School of Health Sciences and Wellness

Christine Russell ’07 is the director of health and wellness programs for The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization committed to mobilizing African American women to pursue and sustain mind-body-spirit wellness, and to raise the visibility and support of Black women’s health as a community and public health priority.

Karen Bogenschneider is a Rothermel Bascom Professor of Human Ecology at UW-Madison and a Family Policy Specialist at UW-Extension. Karen directs the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars, a series of presentations, discussion sessions and briefing reports that provide high-quality, objective research to state policymakers on timely topics. The seminars are an award-winning model for advancing evidence-based family policy and overcoming partisan gridlock. Karen also directs the Family Impact Institute, which provides training and technical assistance to 22 states conducting Family Impact Seminars. Karen publishes widely including a book on evidence-based policymaking and the third edition of her college textbook, Karen received a named professorship, the highest award given to professors at UW-Madison. She has been named an outstanding Child and Family Extension specialist and a fellow by the National Council on Family Relations.

Laura M. Nelson, M.D., MBA, class of 1987, is Marshfield Clinic’s chief medical officer, the first woman to hold the post in the organization’s 94-year history. Laura also serves as a part time hospitalist at Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff, where she was instrumental in developing the first hospitalist program in the Marshfield Clinic System. Previously she was the medical director of Marshfield Clinic’s North Division. She graduated from UW-Stevens Point in 1987 and went on to earn a medical degree from UW-Madison and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas.