Maggie McDermott

Maggie McDermott ’15

Nursing

“The nursing profession frequently presents moments in which there is a choice between giving your all or just doing the bare minimum, sticking true to your values or cutting corners to make your day a little easier,” says Maggie McDermott ’15, who works as a registered nurse at St. Thomas West Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. “My choice to say Yes to giving my all even in those trying moments can be attributed to the growth and education I received at Franciscan.”Maggie decided she wanted to be a nurse in eighth grade when her grandmother became ill and moved in with her family. She saw many nurses, some of whom were in it only for the money. This made her want to become a nurse to give sick people the care they deserved.In her search for a nursing program, Maggie soon discovered that Franciscan was the only school she could find that taught nursing not only as a science and an art, but also as a vocation.“I saw how the nurses who graduated from here knew how to share the love of Christ with their patients simply through their actions,” she says.

Maggie says her nursing professors stressed the importance of providing safe, compassionate, holistic care to every patient while upholding the integrity and respecting the dignity of each patient. “If it wasn’t for the education I received through the Nursing Program at Franciscan, the way I handle myself as a nurse would be very different.”

Her formation and training serve her well for her new career at St. Thomas West Hospital, a 541-bed acute care hospital where she works on a heart failure unit of a cardiac telemetry floor. Typically, she treats middle-aged and elderly patients, but occasionally she treats patients as young as 25.

“Each and every night I go into work I have the ability not only to provide comfort and healing to a person in their most vulnerable state, but I also have the great honor of entering into someone’s life and sharing a little bit of my heart with them,” Maggie McDermott says. “I thank God every day for calling me to the nursing profession.”

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Maggie McDermott
Maggie McDermott ’15Nursing

Josh Elliott was “not your typical Franciscan student.” In addition to studying psychology at Franciscan University, Elliott served as the pastor for the Riverview United Methodist Church in Toronto, Ohio.Part of Franciscan University of Steubenville’s 4 + 1 Program between Undergraduate Psychology and Graduate Counseling, Elliott graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2014 and a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in spring 2015.“Franciscan University has provided an opportunity for me to follow my calling,” Elliott says.

Joshua Elliot ’15MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Marcel Lanahan

Marcel Lanahan ’11

MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Most days, Marcel Lanahan is a “traveling one-man show.” The Catholic Social Services counselor manages his own busy schedule, billing, and client records all while traveling through rural Nebraska.“Attending Franciscan prepared me well for my current position,” Lanahan MA ’11 says .“Thanks to the ongoing integration of the Catholic faith throughout the full course of study, as well as the specific Christian counseling courses, I was able to step into this thriving Catholic agency and integrate faith-based interventions into my counseling sessions.”Through Catholic Social Services based in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lanahan provides professional therapy to the people who live in small towns across the state. He works with people of all ages, dealing with mild adjustment issues and major mental illness, couples’ therapy, and filial play therapy. Additionally, Lanahan also guides recent graduates in exploring new career paths, coaches couples on communication, helps trauma survivors process disturbing memories, and helps borderline clients learn basic affect management skills.“Professor [Milo] Milburn has a gift for teaching both theoretical models and practical skills with incredible lucidity,” Lanahan says. “Professor Jungers’ student-centered pedagogy encouraged me to think critically and take initiative, and Professor [Donald] Kissinger inspired me with his confidence and work ethic.”

Lanahan feels particularly blessed to work in a Catholic environment. “It has made it easy for me to practice from a Catholic moral perspective,” he says.

“I see my job as helping people face and grieve the evil and disorder we experience in this life, so that they are more free to experience the peace, love, and joy we are made for.”

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Marcel Lanahan
Marcel Lanahan ’11MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Joe Norton ’13 belongs to a family of Franciscan University alums. He’s one of eight to attend, and one of six who have already graduated. He’s one of four who have graduated with a computer information science major. Joe minored in business management. It’s a combination that he describes as essential given his career as a software engineer with the social jukebox and music service Radio in San Francisco.“I use cutting-edge technologies on a small backend team to serve data for millions of customers, primarily through writing code for our distributed backend. Duties include payments processing, new feature development, user notifications, data storage retrieval, security, and more,” says Joe.

Joe Norton
Joe Norton ’13Computer Information Sciences and Management

A major in accounting gave Greg Sisco ’13 more than just training in standard accounting practices.“Accounting is a broad field, and at Franciscan I also got the tools and knowledge to understand business and economic principles,” he notes. Greg says his professors, “the cream of the crop,” were confident, caring, and willing to go the extra mile to make sure students understood the coursework.As a student, Greg gained practical experience by volunteering six hours a week during a tax season to help local lower-income residents complete their tax returns. This gave him confidence in explaining accounting principles in layman’s terms, a skill that he relies on today.

Greg Sisco ’13Accounting

Chelsea Graham says that her combination of classes and field placements provided both the theory and the practice necessary to become a professional social worker. Since Franciscan is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and Chelsea is in the Advanced Standing Program, many of Chelsea’s classes count toward her master’s degree, which she is currently pursuing in addition to working part time as a behavioral health professional with a family services agency.In her career, Chelsea works with families who have children with behavioral problems, specifically families with children who have autism, intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome, and other mental health issues.

Chelsea Graham
Chelsea Graham ’14Social Work

United States Air Force Captain Anne Delmare ’08 didn’t arrive as a student on Franciscan’s campus until her sophomore year. That’s because she spent her freshman year taking classes 4,000 miles away.“I knew I wanted to travel and learn a new language,” says Anne, so after high school, she headed to the University of Navarra in northern Spain. There, she studied Spanish language and culture, and earned credits toward the undergraduate Spanish major she would later complete at Franciscan University.Anne also majored in business, following in the footsteps of her enterprising father and other relatives, owners of a successful family winery in Huntly, Virginia.

Anne Delmare alumna photo
Anne Delmare ’08International Business and Spanish

Melissa McCartney became passionate about pursuing a career as an Operating Room (OR) nurse during her clinical sessions as a nursing student at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Still, she never imagined that she would land her dream job after getting married and moving to Nebraska just three weeks after her graduation.After relentlessly searching for open nursing positions that fit her level of experience, she applied on a whim for a job as an OR nurse. Two hours after submitting her application, she got a call for an interview. Reflecting on her time in the workforce, Melissa says her education at Franciscan helped set her up for success in her job.“It’s been such a blessing,” Melissa says. “It’s been the most amazing job ever. The things I have done seem like they’re right out of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.”

Melissa McCartney
Melissa McCartney ’13Nursing

“No matter what you end up doing, you can do it more effectively, more ethically, with an economics degree.”Stephen Hepburn initially planned to major in theology and philosophy, but with strong encouragement from his parents, enrolled instead as an accounting major. His economics course his first semester made him seriously consider switching majors, and after receiving a special exception to spend his second freshman semester in Franciscan University’s study abroad program in Gaming, Austria, and meeting economics professor Dr. Michael Welker, Stephen realized he had discovered a major he loved.

Stephen Hepburn alumnus photo
Stephen Hepburn ’09Economics