MWU Alumni in the News

Last week, one of my emails was a link to an article in the Orland Park Star newspaper about an alum who is the new chief of staff at Silver Cross Hospital. A few days later, I heard about an alumna who had celebrated her 105th birthday in December. This week, another alumnus served as an expert on a media story about steroids (after the Mark McGuire news). Between Facebook friends, trips to the grocery store, and teleconference meetings, MWU alumni are often on my daily radar screen.

MWU is fortunate to have many of our alumni still working on our campuses as full-time faculty. Many more serve as preceptors at hospitals, pharmacies, private practices, and health facilities throughout Illinois and Arizona and across the nation. In Glendale, many of the practicing physicians at our Midwestern University Clinic are alumni. Several of these doctors I remember from when they were students, and a few of them have recently treated me as a patient. I think we all feel a sense of pride to see them now very successful physicians who have come back to build their professional practices at MWU.

The newest chief of staff at Silver Cross? It's Dave Mikolajczak, D.O., CCOM Class of 1985 and also of CCOM's Emergency Medicine Residency. He has been the hospital's Medical Director of Emergency Medicine for 20 years and is looking forward to this new challenge.

The 105-year-old alumna? It's Marie Keener, D.O., CCOM Class of 1929. Dr. Keener served as a family physician in Ohio throughout her career and counts Baroness Maria von Trapp (of "Sound of Music" fame) amongst her patients.

The steroid expert? It's Anthony Will, D.O., CCOM Class of 2000 and physician at the Midwestern University Clinic on our Glendale Campus. Dr. Will specializes in both osteopathic manipulative medicine and family medicine, and he has treated me a time or two with excellent results. He is also one of our "go-to" guys for the local media.

Photo: Dr. Will is great with all kinds of patients

Needless to say, we are very proud of our alumni at MWU. They are our representatives and ambassadors in the community and the professions. They are the reason many of our applicants decide to apply to--and ultimately attend--MWU. And since the mission of our University is educating tomorrow's healthcare team, these alumni are really the reason we work so hard every day. Our current students will soon be alumni, and we know that when we see them on the news or encounter them in a local hospital, we want them to be the best.

Fortunately, they are.