugural conference spotlights research strengths at the School.Summer Vacation? 16UND’s School of Medicine and Health SciencesSummer Research Program gives budding scientistsa slice of life in the lab.UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTASCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCESROBERT O. KELLEY, President, University of North DakotaJOSHUA WYNNE, Vice President for Health Affairsand Dean, School of Medicine and Health SciencesEDITORDenis MacLeodWRITERS Kristine Henke, Denis MacLeod,Juan Pedraza, Sara Rantanen,Laura Scholz, Jessica SobolikCONTRIBUTORS Shelley PohlmanGRAPHIC DESIGN Laura Cory, John Lee, Victoria SwiftPHOTOGRAPHY Laura Cory, Chuck Kimmerle,Shelley Pohlman, Wanda WeberCOVER ARTWEBMASTERChuck Kimmerlewww.ndmedicine.orgEric WalterNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE (ISSN 0888-1456;USPS 077-680) is published five times a year (JanuaryMarch, June, August, November) by the University ofNorth Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences,Room 1106, 501 N. Columbia Road Stop 9037,Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037.Periodical postage paid at Grand Forks, ND.Printed at Forum Communications, Fargo, ND.All articles published in NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE,excluding photographs and copy concerning patients, canbe reproduced without prior permission from the editor.Want more NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE?Look for this symbol, and check out ourWEB EXCLUSIVES site: www.ndmedicine.orgDr. L. Gary Hart 18He is charting a new course in rural health.DEPARTMENTSDean’s Letter 4News Briefs 6Guest Author - Kimberly T. Krohn, MD, MPH, FAAFP 20Student Profile - Adrianne Racek 22Alumni Profile 24Alumni Notes 27Opportunities 30In Memoriam 32Planning Ahead 34Parting Shots 35POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to:ND Medicine Address CorrectionUND School of Medicine and Health SciencesOffice of Alumni and Community Relations, Attn: Shelley Pohlman501 North Columbia Rd. Stop 9037, Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037e-mail: shelley.pohlman@med.und.eduphone: 701-777-4305NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE is available online at www.ndmedicine.orgNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 3

DEAN’S LETTERBreaking groundandsowing seedsAS THIS YEAR WINDS DOWN, IT ISappropriate to look back—and lookforward. It has been a memorable yearin many regards. I am now into mysixth month as dean of your Schoolafter serving for a year as interim dean.I’ve had the opportunity to engage in avariety of discussions with manystakeholders across the state and havecome away from those visits with aneven better understanding of the manycontributions that the School makes tothe health and vitality of North Dakota.The tripartite activities of the School—education, scholarship, and service tothe community—are intertwined andinterrelated. But they all coalescearound the people of North Dakotaand are focused on improving thehealth of all in our community.As I look back over this past year,here are a few of our notableachievements:• We recently broke ground forthe construction of a new clinicbuilding in Bismarck to houseour Center for Family Medicineand campus offices. Thisbuilding will permit us to betterserve the citizens of Bismarck.The building process broughttogether the two Bismarckhospitals, the city, the universitysystem, and the SMHS in avery successful effort to findthe optimal location andconfiguration for the facility.• A new master of public health(MPH) certificate and degreeprogram has been approved bythe State Board of HigherEducation. As the health caresystem focuses more onpopulation health andprevention, better training inpublic health will be essential.Our program is unique in thatthe two research universitieshave partnered with each otherto offer this program as a trulyjoint endeavor. By takingadvantage of the strengths ofNorth Dakota State Universityand the University of NorthDakota, we have minimizedthe cost of the program andexpanded the educationalopportunities for students in away that has never been donebefore. We hope to enroll ourfirst students in the nextacademic year. Although wewill require additional financialsupport from the state to fullyimplement the program, ourbudget request has been fullyendorsed by the State Board ofHigher Education and isawaiting action by theupcoming Legislature.4 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

• Research funding continues togrow substantially. This pastyear, we were fortunate toreceive a nearly 50 percentincrease in funding and hadour second-best year ever! Weare working hard to developour translational researchefforts so the many discoveriesin the laboratory can beconverted into cures at thebedside.• We were very pleased towelcome Dr. L. Gary Hart asthe new director of ouracclaimed Center for RuralHealth.So what’s the agenda for thefuture? Well, much as it has been forthe past, we will continue to strive tomeet the health care needs of NorthDakota, primarily through oureducational enterprise and throughhealth care workforce preparation. Toaccomplish our mission to serve thepeople of North Dakota, here are someof the plans for this year:• At the top of our list is to gainapproval for our health careworkforce plan. Called GOODfor North Dakota (for GrowingOur Own Doctors), the planenvisions a two-prongedapproach to growing our healthcare workforce, especially inrural areas: increased retentionof our own graduates and anexpansion of class size.• We hope to launch the jointMPH program with NDSU ayear from now. The program isdesigned to meet the needs ofstudents from across the state.We envision that many of theclasses will be online, as bothuniversities have extensiveexperience with Internet-basedinstruction. We hope that theextent of integration,collaboration, and cooperationthat has been evident betweenthe two institutions will serveas an example of how to breakdown the walls that canseparate us.”...we will continue to strive to meet thehealth care needs of North Dakota,primarily through our educational enterpriseand through health care workforce preparation.• The School will continue to bean advocate for optimizing oursystem of health care deliveryin the state and will work withall of the stakeholders to try toensure the very best health carepossible for all in North Dakotaand the region.I am honored to have beenselected as dean of this wonderfulSchool of Medicine and HealthSciences. You have made Susan andme feel very welcome here, and welook forward to the future withoptimism and enthusiasm. With yourhelp and support, we can take theSchool from great to exceptional. Allour best wishes to you and yours thisholiday season!Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPHVice President for Health Affairsand DeanNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 5

NEWS BRIEFSMohr recognized by national federationThomas Mohr, PhD, PT, Chester FritzDistinguished professor and chair of theDepartment of Physical Therapy at theUniversity of North Dakota (UND)School of Medicine and Health Sciences,was honored by the Federation of StateBoards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) atits annual meeting and delegateassembly on Saturday, October 16, inDenver, Colo. Mohr received the FSBPT’s prestigious 2010Richard McDougall Long-Term Service Award, whichrecognizes and honors individuals who have made alasting, significant and distinguished contribution to theFederation. More specifically, these individuals have beenactively involved in Federation activities for at least 10years, having made a significant contribution of volunteertime, talents, and service to the mission of the organization.The vision of the FSBPT is that “State licensing boardsand their Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapywill achieve a high level of public protection through astrong foundation of laws and regulatory standards inphysical therapy, effective tools and systems to assess entryleveland continuing competence, and public and professionalawareness of resources for public protection.” The Federationof State Boards of Physical Therapy develops and administersthe National Physical Therapy Examination for bothphysical therapists and physical therapist assistants in 53jurisdictions: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, PuertoRico and the Virgin Islands. Mohr has been a leader withinthe Federation as a member of the Federation’s board ofdirectors and through his service on numerous committees.Mohr earned his PhD in Physiology from UND. Hisareas of expertise and research interests are inneuroscience, biomechanics, electromyography, andmotion analysis. He received his Bachelor of Science inPhysical Therapy from UND and a Master of Science inPhysical Therapy from the University of Minnesota.In 2006, Mohr earned membership in the Academy ofAdvanced Item Writers, whose members consist of thosevolunteer item writers who have made a consistent, lastingcontribution to both the quality and quantity of the NationalPhysical Therapy Examination item bank. The FSBPT notedMohr’s professional record with the 2001 OutstandingService Award, created to recognize and honor individualswho have made a significant and distinguished contributionto the Federation through their volunteer work during theprevious 12 months. In 1999, Mohr merited the President’sAward from the president of the Federation, who choosessomeone who contributed extensive talent and time to themission of the Federation in the previous year—someonewho deserves special recognition for their contribution.Pre-Med DayNinety-one high school and college students attendedPre-Med Day on October 23 at the School. The studentslearned about required pre-med courses, explored thehistory of the School and its nationally recognized patientcentered-learningcurriculum, participated in a Q&A forumwith current medical students, discussed life as a physicianwith a panel of local physicians, received an overview ofthe admissions process, and took part in mock admissionsinterviews.Rural hospitals receive funds throughCenter for Rural HealthThe Center for Rural Health at the University of NorthDakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences distributedover $318,000 from the Small Hospital ImprovementProgram to 36 rural hospitals in North Dakota.In addition, for the 12th consecutive year, the Centerfor Rural Health (CRH) at the University of North Dakota(UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences hasreceived funding to support rural hospitals through theNorth Dakota Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex)Program.And the North Dakota Critical Access Hospital (NDCAH) Quality Network, a partner of the Center for RuralHealth, has secured $300,000 in federal funding to developand implement a chronic care model (CCM) and electronicpatient registry (EPR) over the next three years.UND hosts heavy metal conferenceThe 2010 North Dakota INBRE Annual Symposium forUndergraduate Research was held Oct. 28, at the AlerusCenter in Grand Forks. The focus of the symposium was“Environmental Research in North Dakota.” Health and theenvironment are the focuses of research conducted underthe North Dakota IDeA Networks for Biomedical ResearchExcellence (INBRE) program, which lends significantfinancial support to research projects at predominantlyundergraduate institutions in the state.6 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

