Leading with Heart

Last year, a colleague at the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing pointed out to Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer, the Center’s founder and director, the need for more comprehensive cancer care. There’s quality medical treatment on the physical level—radiation, chemotherapy, surgery—but a lack of holistic care for someone newly diagnosed. So Kreitzer and her colleague, Dr. Megan Voss, the Center’s director of education, collaborated with the University of Minnesota’s Cancer Center to create the six-week Healing in the Midst of a Cancer Journey program that complements existing resources for patients. Support from a generous donor made this idea a reality.

The way the Center identified a need and responded quickly to meet it is a prime example of Kreitzer in action. For starters, it shows her belief in the value of partnering with others—whether a colleague or another institution—and being able to leverage those partnerships to meet a community need. It also demonstrates her emphasis on being strategic and focused while at the same time remaining flexible and responsive to emerging needs. That’s where the Center has excelled for the past 30 years, led and fed by Kreitzer’s passion. 

“I feel passionate about meeting community needs, understanding the needs and gaps, whether it’s in the academic environment or in the community, and working with a team of people that is really committed to innovative, novel, and relevant solutions,” Kreitzer said recently, on a warm day in August. 

She was at her lake home in Grand Rapids but took a break from spending time with her family—husband Joe, an economics professor at the University of Saint Thomas; her four adult children; and five grandchildren—to reflect on the Center, from its origins to its future. She was tan from the days spent on the water and seated in front of large windows, with an expanse of green leaves and blue sky behind her. When Kreitzer speaks about her work, her passion is clear. So is her intelligence, quiet authority, and wisdom. When she smiles – as she does easily – the creases around her eyes deepen, and her soft blue eyes sparkle. Her presence exudes a gentle calm, a model of wellbeing herself, even over a Zoom call.

Prioritizing Body, Mind, and Spirit

The road for Kreitzer to her current space in the UMN Mayo Memorial Building went through Augustana College and the University of Iowa, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. She settled in at the University of Minnesota to complete her doctorate in public health focused on health services research, policy, and administration, then put those degrees to use at the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic in 1987. Her administrative portfolio grew over time, was diverse, and encompassed nursing practice and research, healthcare quality, and eventually spiritual health services. It was in this role that she wanted to find the means to provide care that met the comprehensive needs of culturally-diverse patients in body, mind, and spirit, the way their traditional healing practices did.

With other universities across the country stepping into holistic healthcare at the time, Kreitzer proposed the University open its own center, an idea readily approved by the University of Minnesota’s hospital and clinic board of governors. So began the Center for Spirituality & Healing in 1995. “The name has served us well,” Kreitzer said. “It’s been a really broad platform that has allowed us to do a lot more than if we had named ourselves something like a center for alternative medicine.” (Earl Bakken’s name would be added in 2018 when he made a large legacy gift. The medical technology innovator had long believed in complementary medicine and was a supporter from the Center’s beginning.)

Though the initial impetus had been to provide better care for patients, it did not take long for Kreitzer to want to expand its reach. “I also was very aware of the need for research in the field and the growing need to educate healthcare professionals,” she said.

Interdisciplinary From the Beginning

The deans of the medical and nursing schools were not only open to the idea of adding academic courses in spirituality and healing, they suggested taking a comprehensive look at the University’s role in the emerging field of integrative health. So in the fall of 1996, a task force was assembled comprised of interdisciplinary university faculty, staff, clinicians and researchers who partnered with community leaders from different sectors and cultures to discern a future direction for the newly formed Center. “We did something that I think doesn’t happen often enough: we invited the community so we could listen,” she said.

They listened with an ear to the community’s needs and an eye to how the University could meet them. From those listening sessions, the task force produced a blueprint to develop academic courses, build research infrastructure, and design community-based programs. The task force’s report also included a section on self-care and the importance of wellbeing for healthcare providers, a pioneering idea at the time.

The task force’s recommendations in January 1997 won support from the deans of academic health - medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and veterinary medicine. The Center also attracted senior faculty from many areas—such as food science and nutrition, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health—that were interested in the emerging field. That made the Center interdisciplinary and respectable from the onset. “Those early days created such legitimacy,” Kreitzer said. “That was a huge advantage.”

Funds from the Blue Cross Blue Shield and state of Minnesota settlement with the tobacco industry provided early seed money for the Center, but Kreitzer did not feel the budget was secure. At one point during the early years when she expressed concern about the University’s allocation to the Center, Dr. Frank Cerra, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, told her, “Think of what you get from the University as most vulnerable and what you earn on your own as most secure.” Kreitzer was initially taken aback by his comment, but eventually she came to consider it a gift, emphasizing the need to be entrepreneurial and figure out how to fund their own growth. 

So that’s what she’s done. These days, roughly 10 percent of the Center’s budget comes from the state; the rest it earns through tuition, contracts, grants, and philanthropy. Unlike other similar centers across the country that lean heavily upon philanthropic support—and falter or close when it dries up—the Center uses philanthropy to fund innovation. “I’ve always said to my team—we work very much as a team—if we start something new with philanthropy, we have to have a business plan for how we’re going to sustain it,” Kreitzer said.

