Manchester Magazine manchester magazine fall 2019 for joomag | Page 15

MU | F e a t u r e s To advance its health science bona fides, Manchester this fall moved its Master of Athletic Training (MAT) program from North Manchester to Fort Wayne. Enrollment grew immediately. Indiana’s second-largest city not only has more housing and recreation options for MAT students, it offers greater potential for clinical experiences with the city’s professional sports teams, sports medicine clinics, hospitals and industrial settings. As for nursing, Johnson is an ideal person to develop the program. A registered nurse, she is the former president of two health care colleges on the East Coast and holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania and master’s degrees in nursing and public relations. In her 20 years in higher education, Johnson has specialized in developing health science programs – from certificates to doctoral degrees. Manchester has never had a nursing program, but graduates have gone into nursing by earning advanced degrees at other universities. One of them is Mary Boudreau ’84, a biology-chemistry major. She attended medical school at Michigan State University for a year, then served at a homeless shelter as a VISTA volunteer before a career in social work. She was 46 when she became a registered nurse and has since earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing. Though Boudreau doesn’t regret the choices she made along the way, she thinks she may have chosen nursing as a major if Manchester had offered it then. She’s delighted that they’re pursuing it now. “I think there are going to be a lot of good opportunities there,” she says. Boudreau works for Sparrow Hospital System in Lansing, Mich., and spends 90 percent of her time providing primary care at a health clinic for senior citizens. The other 10 percent she devotes to people with Hepatitis C and HIV who live 100 miles to the north in a rural county with only one ambulance. “There’s such a big need for rural care,” she says. Boudreau also sees a need for the kind of education that Manchester is so good at providing. “I think the whole liberal arts mentality is really helpful in nursing,” she says. “You look at the person, the person in the environment, the social justice aspect of health care.” Manchester teaches students to be agents of change, she says, and that will become a critical skill “because no matter what, our health care system has got to change.” Change is coming to Manchester, too, with the addition of more health science programs, adds McFadden. “The initiative aligns with our mission, reflects our traditions, and will prepare more Manchester graduates for high-demand careers that improve the human condition.” By Melinda Lantz ’81 Associate Professor Erin Foreman, who is also director of sports medicine and associate athletic director at MU, advises Lexi Furnish ’18 how to tape Sydney Thompson ’19. Lexi graduated with a Master of Athletic Training degree and Sydney with a bachelor’s degree. Manchester | 15