New assistant deans named at UND School of Medicine and Health SciencesJoshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH, University of NorthDakota vice president for health affairs and dean of theUND School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) hasappointed three new assistant deans to the leadership teamat the School.Thomas M. Hill, PhD, director ofthe Office of Medical Education, willcontinue in that role, but also willassume additional part-timeresponsibilities as assistant dean forpreclinical education. Hisresponsibilities will include oversightof the medical student curriculum forthe first two years, and he will alsowork with Dr. Charles Christianson,the associate dean for clinical education, to enhance andbetter integrate clinical and basic science learning across allfour years of medical school. Of particular importance willbe Hill’s efforts to update and revamp the patient-centeredlearning curriculum, and to support and lead innovation inmedical education.Patrick A. Carr, PhD, associateprofessor in the Department ofAnatomy and Cell Biology, will be thenew assistant dean for facultydevelopment. His responsibilitiesinclude working with departmentchairs to enhance faculty developmentopportunities, developingcommunities of faculty for informaldevelopment and collaboration, anddeveloping a mentoring program for faculty. Carr’s facultydevelopment activities will apply across the spectrum ofdisciplines at the SMHS, including basic science, clinicalscience and health science faculty members.Kenneth G. Ruit, PhD, is the newassistant dean for undergraduate andgraduate education. Although Ruit willcontinue as the vice chair of theDepartment of Anatomy and CellBiology, he also will assumeadditional responsibilities, includingoversight of curricular development toaddress the foundational basic sciencelearning of all graduate students,recruitment of graduate students, and oversight of studentprogress and mentoring. Ruit’s responsibilities forundergraduate education include oversight and support ofall basic science undergraduate courses.“While the positions are new, the faculty members whoare assuming the positions are old hands at UND and bringa wealth of experience to the positions,” said Wynne. “Thenew assistant deans will help streamline operations andenable faster, more effective decisions to be made withinthe School.”Gwen Halaas, MD, MBA, senior associate dean forAcademic and Faculty Affairs at the SMHS, selected thecandidates after an internal search conducted by a threemembersearch committee, consisting of Tom Mohr, PT,PhD, professor and chair of the Department of PhysicalTherapy; Jonathan Geiger, PhD, professor and chair of theDepartment of Pharmacology, Physiology, andTherapeutics; and Stephen Tinguely, MD, professor andchair of the Department of Pediatrics.All of the positions will report to Halaas. The newpositions, which are all part-time positions, were onlyoffered to current full-time faculty members and werecreated in a budget-neutral manner by using funds that werefreed when Dean Wynne relinquished his former positionof vice dean.“I was very pleased with the faculty interest in thesepositions and the effort and quality of the committeeprocess,” said Halaas. “I am very excited to get this newteam started and engaged with our faculty to enhance ourefforts to provide the best education to our students.”HOPE for health educationThe North Dakota Area Health Education Center (AHEC)announced the Health Occupations Partnering withEducation (HOPE) grant program, which can be used toprovide a variety of activities for children 18 years andyounger who are attending school. The goal is to introducethem to health occupations that will increase their awareness,interest and understanding of health careers. This is anopportunity for rural hospitals, rural clinics, communityhealth centers, and educational systems, K through 12, towork together to develop awareness programs.For more information, please see the North DakotaAHEC website at www.ndahec.org.American Indian Health ResearchConferenceThe 8th Annual American Indian Health ResearchConference was held on October 29 at the Alerus Center inGrand Forks, N.D. The conference offered opportunities todiscuss research directions, partnerships, and collaborationin health research focusing on American Indians.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 7

Carlson honored by UND School of Medicine and Health SciencesA retirement celebration to honor Edward C. Carlson, PhD,was held on Monday, September 20, at the School. Carlson,Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor and the Karl andCarolyn Kaess Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology, wasrecognized for completing 40 consecutive years in medicalteaching, including nearly 30 as chair of the Department ofAnatomy and Cell Biology.UND President Robert O. Kelley, who holds a PhD incell and developmental biology, related how years ago heread about Carlson’s research in cell biology at theUniversity of Arizona, which drew Kelley to initiatecorrespondence with Carlson that developed into a lastingfriendship. Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor EmeritusRobert C. Nordlie, PhD, lauded Carlson as a teacher and asa colleague. UND Vice President for Health Affairs andSMHS Dean Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH, noted that“Ed continues to be as productive a researcher today aswhen he started at the School of Medicine and HealthSciences.”In honor of Carlson’s work, the imaging center at theSchool of Medicine and Health Sciences was named theEdward C. Carlson Imaging and Image Analysis CoreFacility. Interim Chair of the Department of Anatomy andCell Biology, Jonathan D. Geiger, PhD, a Chester FritzDistinguished Professor and chair of the Department ofPhysiology, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics; and KennethG. Ruit, PhD, associate professor of the Department ofAnatomy and Cell Biology, presented the honor to Carlson.The Carlson Imaging Facility consists of a lightmicroscopy core and an electron microscopy core, whichprovide advanced instrumentation for researchers interestedin investigating biological processes at the cellular,subcellular, and molecular level.Carlson earned his bachelor’s degree in biology andchemistry from Bethel College in St. Paul, Minn. He cameto UND as a PhD student in 1966, where he received hisPhD in Anatomy in 1970. After graduating from UND, hetaught for seven years at the University of Arizona and fouryears at the University of California–Davis. Carlson returnedto UND when the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity opened tochair the department from which he obtained his PhD.In 1984, Carlson initiated an Anatomy Interchange, a“biosocialization event,” between his department at UNDand the University of Manitoba Department of HumanAnatomy and Cell Science. After a morning of science,participants were free to explore the host university and cityand then finish the day with a barbecue at a facultymember’s home. Carlson’s goal was to not only encouragescientific research but also, more importantly, encourageinternational colleagues to “get to know one another.” Thetwo departments have been meeting nearly every fall since.Carlson’s “retirement” is a phased retirement; it willtake place over the next five years. He will have full use ofhis laboratory, a technician, and students to help himcontinue his research on protecting blood vessels fromdamage caused by diabetes.“Our student are so bright and have an amazing workethic—they keep me feeling young and constantly thinkingand discovering new things about science,” said Carlson.Joggin’ with JoshDean Joshua Wynne invited all medical and health sciencesstudents, faculty, and staff to advocate healthful lifestyles byjoining him for Joggin’ with Josh, informal 5- or 10K walks,jogs, or runs, on August 12 and September 28.“The UND School of Medicine and Health Scienceswants to continue to practice what it preaches, that is,healthful lifestyles for better health,” said Wynne.The dean spoke to the participants before each event,and each participant received a Joggin’ with Josh T-shirt.The event attracted students, faculty, staff, family, and petsfrom not only the School but across campus.Integrative Medicine lecture seriesDebra G. Bell, MD, delivered two Integrative MedicineLectures at the School. On September 27, she presented“Nutrition Matters: Dietary Facts for Treatment andPrevention of Disease.” On October 19, Dr. Bell spokeabout “Commonly Used Dietary Supplements: ClinicalApplications and Evidence-Based Facts.”Bell, a member of the Department of Family andCommunity Medicine at the UND School of Medicine andHealth Sciences, is an integrative medicine family physicianfrom Crookston, Minn.The goal of the series is to bring awareness and educationof integrative medicine to students, faculty, and others at theUND School of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as themedical community. Both lectures were open to the public.8 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

McHugo named director ofPhysician Assistant Programat UND medical schoolJeanie McHugo, PhD, was namedprogram director for the PhysicianAssistant Program in the Departmentof Family and Community Medicine atthe University of North Dakota (UND)School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS).McHugo is an assistant professor in the Department ofFamily and Community Medicine at the UND SMHS. Shehas been a physician assistant since 1998 and involved inPA education since 2004. Her clinical experience includesurgent care–family medicine, general medicine with anemphasis on psychiatry, and clinical and surgicalorthopedics.“Dr. McHugo has been a dynamic part of the programfor several years,” said Robert Beattie, MD, chair of theUND SMHS’s Department of Family and CommunityMedicine. “She has been engaged in professional PAactivities at the national level. Her talents and dedicationwill see her being a tremendous leader for the PA program.”McHugo earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology in1993 from Mankato State University, a Bachelor of Sciencein Physician Assistant Studies in 1998 from the University ofSouth Dakota and a Master of Physician Assistant Studies in2000 from the University of Nebraska–Omaha. Shecompleted her PhD in Higher Education: Teaching andLearning at UND in 2008. She is a member of the AmericanAcademy of Physician Assistants, the Physician AssistantEducation Association and the North Dakota Academy ofPhysician Assistants.Her research interests include clinical teachingevaluation and improvement, student and programassessment, teaching and learning strategy, andandragogical (adult) learning theory. McHugo’s graduateteaching responsibilities include online anatomy, EKGs,history and physical exam, primary care coursework, andspecialty clerkships. She also coordinates all aspects ofclinical testing and maintains a Preceptor CommunityNetwork site for online evaluations, resources, andincreased communication with primary care preceptors.“I am honored to serve as director of the UND PAProgram and look forward to a more active role in theSchool of Medicine and Health Sciences, the university andthe physician assistant profession,” said McHugo.In 2005, McHugo received the Faculty Award forProfessional Excellence from the Academy of PhysicianAssistant Programs, now the Physician Assistant EducationAssociation. She is a member of Pi Alpha, the nationalhonor society for physician assistants.McHugo and her husband Mike, a radiologictechnologist, live near Thompson, N.D., with their sixchildren: Molly, Ryan, Allison, Emily, Isaak, and Grace.Nordlie reflects on life inscienceChester Fritz Distinguished ProfessorEmeritus Robert C. Nordlie, PhD, ofthe University of North Dakota Schoolof Medicine and Health Sciences(SMHS) Department of Biochemistryand Molecular Biology, has publisheda recollection of his scientific work atthe School in the September 11 issue of the internationaljournal Life Sciences. James D. Foster, PhD, researchassistant professor in the department and a former student ofNordlie’s, was coauthor.Life Sciences invited Nordlie to provide a personalrecollection of his career as a distinguished scholar inbiochemistry, particularly his “pre-eminent work in thebiochemistry of glucose-6-phosphatase,” an enzyme thatcontinues to be the active focus of research forpharmaceutically regulating blood glucose concentration,which has implications for the treatment of diabetes as wellas heart, eye, and kidney disease.“I was honored to be the last PhD student that Dr. Nordliehooded during graduation at UND,” said Loren E. Wold,reviews editor for Life Sciences. Wold received his PhD in2003. He is principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascularand Pulmonary Research for the Research Instituteat Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and anassistant professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus.Nordlie received his PhD in Biochemistry from UND in1960 and joined the faculty of the SMHS in 1962 as theSchool's first James J. Hill Research Professor. His 38-yearcareer as a professor included serving as chair of theDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for 17years. He is recognized as an outstanding educator and scholar,and is internationally recognized for his work on metabolicenzymes and the maintenance of blood glucose levels.“I am also honored to call him a friend,” said Wold.Read Nordlie and Foster's full article at http://bit.ly/b64dGQ.Wilsnack selected as Fellowby American PsychologicalAssociationSharon Wilsnack, PhD, Chester FritzDistinguished Professor, Departmentof Clinical Neuroscience, has beenselected as a Fellow by Division 35(Psychology of Women) of theAmerican Psychological Association.Fellow status is based on “evidence of unusual andoutstanding contributions that have had national orinternational impact in the psychology of women.”The Fellow awards were announced at the Augustconvention of the APA in San Diego, California. Dr. Wilsnackhas been a Fellow of APA’s Division 50 (Addictions) since 1997.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 9

