Des Moines University’s 110th commencement was a mixture of joy, excitement and sadness over the loss of a DMU friend.

Gabriele Conn, flanked by DMU Interim President Stephen Dengle and Provost Karen McLean, accepts an honorary degree on behalf of her father, Peter Pintus. The Holocaust survivor tragically died five days before commencement

The joy and excitement, of course, were felt by the 466 degree recipients – the largest graduating class in DMU’s history – and hundreds of family members, friends, faculty and staff. Keynote speaker Thomas Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and two-term Iowa governor, congratulated the graduates and encouraged them to be both “healers and leaders” in three areas: addressing the “crisis” of chronic disease, revitalizing rural America and serving the under-served in other countries.

“There is work to be done by trained, qualified and committed healers,” said Vilsack, who received an honorary doctor of laws degree at the ceremony for his career in public service. “You, too, can help in doing this to reshape America’s view in terms of the rest of the world and to reshape the rest of the world’s view of America by contributing to a sense of community, of giving something back…to help heal those around the world who are in need.”

Peter Pintus

Commencement participants also felt sorrow: Peter Pintus, a Holocaust survivor who was to receive an honorary doctor of humane letters at the ceremony, unexpectedly died just five days earlier on May 24. He was honored posthumously.

A Des Moines resident since 1964, Mr. Pintus used his life experiences to teach lessons of tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. A hospital chaplain, Episcopal deacon and – most recently – assistant to the rabbi at Temple B’nai Jeshurun, he addressed students and faculty for several years at DMU’s annual Holocaust remembrance.

They came a long way, baby: Moises Aponte Cartagena and his wife, Idamaris Santiago, with sons Adriel, left, and Moises.

The week before commencement, Moisés Cartagena Aponte, his wife, Idamaris Santiago, and sons Moisés and Adriel celebrated his upcoming graduation by enjoying local attractions including the Science Center of Iowa and Adventureland amusement park. As they should – after all, they’d traveled more than 2,300 miles to get to Des Moines.

Cartagena, a physical therapist and instructor at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao, chose to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy to better help patients and to comply with the American Physical Therapy Association’s expectation that all physical therapists have doctoral degrees in the discipline by 2020. He discovered DMU’s post-professional doctor of physical therapy program on APTA’s website.

“I was looking for a D.P.T. program that offers distance learning, so I could finish it here and continue working,” he says.

DMU’s P.P.D.P.T. program and master’s programs in public health and health care administration can be completed with courses on campus, online or a blend of both. In his program, Cartagena came to campus twice – in February 2008 for a manual therapy course and for commencement this May.

“I decided to participate because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I want to share this event with my family,” he said before traveling to Des Moines. “It is the culmination of a long, formal educational career.” He deserved to celebrate. Cartagena’s first language is Spanish, so he “spent a lot of hours” translating and proofreading from English to Spanish and vice versa. Like many other online students across the country and around the world, he had to track his classmates’ time zones to complete group assignments.

“I had to readjust my sleep hours because in many instances, projects were done in groups, and I had to wait during the night for their feedback to submit my assignments,” he notes.

Still, Cartagena is “thankful” for the “great experience” and glad to be part of the Class of 2010.

“I really enjoyed the accessibility of the faculty during all my courses and the constructive teaching style,” he says. “Working in groups with my classmates taught me the importance of collaborative work in our profession. The program gives me tools to be a better physical therapist and a better health care provider.”

Kosta Antonopoulos and Valerie Tallerico gained insights on academia in a clerkship created by CPMS Dean R. Tim Yoho, center.

You might say R. Tim Yoho, D.P.M., FACFAS, dean of the College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, is looking for his replacement. Long-term, that is.

Two years ago, he realized that the many educational opportunities for students were thin on training future academic medical administrators. “There were no orientation programs for students interested in the administrative side – those who down the road might have an interest in academic medicine,” he says.

Yoho created a one-month CPMS Academic Medicine Clerkship for fourth-year students with that interest. The clerkship exposes students to the day-today administrative, curricular and clinical operations of the college, often in eye-opening ways.

“You don’t truly realize as a student all the things that faculty have going on,” says Valerie Tallerico, Yoho’s academic clerk in April. “I learned how involved the faculty are, which is great to see – how they’re working to improve the University.”

Tallerico and Kosta Antonopoulos, her successor in the clerkship, say the experience honed their teaching skills. They helped teach second- and third-year podiatric students and wrote some test questions.

“You came to recognize the look on their faces when they needed extra explanation of the material,” Antonopoulos says.

“It made me think through what I did as a second- and third-year student to get myself to understand,” Tallerico adds.

