Honor 'overwhelming' for UW alumna
Joanne Disch is one of seven UW-Madison alumni who will be presented this week with a 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Disch, a Madison native and 1968 graduate of the UW's School of Nursing, just ended her two-year term as chair of the national board of directors for AARP, the leading membership organization for people 50-and-older in the U.S.
She now plans to devote more time and energy to her job as a clinical professor in the school of nursing at the University of Minnesota.
The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, and celebrates outstanding graduates whose professional achievements, contributions to society and support of the university exemplify the "Wisconsin Idea." The recipients will be honored at an awards program on Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater in the Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the public.
Disch's nursing career began during her days at Edgewood High School, when she got a job as a nursing assistant at St. Mary's Hospital.
After graduation from UW-Madison, Disch then joined the cardiovascular surgery ICU team at University Hospital, where she worked her way from staff nurse to head nurse. She says those seven years at UW Hospital not only provided a great foundation for her future, but were transforming in a variety of ways.
Disch later moved south and earned her master's degree at the University of Alabama-Birmingham before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in the early 1980s.
Along the way, Disch has held positions at Rush-Presbyterian in Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania, culminating in her appointment to the Katherine R. and C. Walton Lillehei Chair in Nursing Leadership at the University of Minnesota, where she currently directs the Katharine J. Densford International Center for Nursing Leadership.
Despite having no prior experience, she then ran for the AARP board in 2002 and won one of seven open seats. She was elected chair in 2006, and during her term, she guided the organization through a major restructuring. Her two-year term as chair ended Tuesday.
Following is an edited phone conversation with Disch, who spoke from her office in Minneapolis.
CT: What does it mean to be honored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association?
Disch: "It's so overwhelming. Being recognized is just truly overwhelming and humbling. I've had a wonderful career and loved everything I've done, but when I look at these other people (being honored), I'm like, 'Oh, I hope they didn't make a mistake with me.' "
CT: Do you get back to Madison often?
Disch: "Yes. Or at least periodically. I still have a number of relatives there. I love Madison. I don't think I have an accent, but I'll meet people and they'll say, 'You're from Madison. I can hear it. You so have a Wisconsin accent.' So it is still very much who I am."
CT: What do you remember most about your formative years in Madison?
Disch: "I loved my grade school and high school and college years. In the 1950s and '60s it was a very different time. But I have wonderful memories of friends and things we did together, and I always have to comment that at Blessed Sacrament grade school and Edgewood High School I was taught by the Sinsinawa Dominican Nuns. Both in grade school and high school, they were just phenomenal educators. I was taught by some of the most extraordinary intellects. I do think that I had an excellent foundation because of those nuns."
CT: When did you decided you wanted to go to nursing school at UW-Madison?
Disch: "I knew I wanted to go to a university. A lot of my friends were going to the hospital-based diploma nursing programs. But I had been exposed to the UW and went to football games and all that kind of stuff, so I wanted to go to a university. And (UW-Madison) was so incredibly well regarded, so I decided, 'Hey, I'll go right here.' "
CT: Why do you consider your years working at the cardiovascular unit at the old UW Hospital, right out of college, to be so important to your development?
Disch: "The team I worked with, nurses and physicians, made for just an extraordinary experience for a recent graduate. It was such a shaping experience for me, both nursing school and then the hospital, that the people I worked with on this particular nursing unit, 3C, are holding a reunion in September (Sept. 28, 3 to 6 p.m. at the UW Hospital Atrium). To have a reunion for a place you worked is unheard of. So that gives you an idea of how important it was to me. So nursing staff, physicians and pharmacists are all invited. Anyone who worked with us in the '60s and '70s on this particular extraordinary unit (3C) are invited.
"It was just profoundly influential. These people did things and set things up 40 years ago that institutions are now starting to put in place. Very forward thinking and just an unbelievable dynamic for just superb patient care."
CT: Why did you leave Madison and UW Hospital to pursue a graduate degree at Alabama-Birmingham?
Disch: "After seven years, it really became apparent that I had more to learn. It became clear that I did need to learn more. I needed to challenge myself in a very different way. And Alabama is very different. And it was just a fabulous experience."
CT: Why did you decide to get involved with AARP?
Disch: "AARP's mission is to help people age with dignity and purpose. I have been active in a lot throughout my career, and the more I read and learned about AARP and its priorities and the need for profound reform and a total restructuring of our health care system, I thought this was a place I wanted to put my time and energy."
CT: What is a highlight from your time on the AARP board?
Disch: "One of my highlights the last couple years is that the board really demonstrated it could really analyze an issue in-depth and come to a decision and stick by it even though it wasn't popular with many people. I really value the organization because it's nonpartisan, it's passionate about issues and it doesn't support one party or person -- it's totally focused on the issue.
"People were mad at us when we backed the Medicare Modernization Act (of 2003), saying we were just supporting the Republicans. Then we turned around and supported Social Security, and people said we were just in the pocket of Democrats. So we like to call ourselves equal-opportunity offenders."
CT: You've noted that information is power, but relationships are key. What does that mean?
Disch: "I think when you look at how you can bring about positive change, it is through the people you work with and the people you have known your whole life. People that I knew in grade school and high school shaped who I am, and people who I worked with 25 years ago in 3C, a lot of my experiences with them helped me be who I am today. We talk about information is power, and that is crucial. But it is who you have had the privilege of interacting with for your whole life that shapes who you are."
Submitted photo
Joanne Disch is one of seven UW-Madison alumni who will be presented this week with a 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award.