JUDY DEMERSSTUDENT SERVANT AND PUBLIC SERVANTBy Juan Pedraza10 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010WHEN JUDY DEMERS, THE UNDSchool of Medicine and Health Sciences’longtime associate dean for studentaffairs and admissions, retires thisDecember, it’ll be with the well-wishesof more than a thousand physicianswho once were students here.“All in all, a terrific ride,” saidDeMers, who also fit a successfulpolitical career into her life as a mom,spouse, and medical schooladministrator and teacher.It sure didn’t start out that way.“My parents thought that it was awaste of time for women to go tocollege,” DeMers said.But DeMers went on to graduatefrom UND’s College of Nursing summacum laude in 1966 and earned amaster’s degree in education from theUniversity of Washington in 1973. Threeyears into her nursing career, she wasasked in 1969 to come to UND to teachand, later, to become a top administrator.“It was never just a job to me; ithas always been a commitment to thestudents and to the state of NorthDakota—a commitment I hope tocontinue in other ways in future years,”DeMers said.“The thing that I am proudest of isthe help that I’ve been able to provideto our medical students every yearsince I started at the med school,”DeMers said. “It’s good to know thatI’ve made a difference in their success

in going through medical school andtheir ability to practice medicine. That’swhy their graduation day is verymeaningful for me. In my 27 yearshere, I’ve worked with about 1,500graduates. That’s a big family.”Ultimately, DeMers noted, it’sabout nurturing the capacity of eachstudent to do their best in preparing fora career in medicine. And thepreparation they get at UND is a keyfactor in the state’s quality health caresystem.“If the School didn’t exist, it wouldbe very difficult for North Dakota tomaintain the quality health care systemthat it has,” she said.DeMers also is very proud of theSchool’s relationship with the state’s—and the country’s—Native Americansthrough the Indians into Medicineprogram.“The INMED program has beenexcellent since its inception,” DeMerssaid. “It’s really a vital part of theSMHS—it provides a diversity that weotherwise wouldn’t have.”Distinguished careerDeMers is both a registered nurseand certified public health nurse. Shehas earned several dozen awards andhonors going back to the very start ofher career, garnering the Beck Awardfor Nursing in 1965 and several Nurseof the Year awards, including thestatewide award in 1983; she wasnamed to the North Dakota NursesAssociation Hall of Fame in 2002.“Judy embodies the best of theNorth Dakotan ethic, and all that isgood at the School of Medicine andHealth Sciences,” said Dr. JoshuaWynne, UND vice president for healthaffairs and dean of the School ofMedicine and Health Sciences. “She ishonest, hardworking, smart, helpful,and dedicated to her students.“From 1970 to 1972, DeMers wasassociate director of the MEDEX projectin the SMHS Department of Family andCommunity Medicine, in which formermilitary personnel received educationand training to become mid-level healthpractitioners. The program later evolvedinto the Family Nurse PractitionerProgram and today is known as thePhysician Assistant Program.DeMers was a research associate inthe Office of Research and MedicalEducation at the University ofWashington’s medical school through1977 before returning to UND asassistant professor and director of theFamily Nurse Practitioner Program,where she served until 1982. She alsowas director of the UND SMHS’s FocalProblems Course until 1989, and sheserved for a year as director ofundergraduate medical education in theDepartment of Family Medicine.From 1982 through 1983, DeMerswas associate director of the SMHSOffice of Rural Health and waspromoted to the rank of associateprofessor. In 1983, DeMers wasappointed to her current position.In 1982, DeMers was elected to theNorth Dakota House ofRepresentatives, where she served until1992. She was elected to the NorthDakota State Senate in 1992 and servedthere until 2000. In both houses,DeMers served with distinction onnumerous legislative committees.In 2009, DeMers received theSchool’s Hippocratic Dignity Award.This year, she earned the OutstandingService Award from the AmericanAssociation of Medical Colleges CentralGroup on Student Affairs.“She has given extraordinarilyoutstanding service to our students fordecades, and while she will beirreplaceable, she has earned her‘retirement,’” said Wynne. “KnowingJudy, though, her ‘retirement’ likely willbe anything but ‘retiring,’ and I suspectshe will continue to find ways to serve,as she has for decades.”“I’ve received a lot of really niceletters since the announcement earlierthis year that I was going to retire,”DeMers said. “Basically these areformer students talking about thedifference that I’ve made in the lives ofmedical students. I’m definitely veryproud of that—we have an atmospherehere that is conducive to studentstalking about their concerns, workingon problems that they had so thatthey could become successful.””Judy embodiesthe best of theNorth Dakotan ethic,and all that is good at theSchool of Medicine andHealth Sciences.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 11

Retirement?WHAT RETIREMENT?By Juan PedrazaFOR DAVID ANTONENKO, MD, PhD,former chair of surgery at the UNDSchool of Medicine and HealthSciences, “retirement” is defined by acalendar that’s still full of patientappointments, resident mentoring, andheading up a sophisticated surgerysimulation lab.“I work two days a week at AltruHospital (Grand Forks), I teach residentssome surgery basics, and I’m involvedin the surgical simulation lab, which I setup at Altru,” said Antonenko, an Edson,Alberta, native who officially retiredearlier this year after 21 years at UND.He’s also writing a textbook chapter.Antonenko, whose dad was a coalminer, grew up in a fossil-fuel-rich areathat’s seen energy economy ups anddowns familiar to North Dakota.“I paid my way through collegeand medical school at the University ofAlberta at Edmonton, working in the oilfields,” on the rigs, in gas plants, and intrucking, he said. “I entered medicalschool when I was 20 after completingtwo years of college, and I graduatedfrom medical school two weeks beforemy twenty-fourth birthday.”“After I did my residency, beginningthe third year after I graduated frommedical school, I did a PhD in12 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

experimental surgery,” Antonenko said.He was inspired by the family physicianswho back then did appendectomies,hernias, and other minor surgery.“I also discovered early that it wasa lot of fun to work with patients,residents, and students, so I developeda real passion for teaching medicine,”Antonenko said. “Teaching is anintegral part of medicine, even if you’renot in a classroom in front of students.You’re teaching when you’recounseling patients or talking withnurses about a recommended therapy,or when you’re writing for a textbook.”On his way to faculty status,Antonenko got a Trauma Critical CareFellowship at Wayne State University,where he later joined the staff asdirector of surgical critical care units.When he put all that together as afaculty member at UND, Antonenkodeveloped a keen sense of the primaryfunctions of a medical school.“First, it’s to conduct medicalresearch,” said Antonenko, who, inaddition to his clinical practice insurgery, has PhD research credentials.“Second, it’s to educate medicalstudents to become physicians and trainthese physicians in residency programs.And third, it’s to educate and prepareallied health professionals.”“It’s also a function of a goodmedical school—an engaged medicalschool—to involve and educate thepeople of the state as to the value of theschool,” Antonenko said. “For example,most people know that about half of thestate’s physicians are graduates or havehad some part of their medicaleducation at UND. But we have toeducate people as to what the medicalschool actually does.”And that includes service to the state.“My feeling is that the UND Schoolof Medicine and Health Sciences servesthe physicians and other health careprofessionals in the state, and we shouldbe trying all possible ways to help themparticularly in the rural environment,”he said. “Part of our mission is to supportthem because we rely so much onvoluntary teaching. For example, in ourdepartment, surgery, more than 90percent of the teaching of third- andfourth-year medical students is done byworking physicians throughout the statewho volunteer their time to teach.”Caring for patients, Antonenkoobserved, requires a team approach.“If you’re a physician, you can’twork without nurses, without physicaland occupational therapists, withoutpharmacists and lab techs,” Antonenkosaid.At his retirement reception earlierthis year, Antonenko was recognizedfor his 21 years of teaching andleadership. He practiced critical caremedicine and general surgery for AltruHealth System in Grand Forks, wherehe was director of Surgery Critical Careand director of Trauma Services.Colleagues from around the regionjoined UND Vice President for HealthAffairs and SMHS Dean Dr. JoshuaWynne in paying tribute toAntonenko’s storied career.“He contributed to the education ofa generation of medical students andsurgical residents,” said Wynne.Dr. Robert Sticca, professor, currentchair and program director of theDepartment of Surgery, notedAntonenko’s national influence on theprogress of surgery. Dr. Mark Siegel,medical director of Surgical Services atAltru Health System, said Antonenkowas vital in the establishment of AltruHospital as a Level-II trauma center.“He always has the care of the surgicalpatient in mind,” said Siegel.“Dr. Antonenko manifested threequalities: vision, tenacity, andleadership,” said Dr. Mark Jensen, chiefof surgery for the VA Hospital in Fargo.“He provided exemplary service andsupport for our veterans, and heprovided years of guidance and wisdomfor our surgical faculty.”Ultimately, it’s all about a careerthinking about and working for the nextgeneration.“By stimulating the desire to learn,you help the student and ultimately thepatient,” said Antonenko in thanking hiscolleagues at the retirement ceremony.“Teaching surgery has been my life.”David R. AntonenkoNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 13