Yoho says he values the clerks’ perspectives as students; in addition, by giving them behind- the- scenes insights, the clerks become ambassadors for the college among their classmates.

“I observed how much faculty will go to bat for students,” Antonopoulos says.

While he and Tallerico came away from the clerkship with different conclusions – he loves the classroom setting; she leans more toward teaching in a residency program – they have the potential to be a package deal. After graduating in May, they got married in June and then began their residencies at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

“Kosta and Valerie are exceptional role models who sought numerous leadership positions as CPMS students,” Yoho says. “They’re the type of people I’d really like to see come back to our college.”

Glanton honoree Robert Ray, shown with his wife, Billie, has had a profound impact on Iowans and citizens of the world.

In the mid 1970s, then-Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray, J.D., appointed Luther Glanton Jr. to the district court bench, making him the first black judge in Iowa. As the 38th governor of Iowa, serving from 1969 to 1983, Ray issued orders to promote civil rights and established the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, a group that honored him in 1982 with the Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice. He encouraged Iowans to assist refugees from Southeast Asia and in 1979 served as delegate to the United Nations Conference on Refugees.

For these and other worthy acts, Ray will be honored at DMU’s Glanton Scholarship Dinner Oct. 14 at the Meadows at Prairie Meadows, Altoona, IA.

“We couldn’t be more excited about having Gov. Ray as our honoree this year. He is an exemplary Iowa leader and has done so much for minorities in our state,” says Sue Huppert, DMU’s vice president for alumni and development.

Money raised from Glanton Dinner ticket sales and donations increases the endowment for the scholarship named for Judge Glanton and his wife, Willie Stevenson Glanton. The scholarship assists minority students in all DMU programs.

Willie Glanton was the first black female assistant county attorney and the first black person from Polk County to serve in the Iowa Legislature. Judge Glanton joined the DMU Board of Trustees in 1979; when he died in 1991, Willie took his place on the board, became its chair in 1999 and continues to serve today.

Since leaving the governor’s office, Ray served as president of Drake University and interim mayor of Des Moines; he co-founded the Institute for Character Development and co-chaired the National Coalition on Health Care. In 2005 he received the Iowa Award from the Iowa Centennial Memorial Commission.

Learn more about the Glanton Scholarship, established in 2004. For information on becoming a corporate or individual sponsor of the Glanton Dinner, contact Sue Huppert at 515-271- 1384. To be added to the dinner invitation list, contact Lyrio Cloma-Read at 515-271-1387.

To honor his legacy, the College of Osteopathic Medicine created the Joseph R. McNerney, D.O., Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine for fourth-year COM students who exemplify the physician’s expertise, integrity and dedication.

“He was the quintessential osteopathic physician,” recalls Victor Kaylarian, D.O., DMU chair of internal medicine.

“He took very good care of patients and was very much committed to our profession, its growth and the success of everyone’s practice,” adds Michael Flood, D.O.’77, DMU associate professor and chair of the University’s Iowa Simulation Center. “He was a physician’s physician.”

Dr. McNerney, who died in 1998, founded the first intensive-care unit in Iowa, the Harrison Alcohol Treatment Center in Des Moines and the state’s first nuclear medicine program, also in Des Moines. He cofounded the heart clinic at the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, now DMU. He served on the University’s board, including 14 years as chair; was president of the American College of Osteopathic Internists; and was director of internal medicine residency training at Des Moines General Hospital. The Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association named him Physician of the Year in 1984.

In addition, of Dr. McNerney’s 10 children, sons Joseph and Robert and daughter Bridget hold DMU degrees; son David is DMU’s facilities director.

Jayme Danielson, D.O.’10, received the inaugural $500 McNerney Award at the COM graduation banquet in May. “Jayme has an excellent academic record and very strong performances on clinical rotations, especially in internal medicine,” Flood says. “He’s also kind, thoughtful and considerate – well-liked and an all-around fine teammate.”

Devin Simonson and his wife, Megan, cuddle son Noah.

Six millimeters. The width of a child’s thumbnail, the thickness of a legal pad, the length of a ladybug – and a distance that changed Devin Simonson from a second-year podiatric medicine student to a patient having open-heart surgery.

Diagnosed as an infant with a bicuspid aortic valve and a slightly dilated ascending aorta, Simonson grew up having regular checkups and tests. He hoped he could live with his condition, but a CT scan in July 2009 showed that his ascending aortic aneurysm had expanded to 55 millimeters, six more than a 2008 test had shown and more than twice that of a healthy ascending aorta. Simonson had to have surgery.

Just eight days before that diagnosis, he and his wife, Megan, learned they were pregnant. “That made me think, ‘What if I die?’” Simonson recalls. “That scared me. We trusted God that things would be all right.”

