Building healthy lives and communities requires strong partnerships and new ways of thinking about health care. Megan Remark, Regions Hospital President and CEO, will comment on the trends impacting healthcare and how Regions and HealthPartners serve our communities now and in the future.
Megan Remark is President and CEO of Regions Hospital, a Level I Adult & Pediatric Trauma Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. With 5,100 employees and 26,000 annual admissions, Regions is among the largest hospitals in the state. As a private, nonprofit teaching hospital, Regions Hospital provides outstanding care in women’s health, cardiology, oncology, surgery, orthopaedics, neuroscience, burn, emergency care, mental illness and more. Regions Hospital is part of HealthPartners, the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the nation.
Megan has more than 20 years of experience working with integrated health care systems. Prior to becoming President and CEO of Regions Hospital in January 2015, she spent 10 years leading the HealthPartners Specialty Care Division, which includes 350 clinicians practicing in 25 medical and surgical specialties throughout Minneapolis/St. Paul and Western Wisconsin. Megan is passionate about partnering with patients to improve health. Some examples of her leadership in this work include: the development of the HealthPartners Cancer Care Centers and The Regions Hospital Breast Health Center; the development of the largest clinic campus in the region - the HealthPartners Specialty Centers located near downtown St. Paul; and more recently as the leader of a growing neurosciences program focused on improving care for patients living with dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke and spine care needs.
Joe Kovarik led the club in an a cappella version of America the Beautiful since the meeting next door didn’t want to be disturbed. What they don’t know is that Mindy Kastelic can whoop at any time, so they’re not safe! And this is our first time with a cash bar in the room – who knows what hijinks we might get up to? Jason Bradshaw offered an inspirational thought from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thanks to Annette Kuyper and Sophie Rupp for warmly greeting our wonderful members, and today’s scribe Michael-jon Pease.
Rotarians in the news: Peter Pearson retiring from the Friends of the St. Paul Library and Mark Stutrud from Summit Brewing.
Linda Mulhern introduced John Xiong (Harding High School grad), returning outbound student back from Taiwan andAiden McVey, outbound to Harare, Zimbabwe. Aiden is a graduate of Central High School. His father participated in Rotary Youth Exchange.
John returned from Taiwan a year ago and was happy to be here to thank us and our foundation for sponsoring his experience. His trip to Taiwan was a memorial experience since his family is originally from there. He improved his Chinese language skills, which was one of his reasons for going. He helped his new classmates get more involved with their schooling and made many friends. After this experience, John will start at Mankato State this fall, majoring in International Relations.
Mindy Kastelic gave a promo for next week’s meeting with Megan Remark, CEO of Region’s Hospital.
Kristin Montpetit collected happy dollars from Linda Mulhern (to celebrate the return of her daughter from her year abroad at Finland), Doug Hartford (celebrating a trip back East to see the four cutest grandkids in the world), Roger Nielsen (celebrating his 7th wedding anniversary with “Suzy Homemaker” Vicki Gee-Treft), Susan Spiers (celebrating her recent trip to Iceland – only a five hour plane ride!).
Jay Pfaender introduced Patrick Donohue our speaker speaking about the entrepreneurial legacy of James J. Hill, including Hill Capital Corporation, which he serves as CEO. The company was founded by the JJ Hill Reference Library to serve the next generation of empire builders. Hill himself was a community developer as well as a business leader – founding the Hill Farm at North Oaks to research best farming practices. He imported new cattle breeds to give to new settlers. These efforts also helped combat starvation in the early days of the area, which was largely rural. He worked for stability for settlers and all citizens – because it made economic sense for everyone, not just his railroad. The Great Northern RR was the only privately held trans-continental railway and the only railway not to experience financial distress or collapse.
His enduring legacy includes the Northwest Area Foundation, the JJ Hill Reference Library, and many businesses. Hill believed in the power of education. The library saw the need for greater access to reliable, scalable capital for entrepreneurs, hence the founding of the Hill Capital Corporation.
From their study of the business finance landscape, they identified a funding void in the $100,000 to $5 MM level, particularly for businesses further along the risk spectrum. This funding void is the Achilles heel of our main streets and business parks. Hill Capital identified 2,000 target business profiles in need of at-risk expansion capital. Their mission can be defined as “economic barn-raising.”
Chuck Whitaker closed the meeting by leading the club in the Four Way Test.
The board of directors has approved the following for membership. If no written objection stating reasons is received by the board from any member of the club within 10 days following publication of the name, the prospective member, shall be considered to be elected to membership on August 1, 2016.
Mark Moores, President
Moores Insurance Management Insurance-Commercial & Personal
Lit Field
Bearence Management Group Bonds & Surety
"Carla Fest” begins begin at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, July 25 and will be held in the first-floor party room of the historic Pioneer Endicott Building. The location is Fourth and Robert in downtown St. Paul. The cost is $35 per person. The cost is already reasonable, but get this, the cost includes food AND drinks. Rotarians and their guests can expect a delicious assortment of appetizers ample enough in quantity that dinner will not be necessary that night. As for the beverages, wine and soft drinks will be available. In addition, bartender Bob Jones, the proud Dad, will be serving a light and refreshing alcoholic beverage known worldwide as the “Carla.” Just belly up to the bar and say, “I’ll have a Carla.” If that was not already enough to ensure the time of your life, St. Paul’s newest brewery, and the Pioneer Endicott Building’s newest tenant, 12welve Eyes Brewing Company, will be serving complimentary samples of its beer.
All in all, you will have so much fun that, but for the title of the event, you might even forget that the purpose of the party is to honor our outgoing President Carla. Sign up for the fun and see for yourself how smooth her exit from the presidency will be—or not.
Join your fellow Rotarians and guests on Wednesday, August 24th for the Saint Paul Saints game against the Wichita Wingnuts. We’ll be seated at tables on the patio and will have access to the air conditioned Club level and all the goodies available there. The cost is $90 (regularly $120) and includes a wide selection of food items and beer, wine and soft drinks. A full bar is also available. The gates open at 5:30 pm. The first pitch is at 7:05 pm. RSVP online or by calling Sherry at 651 343-4569.
