In this life, there are many different paths each and everyone one of us can journey down. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find the purpose of our place on this earth but there are people readily available to help us find our intended destination. Dr. Tara Jenner-Donaldson, the newly appointed director of pre-health, hopes to guide students through their undergraduate journey and set them on the correct path.
Jenner-Donaldson’s professional journey began in Columbus, OH where she received a BA in philosophy and minored in professional writing at Ohio State University. Despite originally pursuing a degree in nursing, Jenner-Donaldson, “fell in love with ethics” and wanted to bring this passion to the medical field.
“A lot of our skills involved in healthcare include communication skills, interpersonal skills, being able to just sit and observe a patient. So that’s really what has motivated me all the way through,” Jenner-Donaldson told The Carroll News.
With this foundation in the liberal arts, she applied her passion for ethics and writing to the medical field. She continued her education at Drew University where she received a Masters and Doctorate of Medical Humanities.
“I found the medical humanities program that I went to, which was a really good mix of ethics, but it was also a lot of storytelling. and the power of storytelling, what we can learn from that is what you know, where I ended up… Still all the way through that process, knowing that I wanted to really be able to make these connections in healthcare that went beyond science and really look at what the art of health care is where science stops, where you have to integrate the arts.”
Jenner-Donaldson’s path led her to Fairleigh Dickinson University where she served as clinical director and clinical assistant professor at the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Her academic efforts included research into patient/provider care and she believes that research should be a consideration for those entering the realm of pre-health.
Jenner-Donaldson elaborated, “I think having that exposure to research and the different types of research and gaining an appreciation for research should be something that’s part of the undergraduate experience, because it helps you as you move on to understand the importance of people who are doing that work.”
Now at John Carroll, Jenner-Donaldson hopes to provide pre-health students with a foundation in the liberal arts, pointing out that medical professionals are, “…photographers. They’re painters. I mean, look at how many wonderful literary people we have who were physicians. So it’s not one path.”
The addition of Dr. Tara Jenner-Donaldson to the College of Health provides students with a resource that will help them understand the multiple different routes that can be taken when finding a career.
