Dear alumni and friends of Marquette’s College of Health Sciences:
As we wind down the 2025-26 academic year, I am keen to reflect on the last eight months as we approach commencement and bring a conclusion to our 30th anniversary celebrations. The College of Health Sciences and its clinical professional programs will be graduating over 300 students this May. My pride grows each year as I watch another class cross the stage on their way to becoming the next generation of mission-driven health care leaders.
Our feature story concerns our Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP) in our Speech Pathology department. In the aftermath of a tragic road rage incident, Nathan Justis lost his ability to communicate. Throughout his numerous therapy sessions, he expressed just one request from his caregivers: he wanted to talk again. Led by Program Director Tina Puglisi-Creegan, students in the ICAP completed a treatment plan for Nathan that has greatly improved his speech ability — and fulfilled his request.
We also profile our master’s program in Sports and Exercise Analytics. The need for experts who understand how an athlete’s body is impacted while active in their sport is skyrocketing as professional and collegiate teams utilize emerging exercise technologies in their training. The program, co-directed by Dr. Kristof Kipp and Dr. Danilo Tolusso, gives students the opportunity to marry two of their passions — sports and data — while providing athletes with a greater understanding of how they can train better and more efficiently to reduce injury and maximize performance. But don’t just take my word for it, see what USA Weightlifting has to say about the data.
Our on-site clinics offer a helping hand to people in desperate need of treatment when other clinical treatment options have fallen short of the patient’s desired outcome. Students in the Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program take that responsibility seriously as they’ve launched a student-led free clinic to give patients whose insurance has run out another opportunity to continue their therapy treatments. The students are responsible for the design of client treatment programs under the supervision of OT faculty and are great examples of being men and women for and with others.
I hope you enjoy this edition of Marquette Health Sciences and encourage you to send ideas for stories that highlight exceptional alumni or accomplishments as we continue to educate the next generation of mission-driven leaders, and to advance The Science that Heals.
Have a great summer,
Dr. William E. Cullinan
Dean and Professor
College of Health Sciences
Marquette University
