Class Notes

Share your news with other members of the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Nurses Alumni Association! Read all about what’s going on with your classmates and friends! We’d love to hear from you, so e-mail your latest news to alumni@rush.edu today! Please make sure to include your class year and school name. New information will be added periodically so make sure to check back often.

St. Luke’s
DORIS FULLER CABRERA, 1941, of Mays Landing, N.J., provided an update on the 10 nursing dolls she brought to the 2001 reunion for the St. Luke’s Class of 1941. Since then, she’s made 14 dolls that have found new homes with alumni in South Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and Illinois. Although her sewing days are over now, she was happy to contribute to St. Luke’s nursing history. One of Cabrera’s dolls is part of the collection in the Rush University Medical Center Archives.

TWYLLA MAE KNAKE, 1945, wrote, “I am still enjoying life by the Deschutes River in Bend, Ore. I continue to be grateful for my nursing education.”

IRMA SPRINGER STALEY, 1946A, of Aurora, Colo., wrote, “We, the St. Luke’s 1946A class, were privileged to celebrate our 60^th anniversary at the lovely University Club and to meet the new nursing dean, Melanie Dreher. Seven of us — Lorraine Broz Toman, Anne Ford Stafford, Marilyn Kasbaum Palmer, Phyllis Kendall Fox, Katherine Perman Speich, Connie Rawnick Bloom and myself — were in attendance.”

ARLYSS DANIELSON WATERS, 1947A, of Ewen, Mich., wrote, “It made me very happy to see our St. Luke’s School of Nursing banner when our daughter, LINNEA MAUREEN WATERS, BSN 2006, received her diploma last June.” Linnea is a staff nurse at Rush on 9 South Atrium.

MARILYN J. CHAPMAN MOGAARD, 1948B, of Richton Park, Ill., wrote, “I am very proud to be a graduate of St. Luke’s and would enjoy reading more news from my classmates.”

CATHERINE KEEBLER, 1951A, of Chicago, continues to work in cytopathology. She is also an artist and maintains a studio. Her artwork has been displayed at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

MARY ANN PARDUS MUDRA, 1956B, enjoyed attending Homecoming 2006. “Thank you for a memory-packed day spent with friends we will always treasure,” she wrote.

Presbyterian
Before retiring in 1971, CATHERINE KRATTEBOL LITT, 1935, of Antigo, Wis., worked part-time at then Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center on 2 Pavilion as assistant head nurse to Shirley Butz. Today, she and her husband, Otto, have 12 great- and three step-great-grandchildren, ages 2 to 20. She and Otto have been married for 68 years.

Following her graduation from Presbyterian, DOROTHY NELSON KEIFER, 1941, of Portland, Ore., served in the Navy Cadet Corps for four years.

ILENE E. ANDERSON FOULKE, 1942, of Sun City West, Ariz., wrote that she is doing well, despite losing both her husband and son in 2003.

LISBETH BRANDT HARTER, 1947F, of Chico, Calif., volunteers at a local hospital. She writes that one of her daughters is a family physician in Orange Park, Fla., another daughter will start medical school in a year, and her youngest daughter is still in college.

SHIRLEY TRUAX HULBOY, 1956F, of Keokuk, Iowa, exercises at a health center, does volunteer work and visits the elderly. In September, she and her daughter took an Alaskan cruise.

MIRIAM BIXEL WATERMAN, 1956S, of Tucson, Ariz., is looking for more information about former classmates. She still uses her nursing license working with Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Tucson.

TERRY PHILLIPS GROENEVELD, 1957F, of Bertram, Texas, has enjoyed 30 years of nursing in hospital, home health, hospice and case management. She wrote, “Nursing gave me challenges to grow and an appreciation of the value of quality care to promote good health in the community.”

PATRICIA SYVERSON HATZ, 1957F, of Elmhurst, Ill., is a school nurse at York High School in Elmhurst. She and SHIRLEY ANDERSON EGGERS look forward to seeing all of their classmates at Homecoming 2007.