By Juan PedrazaBuilding Better BrainsInaugural conference spotlights research strengths at the School.THE NATIONALLY RECOGNIZEDCenter of Biomedical ResearchExcellence (COBRE) neurosciencegroup at the University of North Dakota(UND) School of Medicine and HealthSciences recently hosted aneuroscience symposium titled“Building Better Brains.” It was the sixthsymposium organized by the groupsince receiving its initial grant in 2002from the National Center for ResearchResources, part of the NationalInstitutes of Health.“This symposium was an excellentopportunity for all of us to learn fromeach other with the expressed interestin discovering underlying causes of andpossible treatments for a number ofneurodegenerative disorders, includingAlzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy,”said Dr. Jonathan Geiger, Chester FritzDistinguished Professor and chair of theDepartment of Pharmacology, Physiology,and Therapeutics, as well as interim chairof Anatomy and Cell Biology andprincipal investigator of the COBRE grant.The symposium highlighted workconducted at UND as well as theresearch of two highly regardedneuroscientists who discussed theirwork on Alzheimer’s disease, Down’ssyndrome, epilepsy, neural repair,Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia,stroke, and stem cell therapeutics. Thesymposium also featured a specialpresentation by a noted UNDbiochemist, Dr. Roxanne Vaughan.Frank M. LaFerla, PhD, Chancellor’sProfessor of Neurobiology and Behavior,and director of the Institute for MemoryImpairments and Neurological Disorders(MIND) at the University of California–Irvine, has been at the forefront ofresearch into understanding Alzheimer’sdisease. His presentation was titled“Animal Models of Alzheimer’s Disease:Translational Successes and Challenges.”John R. Sladek, PhD, is a professorin the Department of Pediatrics andNeurology at the University of Colorado–Denver. He is a leader in neural repairand regeneration. Since 1974, he hasbeen studying neural repair mechanismsfor Parkinson’s disease and Down’ssyndrome. He spoke about “Stem CellTherapeutics for the Brain.”Roxanne Vaughan, PhD, is a professorin the UND SMHS Department ofBiochemistry and Molecular Biology.She focuses on explaining the workingsof the dopamine transporter, DAT,which regulates a lot of complex brainactivities. DAT is also a major site ofaction of psychostimulants such ascocaine and amphetamine.As part of this year’s symposium,Geiger delivered a presentation thatshowcased the enormous success of theCOBRE program at UND.“The data show how well we’vedone,” he said. “Since we started (withthe COBRE grant) in 2002, the numberof manuscripts that we’ve publishedhas gone up more than threefold, andit’s gone up that much again this year,and we’re not even through thecomplete year.”Geiger told the symposium thatthe COBRE system has had a majorimpact on the research portfolio atthe School.14 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

“We’re dramatically outperformingother IDeA [Institutional DevelopmentAward] states,” Geiger said. “From2001 to 2009, COBRE delivered about$1 billion to IDeA states, plus thosestates were awarded about $500 millionfrom other NIH sources; that’s a 160percent increase. But here at the Schoolof Medicine, we went from very littlemoney—$190,000—to $2 million, anincrease of 750 percent. What we’reseeing now is that for every dollar inCOBRE funding, our researchers arebringing in another dollar from federal(mostly NIH) sources.”New grant launched to stimulatecollaborative research“One of the truly exciting thingsthat happened this year was that weearmarked $200,000 from our COBREgrant for a new pilot grant program toencourage collaborative or team-basedresearch. We actually awarded$260,000,” Geiger said.“The idea is to have three or morescientists come together as principalinvestigators,” Geiger said. “That meanshaving at least three people intellectuallycommitted to the success of the project.It’s meant to encourage people tocollaborate closely. One group hasalready submitted an NIH grant, wheremost of our funding comes from, andthe groups all seem to be veryenthusiastic about this concept.”Among the big-picture conclusionsthat scientists at the symposium got isthat UND is a full-mission institution,Geiger observed.“Service, research, and educationare completely dependent upon eachother; they support each other, andthey’re actually inextricably linked,”Geiger said. “Absolutely, we’re proudof our research, but we’re also reallygood teachers. See the long list of topteaching awards—the Golden Apple,Portrait, and Block Instructor awards—that COBRE researchers in the medicalschool have received since 2002. A lotof people have gotten a lot of awards.The COBRE experiment is working.”For Dr. Lucia Carvelli, a relativenewcomer to the UND neuroscienceresearch team, this year’s symposiumwas energizing and inspiring.“It’s terrific for a group ofresearchers to get together like this,”said Carvelli, who focuses on a keymechanism in the brain that can lead toaddiction and is linked to ADHD. “Thesymposium was also a very good way forresearchers elsewhere to learn more aboutwhat we are doing. Moreover, I definitelyheard about developments that canhelp me move my research ahead.”For Saobo Lei, MD, PhD, a UNDelectrophysiologist whose work hasbeen published in the top-rated scientificjournals in the world, the best value ofthe symposium is networking.“Sharing our results with otherresearchers, comparing notes in onefocused place, is a great benefit,” saidLei, who studies neuronal activity at themolecular level. “We get to talk topeople and get some input. And wefind opportunities for collaboration.”Left to right: UND Vice President forResearch and Economic DevelopmentPhyllis Johnson, PhD; U.S. SenatorKent Conrad; and Chester FritzDistinguished Professor JonathanGeiger, PhD, chair of the Departmentof Pharmacology, Physiology, andTherapeutics.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 15

2010 Summer Research Students: For a complete list of names, please visit us online at www.ndmed.org.Summer Vacation?UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences Summer ResearchProgram gives budding scientists a slice of life in the labBy Laura ScholzEACH YEAR, THE SCHOOL OFMedicine and Health Sciences hostsapproximately 50 undergraduatestudents for a summer of hands-onexperience in laboratory research, allunder the leadership of UND’sprofessors, graduate students, andsenior undergraduates.“This is a unique opportunity forstudents to hone their research, writing,and presentation skills, and we reallyfocus on recruiting undergraduate studentswho may not have those opportunitieson their own campuses,” said VanDoze, PhD, associate professor in theDepartment of Pharmacology,Physiology, and Therapeutics, and leadorganizer of the summer research program.Students are selected for thecompetitive program based on theiroutstanding test scores, academicachievements, intellectual curiosity, andfuture career goals, and are then matchedwith labs and senior faculty based ontheir interests and particular field of study.In the summer of 2010, the universityhosted 50 undergraduate researchersfrom in-state institutions such as MinotState University and Dickinson StateUniversity as well as colleges anduniversities across the country, includingCollege of St. Benedict and St. John’sUniversity, Concordia College, IllinoisWesleyan, Oglala-Lakota College, St.Olaf College, and the University ofCalifornia–Santa Cruz.Once students arrived on campus,they received specific research training inthe laboratory under the guidance of ateam of faculty advisors, seniorundergraduates, graduate students,postdoctoral fellows, and labtechnicians. They worked on projectswithin the Departments of Anatomy and16 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

Cell Biology; Biochemistry and MolecularBiology; Pathology; Pharmacology,Physiology, and Therapeutics; and theCenter for Rural Health.“These students deal withcompetition during the school year, so ourprogram really focuses on collaborativelearning, teamwork, and the joy of pureresearch,” said Donald Sens, PhD,professor in the Department of Pathology.In addition to being matched with afaculty mentor, students worked closelywith senior undergraduates or graduatestudents, who provided technicaldirection as well as help with generalcollege and career mentoring.“This peer-to-peer mentoring is anessential aspect of our program,” saidDoze.“It gives our students an addedsupport network and a greaterunderstanding of just how muchcollaboration is involved in laboratoryresearch.”Throughout the summer, studentsattended regular workshops on topicslike “Responsible Conduct in Research,”“Use of Animals in Research,”“Laboratory Safety,” and “ScientificWriting” as well as weekly faculty talksto discuss everything from currentresearch trends to scientific discovery toapplying to graduate and medical school.In addition to more formal classroomand research activities, the studentsgather for more informal activities such aswalking and biking on the Greenway,kayaking, “movie night” and picnics.“We eat a lot of fried chicken,”joked Doze.The out-of-town students roomtogether in the dormitories, which addsto the general camaraderie.And when not eating fried chicken,the students conducted real-world,scientifically significant research. Thispast summer, specific projects rangedfrom discovering biomarkers of bladdercancer, breast cancer and heavy metalinducedchronic kidney disease toworking with genetically engineeredmice to determine the effects ofnorepinephrine on neurogenesis andcognition in the hopes of counteractingthe effects of cognitive decline andneurodegeneration associated with agingand neurological disorders anddiscovering how the brain’s immuneeffector cells contribute to bothregenerative and degenerative processes.At the end of the summer, studentshad the opportunity to present theirresearch findings—as well as learnimportant technical writing andpresentation skills—at a final postersession. Many of UND’s summerresearch students go on to present atthe North Dakota Experimental Programto Stimulate Competitive Research(EPSCoR) conference, the North DakotaIDeA Network of Biomedical ResearchExcellence (INBRE) Annual Symposiumfor Undergraduate Research, theRegional American Society forBiochemistry and Molecular Biology,the North Dakota Academy of ScienceMeeting, and other scientific gatheringsacross the country.“We really want our students to havean opportunity to share and present theirwork to their peers as well as others inthe scientific community,” said Doze.This unique opportunity is madepossible through funding from severalsources, including the National ScienceFoundation, the National Institutes ofHealth, Job Service North Dakota,North Dakota EPSCoR, the RonaldMcNair Program, and the Dean’s Officeof the UND School of Medicine andHealth Sciences.“We are lucky to have fundingfrom a variety of sources to make thisexperience possible for students whomight otherwise not be able to have thistype of intensive research experience asan undergraduate,” said Sens.The students are equally effusiveabout the program.“After finishing the program, ourstudents report increased confidence intheir lab and presentation skills, as wellas their desire to pursue postbaccalaureatestudies in either medicineor basic science research,” said Sens.That’s a summer vacation well-spent.Donald SensVan DozeNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 17

The experts are the”people in emergency roomsat two in the morning,who are oftenunderpaid or under-helped,and it’s our job to figure outwhat can be improved,and how we can help.ChartingCoursea newDr. L. Gary HartBy Kristine HenkeDR. L. GARY HART IS THE THE CENTER FOR RURALHealth’s new director. Hart is a nationally recognizedexpert in rural health care delivery and health careworkforce, and the CRH is excited to have him on board.Although his background is in medical geography, Hartsays he has always focused on health care. After graduatingfrom college, he was weighing his options between attendinglaw school and sticking with the social sciences. Hedecided the social sciences were the route for him, and hebegan a master’s program at the University of Utah, wherehis focus was health care, geography, and access to care.Hart has a Bachelor of Science in Geography and a SecondarySchool Teaching Certification from the University of Utah,where he also earned his Master of Science in Geography.18 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

