Faculty/Staff Directory
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G H J K L M O P R S W
Adjunct Faculty
H I M
Admissions Counselor, Graduate
Graduate & Non-Trad Enrollment
Office: S1223E
Phone: (218) 625-4974
Adjunct Faculty
Health Info. Mgmt.-Masters Prog.
Associate Professor/Director, Graduate HIIM Program
H I M
Phone: (218) 625-2790
View Site
Adjunct Faculty
Health Info. Mgmt.-Masters Prog.
Assoc Prof/Chair/Dir,Hlth Info
Masters- Health Informatics
Office: T3101B
Phone: (218) 625-4892
Asst Prof/Dir UG HIIM Program
Health Info. Mgmt.-Masters Prog.
Office: T3100
Phone: (218) 723-6409
Adjunct Faculty
H I M
Adjunct Faculty
H I M
Adjunct Faculty
Health Info. Mgmt.-Masters Prog.
Adjunct Faculty
Masters- Health Informatics
Adjunct Faculty
H I M
Associate Professor, HIIM
Health Info. Mgmt.-Masters Prog.
Phone: (218) 723-7094
View Site
Kerri Gillum, MS, RHIA
1. Introduction / Background
Received a BA in HIM from St. Scholastica in 2004.
Received an MS in HIM also from St. Scholastica in 2009.
Professional career began as a Health Information Services Supervisor at Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids, MN. Later, moving to Duluth, MN to work as a Credentialing and Privileging Specialist at Essentia Health Systems and soon after switching back to a Health Information Services Supervisor at Essentia Health.
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2. Current Roles, Associations, Affiliations
The current position held is with St. Luke’s in the Quality Management Department as a Quality Improvement/Risk Management Specialist and Patient Advocate.
Began teaching adjunct courses in HIM in the fall of 2010.
Active member of AHIMA since 2004. Involved with MNHIMA as a part of the Audit Committee and recently served two terms as the Secretary of NEMHIMA (North Eastern MN HIM Association).
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3. Interests / Specialties
Specialties have been in the area of Health Information Management. However, recently switching paths to Quality and Risk Management has spiked new interests.
The EHR continues to be an area of interest.
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Katie Kerr, EdD, RHIA
Katie Kerr, EdD, RHIA is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Informatics and Information Management, the Director of the Master's in HIM program, and the Academic Coordinator of Professional Practice Experiences for the undergraduate HIM program. She received her BA in Health Information Management from The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN, in 2002. She received her Master of Arts in Health Information Management with concentration in Health Care Management from The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN in 2007. Dr. Kerr received her Doctor of Education in Leadership in Higher Education from Bethel University, St. Paul, MN in 2020. Her dissertation was titled "Determinants of Professional Practice Experience Satisfaction in Health Information Management Students."
Prior to becoming a full-time HIIM faculty member, Katie was an Adjunct Instructor for the Department of HIIM and the IT Manager for Welia Health based in Mora, MN. In her role as IT Manager, Katie oversaw the implementation of Welia's electronic health record, ancillary applications, phone system, IT Department operations and Meaningful Use achievement. Katie also taught for Rasmussen College as an Online Adjunct Instructor from 2008 to 2010. At Rasmussen College, Katie taught Management of Health Information Services, Quality Analysis and Management and Basic ICD-9-CM Coding. Prior to joining Welia Health, Dr. Kerr worked at Essentia Health - Sandstone as the Manager of Health Information for six years and as the IT Manager for one year.
Dr. Kerr is a member of HIMSS, AHIMA and MNHIMA. Ms. Kerr has a special interest in EHR implementation workflow analysis and redesign, patient privacy and security, and telemedicine. She is currently serving as the chair of the HIMSS Emerging Healthcare Leaders Task Force and as a member of the MNHIMA Annual Meeting planning committee.