As such, she’s also succeeded in gaining the trust and admiration of donors. “Mary Jo Kreitzer is a distinguished national pioneer in the field of whole health and wellbeing,” said Penny George, co-chair of the George Family Foundation, which has been a steadfast supporter. “It is fair to say that the University would not be a leader in transforming healthcare through the principles and practices of whole-person healing were it not for Mary Jo and her colleagues at the Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing.” 

A Mission to Transform Healthcare

In the beginning, the Center’s mission and vision focused on transforming healthcare. That has expanded today to include advancing the health and wellbeing of all people, or, as stated in its mission statement, “to advance whole health and wellbeing by providing interprofessional education, conducting research, advancing integrative models of care, and delivering innovative community engagement programs.”

To broaden its reach beyond campus and into the community, the Center developed a public website about 15 years ago that anyone can access called Taking Charge of Your Wellbeing (takingcharge.csh.umn.edu). The site provides simple tools based on solid research, helping people improve their wellbeing in the areas of health, purpose, relationships, community, security, and the environment. It attracts about 250,000 visitors a month from around the world. “It’s all about giving people tools to really be intentional about their life and think about, what are the practices, what are the lifestyle changes that they can make to lead to a life of wellbeing and flourishing,” Kreitzer said. “It relates very much to different aspects of the Center’s Wellbeing Model.”

Thriving Today and Tomorrow

Today, the Center is thriving.  Its 80 academic courses have broad appeal beyond the health sciences, drawing students from every college and department across campus. It has developed a robust research infrastructure, one that has garnered nearly $20 million in grants over the past dozen years, exploring nonpharmacologic approaches to pain management and serving underserved populations. “I certainly had a vision for what I hoped the Center would become, but I would not have imagined that 30 years later we would be as large, complex, diverse, and global,” Kreitzer said. “I truly credit the faculty and staff making that happen.”

Kreitzer’s colleagues add that what’s been good for the world has also been good for nursing, where she began. “Mary Jo has elevated the Bakken Center and the University of Minnesota as a global beacon for integrative health and healing and in doing so profoundly amplified the voice of nursing,” said Dr. Connie Delaney, dean of the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing. 

“Through her passion and drive she has helped countless nurse leaders and health professionals improve the wellbeing of individuals, health systems, and communities. I saw this firsthand when she supported me to complete the Integrative Therapies and Healing Practices Certificate Program while serving as Dean of the School of Nursing.” 

The Center continues to evolve under Kreitzer’s leadership, and that in turn further fuels her passion for this work. Kreitzer points to a new initiative she’s excited about called the NeuroArts Network, which became an extension of the Center’s past work with the Minnesota Orchestra to bring mindfulness to performances and with the Minneapolis Institute of Art. She has forged a partnership with Dr. Hubert Lim, a professor of biomedical engineering and co-director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Neuroengineering, to study how art and aesthetic experiences can impact the body, the brain, and behavior. Part of that work involves pairing scientists with community-based artists. “There’s incredible research emerging on not only the role of music, but poetry and dance and narrative,” she said. “How could I not be excited about this work? It’s ever-changing.”

Thoughts from the Community

Nancy Greatrix Manley, Chief People Officer (retired), Room & Board

At Room & Board, we pride ourselves on our holistic view of wellbeing. It can be a challenge to find a partner who truly understands the depth and breadth of this field let alone partners with us in a way that is ideally suited to the needs of our diverse organization. The Center has made a difference in the lives of our staff members. Why? Because leadership is everything. It is clear that under Mary Jo’s skillful guidance, the Bakken Center has thrived. Mary Jo has a unique ability to stay centered and unwavering on the core philosophies and practices of spirituality and wellbeing, always grounded in science while at the same time creating innovation and change in the field that resonates with today’s world. Her skill at managing these “bookends” is truly special.

Megan Voss, DNP, APRN, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at M Health Fairview, Bakken Center Director of Education and Associate Professor at the Bakken Center

Mary Jo became my advisor when I started in the DNP program in 2009. In hindsight, it was probably a bit unusual to have a mentor so many leagues beyond where I was at in my career at that time. Thankfully, I was wise enough to lean into the opportunity of a lifetime. Upon graduation, I continued to seek her wise counsel and have considered her a mentor ever since. She’s grounded and unassuming. I’ve always found her presence calming and reassuring. She provides small but potent doses of guidance - never a heavy hand, and always room for individual growth, exploration, and even mistake making. That approach makes the mentee feel like she really believes in you and your ability to creatively problem solve. I learned how to think, how to act, and how to build quiet confidence.

Alvina Brueggemann, PhD, Quality Improvement Consultant for the Mental Health and Addiction Service Line at M Health Fairview

When people ask me who my hero is, Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer is always my number one answer. It’s in the words she says (and the ones she doesn’t), that beautifully kind and laser-insightful gaze, and the way she’s building an empire - quietly, slowly, with ease, generosity, and spirit. I will forever be grateful to the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing for helping me during an intensely stressful time in graduate school, and I will forever be grateful to Mary Jo for making such an incredible impact on my heart. Thank you, Mary Jo, for leading people and ushering them into their highest selves to serve society. You are truly an inspiration and blessing. Thanks for being a North Star!