After earning his master’s, Hart wasattracted to the University ofWashington Department of Geographyby Dr. Richard Morrill. Morrill, who inHart’s opinion is “one of the nation’sbest geographers,” did a lot of healthcare research. Morrill has beenresponsible for redistricting votingregions and has been the head of theadvisory committee for the CensusBureau, to name just a few of his manyaccomplishments. While atWashington, Hart was a graduate of theDoctoral Opportunities Program in theDepartment of Health Services. Hereceived his PhD in Medical Geographyfrom the University of Washington,stayed there, and eventually added 20years of directing both the University ofWashington Rural Health Research Centerand its Center for Health WorkforceStudies to his distinguished résumé.Why North Dakota?Hart shares that several things drewhim to the prairie from Tucson, Arizona.He has always been familiar with thereputation and work of the Center forRural Health, has worked with manyCRH employees, has visited the area afew times, and is a friend of formerCRH director Dr. Mary Wakefield.One of the appeals of making themove north was the strong reputationthe CRH has always had. When Hartwas in Washington, which is one of thetop producers of family medicinephysicians in the country, he took notethat the UND School of Medicine andHealth Sciences was also one of thenation’s best. If one state beatWashington, it was either North Dakotaor Minnesota. After 20 years ofexperience with family medicine, Hartwas excited to be able to collaboratewith that department in Grand Forks,while being a part of the CRH.Another big draw for both Hart andhis family was the chance to get awayfrom the “big-city life.” His wife, Shelly,is originally from a town of about 800,so they feel coming to Grand Forksallowed them to “get the lifestyle theywanted.” Living in a rural setting—where they get to commute on a gravelroad, be between fields of potatoes andsugar beets, and allow their six-year-oldto run free with their chickens—hasallowed them to be, as Hart puts it,“happy as clams.”What’s next for the Center for RuralHealth?Hart’s first thought, “If it isn’tbroken, don’t fix it. Of course, we canalways do better, but with programslike RAC (the Rural Assistance Center),which is a national resource thateverybody uses, I just want to makesure we maintain that quality and besupportive of it.”Hart feels the biggest area ofchange to the CRH will be the additionof more research. “The mission of theCRH is to serve the rural folks of NorthDakota and the country. If when thedust clears, we have done a good joband have been successful, it will bemeasured by increased health statusand improved access to quality healthcare providers for the rural population.”“We can’t make ourselves ‘fatter,’that isn’t the goal. It’s not about us,”Hart says. “It’s about doing things outthere for North Dakota and the country.The experts are the people inemergency rooms at two in themorning, who are often underpaid orunder-helped, and it’s our job to figureout what can be improved, and howwe can help.”“So, research. What will it do? Thisis something I want to be very clearabout. I don’t want to do research forresearch’s sake. I have never beeninterested in that. The research we wantto expand is policy-relevant research,research that makes a difference forrural people. If we can, we want toprovide the research and policy analysisthat helps create good rural healthpolicy and helps eliminate bad ruralhealth policy.”So begins a new era for the Centerfor Rural Health. The unknowns are outthere, but Hart and his team are excitedto take them on full speed all with onegoal in mind: to support rural healthcare.Gary HartNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 19

GUEST AUTHORMaking Sure thatOur Childrenare ProtectedBy Kimberly T. KrohnTHE UND RESIDENCY PROGRAM INMinot trains physicians to be familyphysicians who are well-prepared for arural setting. The program runs a familymedicine clinic, in which about 20,000patient visits a year are completed. Thepatient visits may include prenatal care,sports physicals, colonoscopy, diabetesand other chronic disease management,discussion of preventive care, treatmentof acute illness, and a number of differentissues. I am the program director of theFamily Medicine Residency Program inMinot; I practice the full scope of family20 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

medicine in addition to providingmentorship, instruction, supervision,and modeling for our physicians intraining. I have become involved in yetanother area of medicine by becomingmedical director of the UND NorthernPlains Children’s Advocacy Center.Through this appointment, I haveagreed to participate with a multidisciplinaryteam in the evaluation ofchildren suspected of having beensexually abused.Estimates are that 150,000 childrenper year in our country are abused; 9.6percent of girls and almost 7 percent ofboys are sexually abused. Misdiagnosisof signs of abuse is common.Our local children’s advocacycenter joined the other two centers inNorth Dakota in 2007. The three centersare members of a national organizationcalled the National Children’s Alliance,or NCA, developed in 1987. Amongother things, the NCA providesaccreditation standards for the morethan 700 CACs in existence throughoutthe United States. Four regional trainingcenters are supported by the U.S.Department of Justice. Most CACs,however, including ours, depend a loton donations and grants to support theimportant work that they do.The UND Northern Plains CAC hasevaluated about 90 new children in2010. Seventy percent are female, 31percent less than 7 years old, 88percent less than 13 years old. Ourmultidisciplinary team has alsocontinued to process the cases startedin previous years. Several of these caseshave resulted in charges with successfulprosecutions. Our multidisciplinaryteam includes representatives of childprotection services, law enforcement,prosecutors’ offices, mental health,victim advocacy, and medical care.Since our center works with severalsurrounding counties, two Indianreservations, the FBI, and performscourtesy evaluations for otherjurisdictions, the team effort can beintricate. Our Ward County team meetsmonthly, however, to work on local cases.The first CAC was started by anAlabama prosecuting attorney in 1985.His concern was that cases be evaluatedobjectively and that the children beinterviewed and evaluated in a fashionthat would minimize additional trauma.Since then, a large body of literature andtraining programs have been developed toensure that medical personnel andforensic interviewers have the resourcesto accomplish this. The CACs must haveforensic interviewers, forensic medicalpersonnel, therapeutic interventions,victim’s advocacy, and case review andtracking. And when any of the cases goto trial, the forensic interviewers andmedical people (yes, I) have to be thereto testify.When I see a child for a forensicmedical exam, I usually start by talkingto him or her about the checkup thatwill follow. Almost all of our exams arenon-acute, meaning the assault has notoccurred in the last few days. My job isto evaluate the child for medical needsrelated or unrelated to abuse, to collectevidence, to consider alternativeexplanations to any physical findingsbeyond sexual abuse, to reassure parentsand the child, and to document findingscarefully. As a CAC, we commit to doingthat in an age-appropriate environment.Beyond individual evaluations ofchildren, I work with our team toeducate other team members about myrole, and to learn more about their rolesand the skills they bring to theevaluation. Since our CAC is the onlyone in the state embedded in aneducational program, I am able to alsoshare this area of practice with ourphysicians in training. My belief is thatin their future practices our doctors intraining, because of their exposure toour CAC, will be better equipped torecognize, refer, and treat children whohave been abused. I also work with therest of our team to keep my knowledgeand skills up to date and to engage withthe communities we serve in an effort toprevent the abuse and exploitation ofchildren. I know that through this workwe make our communities safer andmore healthful for the children in them.Kimberly T. KrohnNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 21

STUDENT PROFILEOUT OF AFRICABy Sara RantanenAt Nelson Mandela MetropolitanUniversity, Racek was able topractice for and play in two gamesfor the soccer team. Her teammatesspoke Xhosa, which is a clicklanguage. The team tried for a weekto get her to learn their click namesbefore telling her their much easierto pronounce nicknames.IN EARLY 2007, ADRIANNE RACEK,now a second-year med student at theUND School of Medicine and HealthSciences, was given an amazingopportunity. As a junior at the Collegeof St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.,Racek was working toward her biologymajor with a focus on premed whenshe entered a competitive interviewprocess for the chance to study abroadin eastern South Africa. She was amongthe 28, mostly pre–health careprofessionals and education majors,chosen.Starting in January 2007, Racekattended Nelson Mandela MetropolitanUniversity in Port Elizabeth, SouthAfrica. The majority of her studies werefocused on South African culture; theclasses ranged from history to literatureand even to South African jazz. OnMondays and Tuesdays, the studentswere given the opportunity to work atthe House of Resurrection Haven forpeople with AIDS. Racek offered hercare in the nursery, where she helpedfeed, change, prepare meals for, andplay with the children, most of whomwere orphaned or abandoned. Thechildren at the Haven were mostly HIVpositive or too young to test since testresults aren’t reliable until age two.They were receiving anti-retroviraltherapy and cared for by nurses andnuns. The Haven provided care for allages, but because of political,socioeconomic, psychological, andgender pressures, most adults were notmanaging their own HIV. “The adultsthat we saw would usually come in juston their last legs,” said Racek.As part of the NMMU’s curriculum,Racek and the other students took aCommunity Partnership and Developmentclass. “The class was wonderful becauseit made us more culturally aware and22 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