Presentations Include:
July 2021 Speaker, American Health Information Management Association, Assembly on Education, Virtual, Forward-thinking Models for PPE: Lessons Learned from the Pandemic Co-Presenter: Eric Nordgren
April 2021 Speaker, Minnesota Health Information Management Association annual meeting, Best Practices for Managing PPE Students
July 2020 Speaker, American Health Information Management Association, Assembly on Education, Virtual, We’ve Looked Everywhere: Seeking PPE Sites in the Ever-Evolving HIM Environment Co-Presenter: Eric Nordgren
April 2020 Speaker, Minnesota Health Information Management Association Annual Meeting, Weaving in Your Story: How to Tailor a Resume to a Job Posting Co-Presenter: Eric Nordgren
Publications Include:
Nordgren, E., Kerr, K., Marc, D.T. (2023, February). In an evolving industry, professionals must also grow and change. Journal of AHIMA, 1.
Contributing co-author of the chapter titled: Strategic, Financial, and Organizational Management. Health Information Management: Principles and Organization for Health Information Services (6th Ed.) published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (2017), Katie Kerr and Janelle Wapola
Madonna LeBlanc, MA, RHIA, FAHIMA
David Marc, PhD, CHDA
- 2016 - Ph.D. in Health Informatics - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- 2011 - Masters of Biological Science - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- 2006 - B.S. in Biology and Psychology - University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
David Marc is an associate professor, department chair, and health informatics graduate program director in the health informatics and information management department. Currently, Dr. Marc teaches courses on healthcare data analytics and research. Dr. Marc has a master’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in health informatics from the University of Minnesota. He also holds a certification as a health data analyst (CHDA). Dr. Marc has extensive experience working with large healthcare datasets and analytical procedures. Dr. Marc is an active member of AMIA, AHIMA, and HIMSS and serves on various committees within these professional organizations. Prior to working for St. Scholastica, Dr. Marc was employed at a biotech company where he applied a variety of analytic approaches to investigate the predictive value of biomarkers for psychiatric diseases.
Dr. Marc's research interests include the evaluation of health informatics and information management workforce needs and the assessment and development of public data registries. Recent publications include:
Edited Textbooks
- Marc, David and Ryan Sandefer (Eds.) (2015). Data analytics in healthcare research: Tools and Strategies. Chicago, IL: AHIMA Press.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Do, Quan, David Marc, Marat Plotkin, Brian Pickering, Vitaly Herasevich (2020). Starter kit for geotagging and geovisualization in health care: Resource paper. JMIR Form Res, 4(12), e23379.
- Marc, David, Kerryn Butler-Henderson, Prerna Dua, Karima Lalani, Susan H. Fenton (2019). Global workforce trends in health informatics & information management. Studies in health technology and informatics, 264, 1273-1277.
- Stanfill, Mary & David Marc (2019). Health information management: Implications of artificial intelligence on healthcare data and information management. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 28(1), 56-64.
- Khairat, Saif, David Marc, William Crosby, & Ali Al Sanousi (2018). Reasons For Physicians Not Adopting Clinical Decision Support Systems: Critical Analysis. JMIR medical informatics, 6(2).
- Althea Mathews & David Marc (2017). Usability Evaluation of Laboratory Information Systems. Journal of Pathology Informatics, 8.
- Marc, David, James Beattie, Vitaly Herasevich, Laël Gatewood, and Rui Zhang (2016). Assessing metadata quality of a federally sponsored health data repository. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 864-873.
- Khairat, Saif, Ryan Sandefer, David Marc & Lee Pyles. (2016). A review of biomedical and health informatics education: A workforce training framework. Journal of Hospital Administration, 5,5.
- Just, Beth, David Marc, Megan Munns & Ryan Sandefer. (2016). Why patient matching Is a challenge: Research on Master Patient Index (MPI) data discrepancies in key identifying fields. Perspectives in Health Information Management 13 (Spring).
- Marc, David, Rui Zhang, James Beattie, Laël Gatewood, and Saif Khairat (2015). Indexing Publicly Available Health Data with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): An Evaluation of Term Coverage. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 216, 529-33.
- Sandefer, Ryan, David Marc, and Paul Kleeberg (2015). Meaningful Use Attestations Among US Hospitals: The Growing Rural-Urban Divide. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 1-10.