JANE BALS, 1958, and her husband, John, have moved to Minocqua, Wis., just 25 miles from the lake at their former home of Manitowish Waters, Wis. Bals is retired.

Presbyterian-St. Luke’s
PATRICIA SNIDER LEHMAN, 1960, of Syracuse, Ind., has been a hospice volunteer for five years. She enjoys traveling, quilting and gardening.

CAROL BRISBY BILLINGSLEY, 1961, now lives in Nashville, Tenn.

After 41 years in Bitely, Mich., SUZANNE COCHRAN MILLER, 1963, and her husband, Harry, have made a permanent move to The Villages, Fla.

RONALD INSKEEP, 1967, of White Plains, N.Y., retired in 2001 at the age of 65. He volunteers at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester Division, where he worked for more than 33 years.

MARGARET FAUT-CALLAHAN, Pres-St. Luke’s Cert. 1976; Rush MS 1979, DNSc 1984, was honored with the SAGE Recognition Award at the 9^th Annual Power of Nursing Leadership celebration last October. The award spotlights nurses who mentor and support the nursing leadership of today while looking for ways to mentor the nurse leaders of tomorrow. Fellow Rush alumna KATHRYN CHRISTIANSEN, Rush DNSc 1981, NAA Distinguished Alumna 2000, received the 2006 Illinois Nurse Leader Award at the event. Christiansen is regional director for patient care at Rush Oak Park.

Rush
MARCA BRISTO, BS 1976, NAA Distinguished Alumna 1995, was featured in a Dec. 14, 2006, Chicago Tribune article for her work negotiating a recently adopted United Nations convention protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities.

In January, Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich honored MARGARET DAVIS, BS 1976, MS 1978, with the People Are Today’s Heroes Award for her work as a registered nurse and health advocate. Davis is executive director of the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois, a nonprofit, community-based, health and human-service organization that works to improve and enhance the quality of life in Illinois.

LINDA JANE DELMONTE, BS 1977, is a trustee of the AAOHN Foundation. She is training products manager for Medtronic Physio-Control, a recognized leader in the manufacture, sale and service of external defibrillators and related medical equipment and accessories.

GARY L. C. RESCHAK, BS 1979, of Palatine, Ill., passed the exam for Certified Nephrology Nurse last year. Reschak works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the inpatient dialysis unit. He remains active in the American Nurses and Illinois Nurses Associations as a board member and in the Windy City Chapter of the American Nephrology Nurses Association.

KATHRYN CHRISTIANSEN, DNSc 1981, NAA Distinguished Alumna 2000, see MARGARET-FAUT CALLAHAN, Pres. St. Luke’s 1976, Rush 1979 and 1984.

MARY T. BERGAN SABA, BS 1981, MS 1989, has been appointed director of ambulatory nursing for Rush University Medical Group. In this newly created role, Mary will oversee the development and communication of nursing policies and procedures, along with the development and achievement of standards of practice for nursing activities in ambulatory care. Mary has worked at Rush since 1980, most recently as senior quality consultant in the department of quality improvement.

NANCY KISKUNAS CASANOVA, MS 1982, of Prospect Heights, Ill., has practiced at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., since graduating from Rush. She is a clinical nurse educator.

DIANA STULC, MS 1982, of Hanson, Ky., attended medical school at the University of Louisville and in 2002 completed her family medicine residency. She recently became a hospitalist with Cogent Healthcare at Owensboro Medical Health System in Kentucky.

DIANE RODRIGUEZ, BS 1983, of Downers Grove, Ill., was honored with a 2006 Nursing Spectrum Excellence Award for being an exceptional mentor. Rodriguez is executive director for patient care support at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill.