sensitive, and taught us to open ourminds from being brought up in anindividualistic, American culture andadapt to a collectivistic mind-set,” shesaid. It was an incredible experiencesince we could directly translate ourclassroom knowledge into real-lifesettings, and the lessons learned willcontinue to be a lifelong skill.” Thestudents participated in fund-raising andcommunity service projects, and as aresult, they raised about $1,500 for theHaven. When deciding what the moneyshould go toward, the students thoughtthey knew exactly what was needed. “Ithink a lot of us came in and we werelike, ‘Well, they need this,’ or ‘We’llbuy them this.’ But then when weactually did ask the staff what theywanted, it was nothing like ourexpectations coming in,” said Racek.Most of the money went to kitchensupplies such as knife sharpeners andmore cooking supplies. The rest of themoney went toward medications sincethe Haven wasn’t receiving funds fromthe government.Racek was in South Africa untilMay 2007, when she returned to St.Benedict and graduated in May 2008.After graduation, she worked at St.Joseph’s in St. Paul, Minn., where sheworked mainly in cardiac surgery for aperfusion company. Her main focuswas assisting the perfusionists andanesthesiologists in cardiac monitoring,central line placement, OR lab tests, patienttransport, and intra-aortic balloon pumpswhen needed. This experience gave hera taste of what the “call life” was like.As an effect, Racek thought she’d liketo go to med school for surgery.When choosing a medical school,Racek had known since high schoolabout UND’s School of Medicine andHealth Sciences and the School’s greatfocus on patient-centered learning. ThePCL program was one of the maindeciding factors for her. “The patientcenteredlearning is why I came here,so that still stands out,” she said. “I wasswayed, I guess, even in high school,having known about the curriculum.”Her father is a UND Law Schoolalumnus who highly regards hiseducational experience; growing upexposed to that certainly helpedinfluence her as well.Racek spent this past summer as anintern at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,Minn. She assisted Dr. Myra Wick withclinical research in Trial of Labor AfterCesarean (TOLAC), a high-interest topicin clinical practice. Racek and Dr. Wickdid a retrospective chart review, inwhich they took records from the past10 years and plugged in the Grobmanet al. nomogram from a maternal-fetalmedicine unit study that was conductedat a 19-center East Coast hospitalnetwork. “We wanted to see if thepredicted nomogram would work onthis Midwest population,” said Racek.She was given the chance to do all thedata collections for their research. “Itwas really interesting because I wasable to learn about it, and Mayo is ableto offer TOLAC,” said Racek. Althoughthey haven’t finished analyzing all theirresearch (Racek is still working on thepaper), they found that the East Coastnomogram worked just as effectively fortheir Midwest population.While in Rochester, Racek metnumerous UND alumni. “Half of theirresidents are UND alums,” she said.Most of the alumni she met commentedon how they felt much more “clinicallyahead” since UND’s clinical training isso strong. “One of the doctors who hadbeen there the longest made a commentthat he’s never met a North Dakotastudent whom he hasn’t liked or whohasn’t worked hard,” said Racek.Racek is staying busy withschoolwork and extracurriculars such asstudent council president, co-creator ofthe Clinical Embryology Club, and copresidentof the OB/GYN Student InterestGroup. For her future career, Racekwould like to spend most of her timewith patients in-clinic, but she is stillintrigued by surgery and would like tocombine both passions. Currently,OB/GYN seems to be the perfect fit forher, specifically maternal-fetal medicine.Racek says, “It would be an honor to bean advocate for mothers and babies.”This coming spring, for Frank N. LowResearch Day at the School, Racek andDr. Wick will present the results oftheir TOLAC research project.Adrianne Racek and Dr. Myra Wickat the Mayo Clinic.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 23

ALUMNI PROFILEBy Jessica SobolikAlumni listen as CherylStauffenecker, MS, RNBC, CNS,discusses the NOELLE birthingsimulator during a tour of the NDSTAR (North Dakota Simulation,Teaching and Research for HealthEducation) simulation lab.A SERIES OF EMERGENCIES MARREDthe UND School of Medicine andHealth Sciences’ Homecoming 2010events in Grand Forks, N.D., on Oct. 8.A man went into cardiac arrest,while another complained of pain andrequested medication. Then, a womanwent into labor. “I need an epidural!”she reportedly yelled. Her son wassafely born moments later.Fortunately, there were severaldoctors and health professionals inattendance at the ND STAR (Simulation,Teaching, and Research for HealthEducation), where SMHS alumniwitnessed firsthand how the simulatorsare able to educate today’s students andother professionals in various healthcare scenarios.“It’s like the real thing, standing onyour feet and answering codes,” saidCecil Leitch, BS Med ’60, who touredthe new facility. “My first patientinteraction was in Year 2 of UND’stwo-year program at the time. Still, wehad good instructors (e.g., Gene24 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

and the effectiveness of communicationbetween attending physicians. With twogranddaughters considering medicalcareers, I am a bit envious of theresources they will have available.”Laxdal retired from a career in radiologyin the Minneapolis area in 2005.Cornatzer, Theodore Snook). When Iwent to the University of Washingtonfor Year 3, I wasn’t lacking anything.”He went on to practice family medicinein Litchfield, Minn., for 37 years.“The STAR facility is truly anoutstanding asset for current and futurestudents, as well as practitioners in thehealth field across the state and region,”noted Steve Laxdal, BS Med ’61, whoalso toured the facility. “Students in mydays were often exposed to clinicalconditions as a result of what diseaseshappened to be hospitalized at the timeSMHS welcomes Bud and Mary backOn the evening of Oct. 7, twoSMHS celebrities were given SiouxAwards, the highest honor from theUND Alumni Association forachievement, service, and loyalty. TheSchool celebrated the recipients the nextmorning at a reception honoring HenryC. “Bud” Wessman and Mary Wakefield.Wessman created the UND SMHSphysical therapy department in 1967before serving as the mayor of GrandForks, a state Congressman, and afederal administrative judge. He alsoearned a law degree from UND in1989. Many of Bud’s former PT studentscongratulated Bud on the award.“I came back to honor him,” saidMichele Lawonn, BS PT ’74. “Budtalked about us being a family, and wehad to be in such close quarters.” At thattime, almost all physical therapy classeswere held in one classroom in McCannelHall. “I just remember the ‘Bud Man’Budweiser poster on the wall,” she added.Wakefield most recently served asthe director of the Center for RuralHealth at the SMHS in Grand Forksfrom 2001 to 2009 before moving toWashington, D.C., to serve PresidentBarack Obama as administrator of theHealth Resources and ServicesAdministration. Prior to the CRH, shewas a professor at UND’s College ofNursing.“She was very approachable, andNorth Dakota’s rural communitiesrespected her leadership,” said MarleneMiller, program director for the CRH.“It was great to see that she is ‘survivingthe big city’ and remaining passionateabout rural health and North Dakota.”Mary WakefieldNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 25

Henry C. “Bud” Wessman (center)converses with his son-in-law Dr.Craig Wilson and Michelle Lawonn,BS PT ’74.CRH Associate Director Brad Gibbenssaid, “Mary is known for her intelligenceand dogged commitment to fosteringthe development of high-performingorganizations, so, of course, I miss thoseskills and abilities. But the thing I missmost is her sense of humor. Granted, shealways projected seriousness andcompetence, but for those of us who knewher well, we saw she had a very goodand at times devilish sense of humor.”An evening of memoriesSMHS Homecoming events werecapped off with an evening social at theAlerus Center, where many alumsshared their memories of UND.Jean Thorfinnson Cory, BS MedTech ’61, recalled working in themicrobiology department with departmentchair Dr. John Vennes after she graduated.“I was a senior interning in microbiologywhen Dr. Vennes, ‘52, came over andtold me they had never had a med techin the department before, but they weregoing to offer a position to take care ofthe culture collection,” she said. “Thatwas the best job I ever had.” She wenton to manage a dermatology clinic inPortland, Ore., for 10 years.Grant Seeger, MD ’04, remembersthe camaraderie and comedy of thepatient-centered-learning groups thatrotate every two months. “I think strongbonds were made during the first fewblocks of medical school as it is anintense change of study habits,” hesaid. “The first gross anatomy lab wasalways a shock to the system and gaveus that ‘I’m really in medical school’feeling.” He is now a radiation oncologistat Altru Cancer Center in Grand Forks.Jack Lind, BS Med ’60, noted thathis medical education was differentfrom today’s curriculum. “Grossanatomy was at least a semester, if notmore, with lectures every day andthree-hour labs,” he said. Still, he andhis classmates found time to relax atvarious establishments around town.“We had a medical fraternity andsponsored parties that were open to allstudents,” he said. “We’d rent thebasement of the Riviera Cafe downtown.Sometimes we could obtain use of theOfficer’s Club at the air force base. Theold Belmont Lounge was popular, too,and Whitey’s Cafe had the best frenchfriedonions. We had a number ofmarried students who were also veterans.We all got along well together.”Save the dateNext year’s UND Homecoming hasalready been set for October 17–23,2011. The School will be honoring allclasses of 1961 and 1986 at that time.For more information, please contactShelley Pohlman, SMHS Office ofAlumni and Community Relations, atshelley.pohlman@med.und.edu or(701) 777-4305.26 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

ALUMNI NOTES’10s ’00sJudy Anderson, PA ‘10, has joined themedical staff as a physician assistant atMedcenter One in Jamestown, N.D.Dustin Hager, PA ‘10, has signed athree-year contract with Heart ofAmerica Medical Center in Rugby,N.D.Kadon Hintz, MD ‘07, has joinedMedcenter One in Bismarck, N.D. Heearned his medical degree from theUND School of Medicine and HealthSciences in Grand Forks. Hecompleted his residency at GrandRapids Medical EducationPartners/Michigan State University inGrand Rapids, Mich. As an emergencymedicine doctor, he is expertly trainedto diagnose and treat injuries and illnesses that requireurgent care. Hintz is originally from Bismarck.Rena Nordeng, MD ‘07, has joinedMedcenter One in Dickinson, N.D.She is a native of Watford City, N.D.Keri Weick, PA ’10, has contractedwith Heart of America Medical Centerin Rugby, N.D. She will be seeingpatients at Johnson Clinics in Rugby,Dunseith, and Maddock, andproviding hospitalist coverage at theHAMC.Bradly Skari, MD ‘07, FP Residency‘10, has joined Sanford Clinic inJamestown, N.D. He is a native ofDevils Lake, N.D.Zaki Kahn, IM Residency ‘10, has joined Altru HealthSystem in Grand Forks as a physician in internal medicine.He received his medical degree at Ziauddin UniversityHospital in Pakistan, where he also completed an internalmedicine residency. He also completed an internalmedicine residency and internship at the UND School ofMedicine and Health Sciences in Fargo, N.D.Patrick Walter, PA ‘10, has joined Sanford Clinic inJamestown, N.D., as a physician assistant.Have news?We want to hear from you!Please send your news itemsfor the next issue ofNorth Dakota Medicine toShelley Pohlman:shelley.pohlman@med.und.eduor call (701) 777-4305Jessica Skjolden, MD ‘07, a native ofBottineau, N.D., has joined the staff ofSt. Andrew’s Health Center inBottineau and will serve thecommunity as a family medicinephysician.Mandy Sorlie, MD ‘07, has joinedSanford Clinic in Jamestown, N.D. Sheis a native of Flasher, N.D.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 27