Trade Journals Publications
- Marc, David, Matthew Blow, Shauna Overgaard (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on Health Information Management. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, Jan/Feb.
- Blow, Mathew, David Marc, Shauna Overgaard (2021). The public and pandemics. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, March.
- Sandefer, Ryan & David Marc (2019). Data analytics: The straight-lined labyrinth that entrapped the HIM profession. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, 90(8), 16-19.
- Marc, David, & Janet Robertson, Leslie Gordon, Zakevia Green-Lawson, David Gibbs, Kayce Dover & Michelle Dougherty. (2017). What the data says about HIM professional trends. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, 88(5),5, 24-31.
- Weinberg, Jason, Stephanie Peterson, David Marc, & Sandefer, Ryan. (2015). Aligning computer-assisted coding and information governance efforts. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, 86(10), 36-40.
- Sandefer, Ryan, David Marc, Desla Mancilla, & Debra Hamada. (2015). Survey Predicts Future HIM Workforce Shifts: HIM Industry Estimates the Job Roles, Skills Needed in the Near Future. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, 86(7), 32-35.
- Sandefer, Ryan H, Dilhari DeAlmeida, Michelle Dougherty, Desla Mancilla, David Marc. (2014). Keeping Current in the Electronic Era: Data Age Transforming HIM’s Mandatory Workforce Competencies. Journal of the American Health Information Management Association, 85(11), 38-44.
Pamela Oachs, MA, RHIA, CHDA, FAHIMA
Ms. Oachs is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Informatics and Information Management. She earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Information Management and Master of Arts in Management at the College of St. Scholastica. Prior to beginning a career in education, she spent over fifteen years in the healthcare industry in the areas of clinical quality improvement, patient access, and information technology.
Ms. Oachs teaches both in the classroom and online. Courses taught consist of content related to management tools and strategies, workflow and process redesign, clinical quality management, and US healthcare systems. Ms. Oachs is currently the undergraduate program director in the Department of Health Informatics and Information Management.
Ms. Oachs is an active member of AHIMA and MHIMA and has served on the board of directors at both the regional and state levels. She was previously a commissioner on the Commission on Certification for Health Informatics and Information Management (CCHIIM), serves on the editorial board for Perspectives in HIM, and is a peer reviewer for the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management education (CAHIIM). She has been a speaker at regional and state HIM association meetings as well as at AHIMA’s national educator’s conference, the Assembly on Education. She has been a co-editor for the 4th, 5th and upcoming 6th edition of the premiere HIM textbook, Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles and Practice.
Ms. Oachs teaching philosophy is to bring theory and academic principles into practice successfully by teaching students to think analytically and critically in the practical setting.
Janel Peterson, MS
Janel joined the HIIM and CIS department at the College of St. Scholastica in February, 2011 after holding a position as an Organizational Learning & Development Coordinator at Essentia Health East Region. She received her Bachelor’s of Business Administration, majoring in Health Care Management and Long Term Care Administration from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2009, and her Master’s in Health Information Management and graduate certificate in Health Care Informatics in 2014 from the College of St. Scholastica. Prior to and after completing her degree she worked in several health care facilities focusing in health and long term care administration, including Mercy Hospital and Health Care Center and Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet.
Janel will be working as an online advisor with our graduate programs and certificates in HIM, as well as the Master of Arts in Information Technology Leadership, and the Master of Science in Project Management. As an advisor, Janel assists our online graduate students from the point of acceptance into our program, until their degrees are conferred, and often maintains relationships with these students long after they have graduated from our program. As an advisor, she works with the student to lay out a program plan that suits their needs and goals, and provides them with the information and support they need along the way. The advisor serves as the student’s point of contact for many areas, and works with the student to ensure the best possible outcome.
Christine Rothschuh, MHDS
Christine Rothschuh
Adjunct Faculty
HIM - Healthcare Data Analytics
Email: crothschuh@css.edu
Ryan Sandefer, PhD
Introduction / Background
PhD University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
MA University of Wyoming
BA University of Wyoming
Ryan Sandefer received his PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and both his BA and MA in Political Science from the University of Wyoming.
