Kris Condon ’84

Kris Condon ’84 recently came out with her second book, Fragments of Flossmoor: A Series of Essays on the Interesting, Curious, and Unique in Our Village. All of the proceeds are going to the Veterans’ Wall of Honor project, for which Kris is the corporate secretary-treasurer. The Wall of Honor is a long time in coming. Her paternal grandfather was the American Legion Post commander in 1945 who spearheaded the original World War II Honor Roll project, but the temporary marker they installed that day disappeared to history decades ago. Her father was 13 years old when the 1945 marker was dedicated, and at 92, he’s the corporate vice president of Flossmoor Veterans’ Memorial, which will benefit from the sales of this book. Read more here.

Scott Zeller, MD ’82

The New Yorker magazine did a big feature article on Scott Zeller, MD ’82 life’s work and his invention, the EmPATH unit (Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment and Healing unit).

These are new ERs in hospitals specifically designed for people experiencing behavioral health emergencies, who in the status quo are stacked in hallways for long hours waiting for an elusive psychiatric hospital bed to open up, and instead, EmPATH units have resulted in the following improvements in care and metrics published in the top peer-reviewed academic journal Academic Emergency Medicine:

*Reduced Emergency Department (ED) behavioral health patient length of stay from an average of 16.2 hours to just 4.9 hours (70% reduction!)
*Reduced inpatient psychiatric admissions from 57% of patients to just 27% of patients (53% improvement)
*Reduced 30-day psych patient return to ED (recidivism) by 25%
*Improved the outpatient follow-up of patients from 39.4% to 63.2% (60% improvement)
*For those patients that still needed inpatient admission after EmPATH, their inpatient Length of Stay days were decreased.
*Added $861,000 to the emergency department bottom line in the first year alone by moving patients to better, more prompt care in EmPATH, thus opening up ER beds for other patients

EmPATH units are also far safer than traditional ERs for even the highest acuity patients, and avoid coercive care in over 99% of patients, while greatly reducing delays and costs.

There’s now several dozen EmPATH units operating across the US, with scores more in development around the US and across the world, including in Singapore, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Scotland and South Africa.

You can read more about this amazing work here. Congratulations Scott!

Carl Teichman ’80

After over four decades of being at Illinois Wesleyan, Carl Teichman ’80 is stepping away from being the Director of Government and Community Relations and taking the job of Business Retention Manager at the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council. You can read more about Carl and this new position here. Congratulations Carl!

Vickie Folse ’86

Vickie Folse ’86 was recently inaugurated as Ripon College’s first female president. She reflects on her time at Wesleyan and looks to the future here. Congratulations Vickie!

Sara Rodriguez ’97 (left) and Vickie Folse ’86 (right)

Jeff Parkhill ‘85

Jeff Parkhill ‘85 was elected to the City Council for Wayzata, MN. in November 2022. Jeff was previously appointed to the Wayzata Planning Commission where he served four years, with his last year as Chairman. Jeff also serves on his children’s school board at Breck School in Golden Valley, MN. Congratulations Jeff!

Denise (Hallberg) Hammer ’86 and Brenda (Ward) Drury ’85


Illinois State University Mennonite College of Nursing Assistant Professor and Maternal Infant Course Leader Denise Hallberg Hammer, DNP, RNC-NIC ’86 and Illinois Wesleyan Assistant Professor of Nursing Brenda Ward Drury, DNP, RNC-MNN ’85 published a journal article in Neonatal Network, The Journal of Neonatal Nursing with colleagues Keli Sidebottom, MSN, RNC-OB, Angela Philpott, BSN, RN and Loretta Tay, BSN, RN. The article, “Keeping Families Close: A Hospital-Sponsored Boarder Program That Facilitates Parents’ Presence at the Infant’s Bedside,” describes the Boarder Program at a community medical center, shares its history, and provides evidence-based support for the effectiveness of this model. The Boarder Program is a unique, family-centered program designed to keep a mother and her infant together when the mother has been discharged but her infant requires additional medical attention and hospitalization. This provides the mother and a second caregiver increased opportunities to participate in their infants’ care and to engage in decision making.