ALUMNI NOTES’00sRyan Zimmermann, MD ‘07, hasjoined the medical staff at MedcenterOne in Dickinson, N.D., as a familymedicine physician. He is a native ofBismarck, N.D.’90sColleen Swank, MD ’97, has beenpromoted to medical director ofprimary care at Altru Health System inGrand Forks.Joshua Gebur, MD ‘05, has joined thesurgery department at Essentia Health(formerly Innovis Health) in Fargo, N.D.He specializes in general andlaparoscopic surgery. He is originallyfrom Drayton, N.D.Laura Lizakowski, MD ‘05, has joinedAltru Rehabilitation Center in GrandForks.’80sSteven Mattson, BS Med ‘80, has been appointed by NorthDakota Gov. John Hoeven to serve a three-year term on theTobacco Prevention and Control Advisory Committee.’70sWilliam Mayo, MD ‘79, FP Res ‘82, has received the 2010Family Physician of the Year award, an honor given to aNorth Dakota physician who shows compassion for hispatients and dedication to the community. He has practicedat Sanford Clinic in Wahpeton, N.D., for 23 years.’60sShaun Christenson, MD ‘04, has beenhired as a neurologist by EssentiaHealth (formerly Innovis Health) inFargo, N.D. He will focus on sleepmedicine, electromyography,electroencephalogram, Parkinson’sdisease, and Alzheimer’s disease.David Baumgardner, BS Med ‘68, hasjoined IMA Healthcare (formerlyInternal Medicine Associates), anindependent health care organization inFargo, N.D. He practiced internalmedicine in Fargo for 30 years beforeretiring in 2006.Robin Hape, MD ‘02, a surgeon atAltru Health System’s Bariatric Centerin Grand Forks has received distinctionfrom the American Society forMetabolic and Bariatric Surgery as aCenter of Excellence, which recognizessurgeons and programs with a trackrecord of favorable outcomes inbariatric surgery.SavetheDate!March 23-252011New Horizons in Health Carewww.ruralhealth.und.edu/dakotaconferenceBest Western Seven Seas Hotel & WaterparkLodging Reservations: 800-597-7327Mandan, ND28 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

ALUMNI NOTESStan Sateren, BS Med ’67, visited withthe staff of the UND School of Medicineand Health Sciences Office of Alumniand Community Relations on Sept. 3 inGrand Forks. He was back in NorthDakota to visit his brothers and thefamily farm near McVille, N.D., and toattend the Nelson County HistoricalSociety Threshing Bee at Stump LakePark Pioneer Village. He and his wifeLinda Stoer-Scaggs, a PhD-trainedpsychotherapist, live in Granville, Ohio.Sateren earned his Bachelor of Artsdegree at UND, and was then acceptedinto medical school there. He receivedhis Doctor of Medicine degree fromNorthwestern University Medical Schoolin 1969. He is a fellow of the AmericanSociety of Addiction Medicine, and iscertified by the American Board ofInternal Medicine and the American Board of AddictionMedicine. After doing general practice for three years inBritton, S.D., he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where hecompleted his residency in internal medicine and began workin critical care with Mount Carmel Health System, where hethen practiced for 29 years.In the 1980s, Sateren became interested in the healthand well-being of physicians and other health careprofessionals and of the obstacles doctors face in addressingtheir own health issues, including the problems of stress,burnout, and suicide. He directed the development of aMedical Staff Peer Support Program for the hospital andbecame involved at national and international levels in thisarea. In 2002, he was selected to direct the Ohio PhysiciansHealth Program and assumed the position of its presidentand medical director until his retirement in 2009.In the mid-’80s, while at Mount Carmel East, Saterenapplied his farm-bred inventiveness to develop a computerlearning center adjacent to the emergency room and criticalcare unit, where he wrote computer programs to solvemedical problems, and implemented computer programs andtechnologies that simulate medical emergencies. Sateren’sbackground and interest in the use of computer technologiesin medical care and in medical simulation led to his touringthe Clinical Education Center and the new ND STAR(Simulation, Teaching and Research for Health Education) labat the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences.During his visit, Sateren spoke about his job during thefour years that he was an undergraduate at UND. He lived inthe hospital and was a member of the ambulance team forthe former St. Michael’s Hospital, which now houses theSchool of Medicine and Health Sciences. He said thelocation of the Office of Alumni and Community Relationswas the former emergency room, and the rooms to the southof Alumni and Community Relations housed radiology forthe hospital. He said that during weekdays, the janitor woulddrive the ambulance, dubbed the “Green Hornet.” Saterenand his coworkers, along with an emergency room nurse,staffed the ambulance on weekend and weeknight “Mr.Adam Green” (emergency) runs for the hospital. He said hisexperience working for the hospital was immensely helpfulwhen it became time to complete his clinicals.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 29

OPPORTUNITIESBy Kristine HenkeGOOD HELP IS HARD TO COME BY.This is something many small, ruralclinics in North Dakota find to be tootrue. Rural hospitals and clinics don’tfind bad help, but it can be a strugglefor them to find any help at all. NorthDakota is projected to have a shortageof about 210 physicians by 2025, andworkforce shortages are a challenge forthe entire health care system. Althoughthere are needs everywhere, shortagesare likely to be most severe in rural areas.Jody Atkinson, a fighter for ruralhealth care, has been working inBottineau, N.D., for the past 25 years.She started at St. Andrew’s HealthCenter as an administrative assistant,and has since worn many hats.Working her way up through humanresources and finances, she is nowpresident and CEO, and she knowsfirsthand how difficult it can be tomaintain the continuum of care in arural health care setting.“It seems as though we have nevernot been recruiting,” said Atkinson. St.Andrew’s has been anything if notcreative. Working with contingencyfirms, sending out countless mailings,drafting e-mails, and even venturing30 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

into online advertising have all beenavenues Atkinson has explored.What’s a CEO to do? St. Andrew’s,like many other rural health carefacilities in the state, has formed arecruitment team to help in the processof employing providers. This teamreaches far from the walls of thehospital. Working with the city’seconomic development department andchamber of commerce when a potentialprovider visits Bottineau, they ultimatelytry and give them a taste of what livingin small town North Dakota is all about.“We try and be strategic in whatinterests the potential candidate has,”said Atkinson. “We had a gentlemanwho came and was big into hunting.Who better to sit and have dinner withhim than some of our town’s very ownhunting enthusiasts?”Atkinson said the biggest key tosuccessful recruitment is to find theright fit. St. Andrew’s most recentaddition is Dr. Jessica Skjolden, a nativeof Bottineau. Atkinson feels part of theirsuccess with bringing Skjolden onboard was that she grew up in a ruralcommunity and has family ties to thearea. For Skjolden, the experience hasbeen “a little bit different. I’m not onethat’s ever wanted to have a lot ofattention, but they kind of make a bigdeal of you when you come to town.But, I know they are excited to haveanother provider.”Skjolden is excited to be at St.Andrew’s. “When I started medicalschool, I was deciding between familymedicine or internal medicine, but Iwas fairly certain I wanted to end up inrural North Dakota,” said Skjolden. Shealso shared that she hasn’t provided anyconsults in the grocery line—yet.Skjolden recommends students who areinterested in working in a smallcommunity do a rotation there, so theyget a taste of what it would be like.Some great opportunities for studentsand residents to have this experienceare the Don Breen and SEARCH(Student/Resident Experiences andRotations in Community Health)programs.It can be an uphill battle forhospitals in North Dakota, but whenthere is success like St. Andrew’s hasrecently seen, they recommendcelebrating with more than cake andcoffee. Thinking outside the box, Atkinsonand her team welcomed their newdoctor back to Bottineau by having aget-together in a city park. A picnicmight have been nice, but they decidedkaraoke and an inflatable bouncy castlefor the children was a bit moreappropriate. Again, it was the communitycoming together, like small towns do,to welcome someone they put a lot oftime and energy into connecting with.After the castle was deflated andthe karaoke unplugged, the workcarries on, a story that hits close tohome for many rural health carefacilities. Atkinson works to make sureSt. Andrew’s name is kept out there.She listens to her colleagues and staysas competitive as she can. When askedwhat it feels like, Atkinson laughs andsays, “It is a huge sense of relief! But Ialways keep the question in the back ofmy mind: are we really donerecruiting?” For her, keeping thoseproviders they have worked so hard foris just as important, if not more so, thanfinding them in the first place. But fornow at least, she can sleep easyknowing the people of Bottineau aregetting local care they can rely on.Now that Skjolden is in a NorthDakota community seeing patients, shesays “It feels like I’ve been doing this along time already. You get rollingseeing patients and it’s exactly whatyou want to be doing, and it’s great.I’m really loving it so far.”The Center for Rural Health’s stateappropriatedworkforce initiative canassist you if you are interested in apractice opportunity in North Dakota.We offer compatible matching services,information on loan repaymentprograms, and recruitment assistancefor facilities and providers.For more information on ourservices, including information on theDon Breen and SEARCH programs,please contact Aaron Ortiz, workforcespecialist, at aaron.ortiz@med.und.eduor (701) 777-6788.Aaron OritzNORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 31

