The Center for Health & Society Dedication
The newest addition to Coe’s campus
already is attracting a crowd.
After construction crews cleared out, the curious came in for the dedication of the David and Janice McInally Center for Health & Society (CHS). A large contingent of individuals and organizations from across campus and up-and-down the Corridor were on hand the evening of Thursday, September 29 to celebrate the project’s visionary roots and recognize the namesakes of the shimmering new three-story space.
As the guests of honor, Coe President Emeritus David McInally and former first lady Janice McInally were central to the event, but all attendees were instrumental in the vision, funding, completion or future of the CHS. They explored the upper levels, marveling at the floor to ceiling windows in the classrooms while envisioning the advanced equipment that would be in place before gathering for remarks in the Esther and Robert Armstrong Charitable Trust Lobby of the CHS.
“It is a great honor to dedicate the Center for Health & Society to David and Janice McInally, and I am delighted they are here to join us," said Coe President David Hayes ’93.
Invitees included National Advisory Board members Michelle Niermann (President and CEO for UnityPoint health - Cedar Rapids), Okpara Rice (CEO of Tanager Place), Tim Charles (Mercy Medical Center President and CEO), Dr. Tim Sagers ’97 (MercyCare Business Health Solutions) and Dr. Dustin Arnold ’91 (UnityPoint Health - St. Luke’s Chief Medical Officer and Associate Medical Director of Hospital-Based Providers). Other Board members are health experts from across the country, including eight more Coe graduates. Dr. Mary Jeanne Krob ’73 is the chair.
Additionally, organizations critical to construction were represented including the Hall Perrine Foundation, the Esther and Robert Armstrong Charitable Trust, Family Caregivers Center of Mercy, MedQuarter Regional Medical District, the City of Cedar Rapids, OPN Architects and Build to Suit Inc.
This particular moment belonged to the McInallys, though, who described the occasion as “almost surreal.”
“Coming up with the project, visualizing it and now actually seeing it, it’s almost like I can see students coming in and working with our faculty and using the rooms. It’s really great,” David McInally said.
“It’s really an honor. We wanted to do something to give back to the wonderful students and faculty at Coe. To see [the CHS] and see our names on it is incredible, knowing how it will affect campus life, the future of Coe and its students. It’s truly a humbling experience and we are so grateful,” Janice McInally added.
Hayes began his remarks with a story. As he was showing David McInally around campus after McInally first started at Coe, the president emeritus asked how many medical providers were within walking distance of campus. Hayes thought that was the first spark of the idea to create the CHS.
“The vision was his from the very beginning,” Hayes noted. “It was a prescient one, too, because at that time he did not know the public health crisis that was far on the horizon.
As impressive as it is, the physical space is just the conduit, though, for Kohawks to explore transformative opportunities, as other speakers noted.
“This building supports the notion that Coe students and graduates have a connection to something larger than themselves. We want our students to understand that health careers are expansive,” Vice Chair of the Coe Board of Trustees, Sigrid Reynolds ’94 said.
With the CHS, any major at Coe College could lead to a career related to health and well-being. Advising, networking and first-hand experience will facilitate the pursuit of a range of career paths that suit a student’s individual strengths. For instance, art majors could learn about medical illustration, religion majors could study the role of spirituality in healing and business majors could prepare to become administrators. The CHS will help people realize they can have a career helping people, directly and indirectly, and alleviate some of the staffing burden the health industry is facing — which is expected to have 2.6 million open positions by 2030.
Joining Hayes and Reynolds as speakers were current student Antonia Valdivia Araya ’24 and Interim Provost Angela Ziskowski.
“The new Center for Health & Society will allow Coe College to focus on pre-health paths, allied health, and the medical humanities through a multi and interdisciplinary lens,” Ziskowski said.
“Aarman Rowther very articulately shared that for premedical students the liberal arts teach the basis for language and communication between doctor and patient, they teach the critical thinking required for the uncertain and ethically challenging decisions faced by all in the medical profession, and the large questions that face the health fields about what roles they should play in healthcare politics, business and society as a whole,” Ziskowski added.
Coe is now positioned as the preferred liberal arts choice for pre-health students and the CHS will help expand health-related graduate outcomes with improved national and local networks, experienced advisors, direct connections to internships and job shadowing in the Cedar Rapids MedQuarter Regional Medical District and dual degree and employment agreements.
President Emeritus McInally fittingly summed up the endeavor best.
“I loved the feeling I got from Coe as soon as I got on campus the first time. It’s incredible the way that everyone can access these resources. Especially now as we are living through a pandemic, it’s such important knowledge for everyone despite their major and discipline to have. And [the CHS] helps provide that; people have the knowledge to help themselves and those around them through this time,” he said.