PAULA MEIER, DNSc 1985, was awarded funding for a third year from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation to support her program the Rush Mother’s Milk Club. ILCHF will provide more than $50,000 to support the work of the program’s breastfeeding peer counselors. Under Meier’s leadership, the Mother’s Milk Club informs, counsels and supports mothers of premature and special-needs infants with the goal of them initiating — and continuing — to breastfeed. Along with Meier, EMILY WHITE, BS 1996, is a member of Rush’s lactation support team, which won Rush’s Team of the Quarter Award last fall. The 10-member team provides direct care to about 800 mothers and their infants each year, and they also make follow-up outpatient visits to low-income patients and Special Care Nursery patients.

The May 8, 2006, issue of Nursing Spectrum magazine featured SARAH KAGAN, BS 1986, NAA Distinguished Alumna 2005, as a nurse who embodies unwavering commitment to the health and welfare of all people. Kagan is an associate professor and clinician educator at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and a clinical nurse specialist in medical nursing at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 2003, Kagan earned the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the MacArthur “genius grant,” for her work to revise standards and practices for the treatment of older adults with cancer.

DIANN MARTIN, MS 1986, DNSc 1990, is the dean of nursing and health care for Kaplan University, an online school of nursing and health care. She reported that the school has 400 BSN completion students and plans to launch an ADN program and an MSN program this year.

ANITA TARZIAN, BS 1986, was quoted in the March 2007 Prevention magazine article, “4 Risky Habits — And the Moves That Could Save Your Life.” Prevention cited Tarzian as an authority on effective ways for women to communicate with their doctors. She is an ethics and research consultant in the Law & Health Care Program of the University of Maryland Law School.

WENDY TUZIK MICEK, BS 1987, DNSc 1993, of Tinley Park, Ill., co-presented the paper “The Influence of the Magnet Recognition Program on Building Culturally Competent Health Care Organizations” at the 32^nd Annual Transcultural Nursing Society conference in Annapolis, Md. Her research incorporated case studies from Advocate Christ Medical Center, Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital and Edward Hospital.

MARCIA DeWOLF BOSEK, DNSc 1989, has accepted a position as a nurse ethicist at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., with a joint appointment to the University of Vermont School of Nursing. She was previously a faculty member at Rush University College of Nursing.

PAULINE KOCH, MS 1991, of Oak Park, Ill., was honored as a Greater Chicago regional finalist in Nursing Spectrum magazine’s 2006 Excellence Awards. Koch is clinical nurse specialist and coordinator of AGE-WISE at Rush Oak Park Hospital.

JEFF CURL, BS 1993, of Upton, Mass., recorded a commentary for the program “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio in December. Curl’s commentary reflected on one of the cancer patients whom he treated. The recording can still be found on NPR’s Web site, www.NPR.org, by typing his name into the search function.

In 1994, KELLY SCHLENK SULLENS, BS 1993, of Haslet, Texas, married her high school sweetheart, LtCDR Matthew J. Sullens, and they have three sons. Sullens is part of the oncology team at Baylor Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Her husband has retired from his work flying an FA18 with the United States Navy and is a pilot for Southwest Airlines. Sullens would love to hear from former Rush classmates.

Three Rush alumni and current graduate students represented Rush University College of Nursing at the 2007 MNRS Student Poster Exchange and Competition in March. SUSAN M. BREITENSTEIN, BS 1994, MS 1997, presented her research, “Parent and Teacher Attributional Assessments of Preschool Children’s Misbehavior;” NANCY RODRIGUEZ, MS 1997, presented “Oropharyngeal Administration of Own Mother’s Colostrum During the First Days of Life; Effects of Immune Function of Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW; BW<1000g) Infants;” and <strong/>BRIDGET JOHNSON, BSN 2006, presented “Self-Injurious Behavior on an Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit.”

PAULA JOSEPH, BS 1994, of Chicago recently earned an MSN/HSM in Nursing Informatics from Loyola University. Joseph now combines both aspects of her background — nursing and information systems — in her job at Rush University Medical Center implementing Epic, an enterprise-wide clinical, patient accounting and registration system.

SARAH HUFFMAN, BS 1996, of Niles, Mich., writes that her name is now Sarah Rutchik. She married Dr. Scott D. Rutchik.