Ryan began his career conducting research on health information exchange and telehealth at the University of Wyoming’s Center for Rural Health Research and Education. While at the University of Wyoming, Ryan served as lead researcher for the Wyoming Healthcare Commission’s health workforce study. In 2008, Ryan took a position with the College of St. Scholastica’s Center for Healthcare Innovation where he worked as research coordinator and project manager for several rural health information technology research projects, including projects related to data analytics and population health, voice recognition within the EHR, evidence-based resources at the point of care, and quality reporting directly from the EHR.
Current Roles, Associations, Affiliations
Ryan is Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College of St. Scholastica. He is an Associate Professor and the past chair of the Department of Health Informatics and Information Management. He teaches Healthcare Data Analytics, Consumer Informatics, and Applied Research Methods. Ryan is an active member of the American Health Information Management Association and is currently serving on its Board of Directors.
Interests / Specialties
Data Analytics, Health Informatics, Health Information Technology, Usability, HIT Implementation Best Practices
Recent Publications
Marc, David and Ryan Sandefer. Data Analytics in Healthcare Research:Tools and Strategies (Eds.). Chicago: AHIMA Press, 2022.
Sandefer, Ryan, Bonnie Westra, Saif Khairat, David Pieczkiewicz & Stuart Speedie. (2018)“Personal Healthcare Management: Assessing the Relationship With Chronic Disease Prevalence.” Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Sandefer, Ryan and Stuart Speedie. (2017) Discovering relationships in consumer use of personal health information: A causal modeling approach. Proceedings of Data Mining for Medical Informatics: Causal Inference for Health Data Analytics. Washington D.C.
Watters, Amy, Amy Bergstrom & Ryan Sandefer. (2016). “Patient Engagement and Meaningful Use: Assessing the Impact of the EHR Incentive Program on Cultural Competence in Healthcare.” Journal of Cultural Diversity 23(3).
Khairat, Saif, Ryan Sandefer, David Marc & Lee Pyles. (2016). “A review of biomedical and health informatics education: A workforce training framework.” Journal of Hospital Administration, 5,5.
Just, Beth, David Marc, Megan Munss & Ryan Sandefer. (2016). “Why Patient Matching Is a Challenge: Research on Master Patient Index (MPI) Data Discrepancies in Key Identifying Fields.” Perspectives in Health Information Management 13 (Spring).
Watters, Amy, Amy Bergstrom & Ryan Sandefer. “Patient Engagement and Meaningful Use: Assessing the Impact of the EHR Incentive Program on Cultural Competence in Healthcare.” Journal of Cultural Diversity 23(3).
Sarah, Tupper, Ryan Sandefer & Janelle Wapola. (2015). “Meaningful Use Audits: An Interprofessional Approach.” Journal of Healthcare Information Management, 29, 3, pp. 22-24.
Sandefer, Ryan, Bonnie Westra, David Pieczkiewicz & Stuart Speedie. (2015). “Determinants of Consumer eHealth Information Seeking Behavior.” Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association Annual Symposium.
Sandefer, Ryan, David Marc, and Paul Kleeberg. (2015). “Meaningful Use Attestations Among US Hospitals: The Growing Rural-Urban Divide” Perspectives in Health Information Management, 12, 1f eCollection.
Sandefer, Ryan, Saif Khairat, David S. Pieczkiewicz, & Stuart M Speedie. (2015). “Using Publicly Available Data to Characterize Consumers Use of Email to Communicate with Healthcare Providers.” Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 216: pp. 401-5.
Marc, David and Ryan Sandefer. Data Analytics in Healthcare Research:Tools and Strategies (Eds.). Chicago: AHIMA Press, 2016.