That trust would be tested after his surgery on Aug. 7, four days after he began his second year in the College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery. His pain medications caused him to hallucinate and struggle to focus, a major problem for a medical student. Complications from the surgery damaged nerves in his right shoulder, resulting in immobility and neuropathy in his right hand. Even touching the bed sheet triggered severe pain.

“For a while, I couldn’t flex my thumb, my index finger was virtually useless and my two middle fingers were numb. For a good six months I couldn’t write or open a jar,” he says. “All that terrified me because in podiatry, being able to perform surgery is mandatory. I was already in debt and we had a baby on the way. Grades were harder to get. What am I going to do?”

Simonson got by, however, with faith, willpower and help from family and friends. DMU faculty recorded lectures he watched at home and worked with him on scheduling tests. Classmates – including “just friendly acquaintances” – offered to share their class notes.

“I couldn’t have done it without the support of my classmates, faculty and of course my wife, who was pregnant,” he says.

With his right hand regaining mobility, Simonson is living a more normal life as a student, husband and father to son Noah, who was born in February. He also is enjoying physical activities he previously was forbidden.

“For the first time in my life, I’m doing chest presses. Not very much – they split my chest wide open, after all,” he says. “And I’m always the one lifting the least amount of weight on the machines, but that’s okay. I would like to someday do a half or full marathon.”

In addition to giving him a healthy aorta, Simonson says his years of medical care and his surgery give him insights on what his future patients may experience. Still, he’s glad to be looking back at the experience.

“I hope next year is a little more boring,” he notes.

DMU faculty, students and other volunteers included (from left) Ryan Flood; Victor Kaylarian, D.O.; Michael Flood, D.O.’77; Kendall Reed, D.O.; Jeff Dumermuth; Kathleen Dumermuth; Rhonda Davis, R.N.; Sikandar Khan, D.O.’12; Christina Donat, D.O.’12; Mara Groom, D.O.’13; Theresa Klee, D.O.’12; Shannon McCarthy, D.O.’12; and Michelle Bannon.

For the past three years, DMU students have visited homeless camps along the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, bringing warm clothes, hot coffee, batteries and other simple necessities every Sunday morning.

Since May, the students are able to offer another necessity – basic medical services – using the Des Moines University Mobile Health Clinic.

“I think the trust that we’ve built up [with the homeless population] has been critical,” says Sikandar Khan, a DMU osteopathic medicine student and president of the University’s Homeless Camp Outreach. With more than 70 student volunteers, the group has spent more than 1,200 person-hours at the camps, with a mission of helping the homeless reconnect with society.

The mobile clinic, a 38-foot customized Winnebago motor home, is equipped with two complete medical examination rooms: one in the rear equipped with a wheelchair ramp and one at the front of the vehicle. Patients enter a small waiting area, equipped with a bathroom, in the center of the vehicle.

“In the past, we have referred health conditions we have seen to primary care physicians,” Khan says. “But now with the mobile clinic, and using the trust we’ve built, we will be able to provide this adjunct service. So we can say, ‘The mobile clinic is at this location; can we help you get over there?’”

The inspiration for the program came from a mobile clinic that Kendall Reed, D.O., FACOS, FACS, DMU’s dean of osteopathic medicine, saw during a visit to San Diego. Two federal earmarks, each approximately $190,000, were used to purchase and equip the motor home and to pay for operating costs for the initial two years.

“What we want to do is add the medical component to [the outreach] the students have been doing,” Reed says. “And this will be operated year-round, not just during the pretty months of spring.”

The mobile clinic program is a partnership between DMU, which owns and maintains the motor home, and the Free Clinics of Iowa. Reed serves as medical director of the mobile clinic when it’s on its homeless missions.

The mobile clinic will also be used to augment the services of Grace United Methodist Free Clinic, one of 29 free clinics across the state operated by the nonprofit organization.

“We’ll be using these two clinics as a trial run for the mobile clinic,” says Karen McLean, Ph.D., DMU’s provost. “Once we feel we have it all nailed, we can expand the program. It would be my hope that once we’re established, we will be using this vehicle every single day.”

The mobile clinic will also play an important educational goal. By partnering with the Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) in Iowa, the vehicle will be used to expose students from kindergarten through college age to the world of medicine and health-care careers. AHEC’s goal is to improve the availability and quality of health care in the state’s rural and underserved areas.

“We’ll be able to pull up into a school parking lot and show kids, homeless reconnect with society. ‘Here’s what you can do in health care,’” Reed says. “So it’s multipurpose in its functions.”

Article by Joe Gardyasz; excerpted by permission of The Des Moines Business Record.