IN MEMORIAMWill N. Spear BS Med ‘42Stuart B. Simon, BS Med ’45, of Norman, Okla., passedaway on Aug. 12 at the age of 90. He was born on April19, 1920, in Napoleon, N.D., to Dr. John and Jennie(Hawley) Simon. After graduating from high school inNapoleon, he completed two years of undergraduate studiesat North Dakota State University before serving with theArmy during World War II. Upon his return, he completedhis degree, briefly taught botany at North Dakota StateUniversity, and then attended medical schools at theUniversity of North Dakota in Grand Forks and theUniversity of Illinois in Chicago, where he graduated in1948. He interned at Hurley Hospital in Flint, Mich.,followed by an obstetric residency at Erlinger Hospital inChattanooga, Tenn., from 1950 to 1952. He practicedfamily medicine in Pierre, S.D., for the next 16 years.Stuart entered the psychiatric residency program atGriffin Hospital in Norman, Okla., followed by a childpsychiatry residency at the University of Oklahoma HealthSciences Center. He served as the medical director of thePhil Smalley Children’s Center in Norman from 1971 to1980 and taught child psychiatry at OUHSC from 1980 to1993. He was a national hospital surveyor for the JointCommission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizationsand practiced with the Indian Health Service Clinics inPawhuska, Pawnee, and Ponca City from 1980 to 1998.After his retirement, he continued to consult with theresidency programs at Griffin and the Children’s Hospital. Heserved as chair of the Oklahoma Psychiatric Association EthicsCommittee for 15 years.Philip E. Fluvog, BS Med ’53, passed away July 28 in hisSeattle home. Born in Barton, N.D., on May 26, 1921, hespent his early years on the family’s rural farm. He left tojoin the Army Air Corps and was a World War II flightinstructor in Bakersfield, Calif. After his career in theservice, he returned to school to graduate from theUniversity of California–Berkeley, the University of NorthDakota School of Medicine, and the University ofWashington Medical School. He touched many lives duringhis career as a general and thoracic surgeon in Seattle. Afterretiring, he pursued new interests, earning anothereducational certificate and learning American SignLanguage.William “Bill” Masakuni Nagatomo, BS Med Tech ‘53, 83,a resident of Fergus Falls, Minn., died March 23 at his homeunder the care of Lakeland Hospice. He was born Oct. 19,1926, in Minot, N.D., the son of George and Masuo(Oshikawa) Nagatomo. He grew up and attended schoolthere, graduating from Minot High School in 1944. He wasinducted into the Army on Feb. 21, 1945, and served in theEuropean Theater during World War II until his dischargeon Nov. 8, 1946. After his discharge, he attended theUniversity of North Dakota in Grand Forks, receiving abachelor of arts degree in 1950, and a Bachelor of Sciencein Medical Technology in 1953. On July 30, 1955, hemarried Alma M. Krefting in South Sioux City, Neb. Heworked for a short time at Trinity Hospital in Minot, N.D.,and in Crookston, Minn. They moved to Fergus Falls, wherehe worked at Lake Region Hospital for 37 years as thelaboratory manager, retiring in November 1991.Ione W. Olson, BS OT ‘58, 89, died Oct. 8 at the Villa St.Vincent home in Crookston, Minn. She was born in Glenwood,Minn., on April 20, 1921, the daughter of Edgar and Florence(Wuest) Wittwer. She attended all 12 grades and graduatedco-salutatorian in 1939 from Glenwood High School,Glenwood, Minn. She attended Milwaukee-Downer Collegein Milwaukee. In 1944, she graduated with a diploma inoccupational therapy. She was first employed as a registeredoccupational therapist at the Veterans Hospital in St. Cloud,Minn., and then Fargo, N.D. It was at the Fargo VA Hospitalthat she met Ivan Iver Olson. They married in Bemidji, Minn.,on February 20, 1950, and they spent the next 44 yearsbetween the Glenwood and Greater Grand Forks areas.In 1954, Ione joined the University of North Dakotafaculty as an assistant professor and established the OTdepartment. She earned her BS degree in OT at UND in1958. In 1960, she was awarded a scholarship by theMarch of Dimes to attend a psychiatric OT program inOmaha, Neb. She was an instructor at UND until 1980when she retired.Marjorie Z. Walters, BS Med Tech ’59, died Sept. 4 atHospice Atlanta in Atlanta, Ga. She was born on Nov. 11,1930, to Louis Richard Zutz and Frieda Marie (Busse) Zutzin Wylie Township, Minn., where she was raised andeducated. After a tour of service in the U.S. Air Force, shegraduated from the University of North Dakota in GrandForks with a bachelor’s in clinical laboratory science. Aftermarrying Alfred G. “Jim” Walters, she relocated to Atlantain 1960 and worked as a medical technologist at GradyMemorial Hospital in Atlanta for more than 30 years, whereshe greatly valued her Grady colleagues.32 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

IN MEMORIAMMarilyn J. Thibeault, BS Med Tech ’57, formerly ofYoungstown and Lewiston, N.Y., passed away July 9 at age 74.Shirley L. Foster BS Med Tech ’67, died on Sept. 24 in herhome in Grand Forks, N.D. She was born on May 2, 1943,in Grand Forks, the daughter of George and Berget Sollom.She grew up and was educated in Grand Forks, attendingthe University of North Dakota, earning her B.S. in MedicalTechnology. She married Porter “Joe” Foster Jr. on Nov. 24,1967, in Grand Forks. She was a lab supervisor in themicrobiology and immunology department at the UNDMedical School for 37 years.Russell Crawford Jr., BS Med ’75, 67, of Deer River, Minn.,and formerly of Grand Forks, N.D., died Sept. 14 at theDeer River Health Care Center. He was born March 29,1943, in St. James, Minn., the son of Russell S. Sr. andAgnes (Hallameck) Crawford. He was raised in Grand Forks,attending St. Michael’s Grade School and graduating fromSt. James High School in 1961. He received his Bachelor ofArts in History from Yale University in 1966. Duringsummers in college, he worked as a brakeman on the GreatNorthern Railway in North Dakota. Following collegegraduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served fiveyears as a pilot during the Vietnam era. He was honorablydischarged as a captain from the Air Force in 1972. He andMarcie Windler married in September 1968 in Sweeny,Texas. She died in December 1971. Upon leaving the AirForce, he returned to Grand Forks and enrolled at theUniversity of North Dakota to complete a year of premedclasses. He attended medical school at UND for two yearsbefore transferring to Baylor College of Medicine (Houston)and graduating in 1977. He completed his medicalinternship in Fresno, Calif., where he met Donna SkoegardBrannon. They married June 27, 1980, after he finished hisresidency in emergency medicine at Oregon Health ScienceUniversity in Portland. He practiced emergency medicine inPortland for almost 20 years. Russ and Donna decided tomove to the north woods of Minnesota in 1997, and heworked in emergency medicine at Fairview UniversityMedical Center-Mesabi in Hibbing, Minn., for three yearsbefore retiring in 2000.Hugh D. “Doc” DePaolo, BS Med ’77, 61, died July 29 atRapid City Regional Hospital. He was born and raised inCasper, Wyo. He attended the University of Notre Dame,where he intended to play football, but instead discovered alove of fencing; he graduated as a four-year varsityletterwinner in the sport. After his time at Notre Dame, hewent on to achieve a master’s degree from the University ofNorth Dakota and a medical degree from the University ofAlabama. After completing his obstetrics residency at BaylorCollege of Medicine in Houston, he returned to Casper,where he began his career as an OB/GYN, which allowedhim to deliver thousands of babies and change the lives ofthousands of patients.Dr. Maya Dillas, clinical professor at Trinity Health inMinot, N.D., passed away Aug. 14 at the age of 46 after a29-month battle with cancer. She had a rich life of being agood physician and helping her patients, traveling, enjoyingher many friends, and watching her two girls grow.Dr. Arie Fischbach, clinical assistant professor, OB/GYN,72, died Oct. 21 at Trinity Medical Center in Minot, N.D.He was born Jan. 15, 1938, in New York City to Dr. Karland Mildred Fischbach, and grew up in Manhattan. Agraduate of Lafayette College with honors, he went on tomedical school at the University of Liege in Liege, Belgium,and graduated magna cum laude. He had practicedmedicine as a board certified OB/GYN for the past 40 years.He spent the last 19 years working in Minot.Arie married Rayetta L. Meek on March 9, 1985, inWilliston, N.D. They have nine children, 15 grandchildrenand one great-grandchild.NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 33

PLANNING AHEADIgnite the SpiritUND launches an ambitious capitalcampaign that will benefit studentsand faculty at the School of Medicineand Health Sciences for years to come.You may have heard about UND’s North Dakota Spiritcapital campaign, launched publicly at the Chester FritzAuditorium on Oct. 8. You may be wondering, “How doesthis apply to the UND School of Medicine and HealthSciences?” Mary Coleman, assistant professor in theDepartment of Pathology, was the first to find out.Coleman won the $10,000 giveaway at the launchevent, which was designed by the UND Foundation to give thecampus a firsthand philanthropic experience. She was selected out of 1,500 contestants tochoose which campus entity would receive the money donated by the Harold and KathleenGershman Foundation. She knew which group could make use of the funds—Clinical Lab Sciences.“We need a new slide stainer and that costs $10,000,” Coleman said. “It aids inteaching hematology.”The launch event was the official start to UND’s capital campaign, themed North DakotaSpirit. The goal, set by UND President Robert Kelley, is $300 million. Thanks to generousdonors during the campaign’s quiet phase, the campaign has already reached the $204million mark. The funds will ultimately benefit students, faculty, programs, and facilitiesacross campus.“We call it North Dakota Spirit because as our state’s flagship university, wecarry the spirit of North Dakota in all we do,” Kelley explained.As part of the campaign, the SMHS has identified its major fundingpriorities, including student scholarships, endowed faculty chairs andprofessorships, the simulation lab, and a new health sciences building. Formore information about the campaign as it moves forward and specific SMHSfunding opportunities, visit www.spirit.und.edu.Printed copies of the School’s campaign case statement and case summaryare available at the SMHS Office of Alumni and Community Relations.Photo: Bruce CrummyWhat is North Dakota Spirit?“As a teacher, I can say the thing that defined North Dakotastudents was an attitude of quiet confidence and a very matureunderstanding of what it would take to succeed. Most of themhave an agrarian background, and coming from the land, theyunderstand what it means to have to go out and work, and do a good job. And after they graduate, ourstudents are the most sought after in the country because of that work ethic.”—Henry C. “Bud” Wessman,UND Physical Therapy Department creator and chair (1967–1993), Sioux Award winner (2010)34 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010

PARTING SHOTSOn Saturday, October 23, Grand Forks Walmart customersreceived a hearty and healthful greeting from over 50 UNDmedical, physical therapy, and nursing students. The studentsgave almost 250 customers free health information and healthscreenings, ranging from blood pressure checks and bloodglucose readings to body and posture assessments.Medical laboratory science students helped out at the blooddrive for Dak Minn Blood Bank on October 5–6, which wassponsored by the UND University Apartment CommunityCouncil and the UND Medical Laboratory Science Club. Showndonating blood to technician Peggy Braddock is Kayla Lee, aclinical laboratory science student.Student Occupational Therapy Association membersparticipate in Homecoming parade.Clinical Laboratory Science Class of 2011NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2010 35

University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health SciencesA National Leader in Rural Health - Serving North Dakota since 1905501 North Columbia Road Stop 9037 ● Grand Forks ND ● 58202-9037701-777-4305 www.med.und.eduPeriodical POSTAGE PAIDADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTEDLet us know how you prefer to receive North Dakota Medicine and other forms of media fromthe School of Medicine and Health Sciences by taking a brief survey at http://bit.ly/readsurv.Those who fill out the survey by Dec. 31 will be entered into a drawing for a free SMHS blanket, just in time for winter!