EMILY WHITE, BS 1996, see PAULA MEIER, Rush 1985.

SUSAN BAUER-WU, DNSc 1997, of Brookline, Mass., has accepted an associate professor position in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University beginning this June.

ANDREA KLINE, MS 1997, Cert. 1999, of Chicago was awarded a 2006 Internal Shaw Grant at the Shaw Nursing & Allied Health Research Award Ceremony for her research “Does the Use of a Non-Invasive Computerized Electromagnetic Device Reduce the Time Needed for Accurate Placement of Bedside Small Bowel Feeding Tubes in Critically Ill Children?” She is a nurse at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

NANCY RODRIGUEZ, MS 1997, see SUSAN M. BREITENSTEIN, BS 1994, MS 1997.

TRESA ZIELINSKI, MS 1997, Cert. 1999, of Chicago was inducted as a fellow in the American Society of Transplantation. Zielinski works at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

MARJORIE FONZA, DNSc 2000, of Lees Summit, Mo., is a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing and president of the Association of Black Nursing Faculty in Higher Education.

ANDJA LECHMAN, BSN 2000, works for United Resource Network/United Health Group, a division of United Healthcare, as a NICU case manager. She follows NICU babies during their hospitalization, then follows up with parents at home to educate them and arrange any services needed to help provide better outcomes and prevent readmissions.

THOM BLOOMQUIST, MSN 2001, of Bow, N.H., was featured in the August 2006 issue of Men in Nursing journal. The article, “Get Proficient at Sedation and Regulation,” highlighted advice and information for nurse anesthetists. Bloomquist is the owner of Advanced Anesthesia and Pain Management Services and the chair of the New Hampshire Board of Nursing.

JULIE CARROLL, BSN 2001, of Oswego, Ill., works in the Cancer Care Center at Rush-Copley Medical Center. She obtained her oncology certification in April 2006 and is pursuing her MSN at Lewis University.

ROGER GREEN, ND 2003, of Palm Springs, Calif., is the director of the DNP program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah, and president of the American College of Clinicians. Green has successfully led legislative campaigns to eliminate delegation of authority requirements of major pharmaceutical companies in selected states and has been widely recognized for his political activism on behalf of nurse practitioners throughout the United States.

In 2003, MARGARET JEAN (“PEGGY”) ROWBERG, ND 2003, was awarded a $76,000 grant from the National Susan G. Komen Foundation to teach an accurate and adequate clinical breast exam to nurse-practitioner students. Since then, the project’s focus has been modified to center on developing an online interactive course module which teaches the “5P’s” of the exam. This module will include faculty teaching points and will then be adapted for use by students. Rowberg is academic coordinator for the College of Graduate Nursing at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., where she developed the breast exam course module.

LOLA COKE, DNSc 2005, of Chicago, was awarded the Martha N. Hill New Investigator Award from the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing of the American Heart Association. Coke is a research assistant in Rush University College of Nursing.

BRIDGET JOHNSON, BSN 2006, see SUSAN M. BREITENSTEIN, Rush 1994.

SARAH MATULA, BSN 2006, has moved to Seattle to work in the ICU at University of Washington Hospital.

LINNEA MAUREEN WATERS, BSN 2006, see ARLYSS DANIELSON WATERS, St. Luke’s 1947.

JENNIFER GRACE SCHWARZ, BSN 2006, received the NAA Award at January’s Rush College of Nursing mid-year convocation ceremony, at which she spoke. A nursing service scholar, Schwarz began working in the Rush O.R. in February. In Rush’s Nursing Service Scholarship program, students receive a full-tuition scholarship and in turn fulfill a required nursing service commitment at Rush University Medical Center upon their graduation from the College of Nursing.

AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO…
Congratulations to the Presbyterian class of 1956 and the St. Luke’s class of 1956, both of which recently celebrated their 50-year reunion by making class gifts to Rush College of Nursing.