Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes: Spring 2007

Alums gifts honor value of La Follette degree

Throughout her career in health-care management, Peggy LeMahieu says she had an inside track on knowing how public policy influences the business of health care, thanks to the masters degree she earned from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs.

Since graduating in 1985, LeMahieu has worked for various organizations, acute-care hospitals, third-party insurers and a couple of large physician-owned medical systems, in positions ranging from middle management to vice president of a Green Bay medical center for about 10 years. After a sojourn in New Mexico for her husbands job, she is just starting a position as operations manager in the cardiac service area at Meriter Hospital in Madison.

LeMahieu attributes her success, in part, to what she learned at La Follette. "My graduate degree added to my credibility as a professional," she says.

This is one reason she supports the La Follette School financially. "I donate money because I feel it is one way I can give back to the school for the benefits it gave me," LeMahieu says.

She came to La Follette as part of a career change from being a registered nurse with public health agencies. "I wanted a broader focus," LeMahieu says, "so I chose a public affairs degree rather than a masters degree in nursing. I had a lot of interests that my public affairs degree let me pursue."

She found that her courses in health-care administration, health-care planning and the politics of health care "assisted me in understanding the big picture of health care and its relationship with public policy."

"It was nice to have that broad picture to understand the political ramifications and see how health care was being politicized," she says.

Like LeMahieu, many of La Follettes students in the mid-1980s had been out of college for several years, and their real-life experiences enriched classroom discussions, she says. The small classes and the interactions with students and faculty created an environment that challenged everyones thinking.

Helping the university and La Follette in tight fiscal times is very important, she adds. "I am concerned about the daily and annual financial challenges the university is facing and the impact on La Follette."

Alumni support is essential, she says.

"We are the benefactors of the education and its networking opportunities," she notes. "The faculty offer continual education through publications and through their participation in conferences and seminars. Everyone benefits from those efforts."

"We want these opportunities for others to continue into the future."