Teaching philosophy
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them
-Albert Einstein
Hard writing makes easy reading
-Wallace Stegner
Janelle Wapola, MA, RHIA
Introduction / Background
BA College of St. Scholastica in 1995 - MA College of St. Scholastica in 2006
Current Roles, Associations, Affiliations
Janelle started her career holding these types of jobs: HIM consulting, operations manager and release of information specialist. Upon her arrival at St. Scholastica in 2003, she became a Technology Lead, helping to implement the academic electronic health record into the Health Sciences curriculum (The ATHENS Project). After the grant-funded, ATHENS Project was complete; Janelle became a full time faculty, teaching classes in the undergraduate program, both online and face to face.
At the College, she currently serves as the faculty advisor to the Student Health Information Management Association (SHIMA) and in the past has been on various College and department committees such as undergraduate admissions, faculty/student group, faculty rep for athletics and IRB.
Additionally she has been a HIT Consultant for the REACH program, serving Minnesota and North Dakota. She is also a member and regularly attends AHIMA, MNHIMA, IFHIMA and Region B in Minnesota.
Interests / Specialties
As she continues to be interested in the various areas associated with the (EHR): implementation, workflow redesign, and privacy & security, she would like to seek out more opportunities for international travel in the HIIM arena.
Recent Publications, Presentations and Recognitions
Contributing co-author, National Survey on Doctoral-Level Education in Health Information Management Perceptions and Rationale, Perspectives in Health Information Management (Fall 2017)
Contributing co-author of the chapter titled: Strategic, Financial, and Organizational Management. Health Information Management: Principles and Organization for Health Information Services (6TH Ed) published by Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand. (February 2017)
Co-presenter, MNHIMA Region B Educator’s Session, Book Discussion: Fostering Student Belonging (April 2022).
Speaker AHIMA’s Assembly on Education Annual Meeting, Advancing Interprofessional Education in HIM Programs: Creating New Opportunities (July 2021)
Speaker, IFHIMA International Congress, The Value of the Aspiring Professional (November 2019)
Teaching philosophy
While developing my teaching philosophy, I believe in emphasizing a healthy balance to life, school and work. I encourage optimism, compassion and advocacy for those in need.
A Personal Note
In my spare time, I enjoy taking pictures and traveling ~ it has made me stop and be in the moment! I am also excited to be a part of international travel with CSS and the HIIM Department. My travels to India, Germany, Alaska, South Africa and Dubai were extraordinary; visiting hospitals, villages, schools, universities and global conferences. I was very fortunate to be a part of something so unique and interesting!
Amy Watters, EdD, RHIA, FAHIMA
Dr. Watters has a doctorate in Education from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She completed her master's and bachelor's course work in Health Information Management, including a Certificate in Healthcare Informatics, from The College of St. Scholastica. Before moving into academia, Dr. Watters spent over 10 years in the HIM industry, working in the areas of release of information, HIM and admitting management in acute care settings, product management at a software and consulting firm, and HIPAA security at a multi-specialty physician group. She is credentialed as a Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA) and was awarded Fellowship of AHIMA in 2011.
As Director of the Health Information Management Graduate Program, Dr. Watters coordinates the activities and leads the ongoing development of the graduate program. In her role as Associate Professor, she teaches courses at the graduate level, such as Foundations of Management in HIM, and Applied Project Research and Writing. She is an active member of the Minnesota Health Information Management Association, and is past-president of the Northeastern Minnesota Health Information Management Association. She has served on the AHIMA Foundation Scholarship Committee and is currently serving a 3 year term as a member of the Health Information Management Accreditation Council for the Commission on Accreditation of Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM).
Dr. Watters' personal interest lies in life-long learning, and the impact sense of community has on the learning process. She enjoys assisting students in their growth both educationally, and professionally, as each strive to reach their own personal goals. She is also interested in online learning principles, and incorporating technology in education.
Dr. Watters is co-editor and chapter co-author for the 5th edition of the textbook Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles & Practice. She previously served as editor of the Instructor Manual for the 4th edition of the textbook, and in the 3rd edition, she and her colleague, Pam Oachs, co-authored the chapter Informatics in Healthcare. She also co-authored a chapter in the textbook Data Analytics in Healthcare Research, and most recently co-authored an article in a refereed journal on the impact of the EHR Incentive Program on cultural competence in healthcare.
