A Chance to Cure
Ann Stroink
Story by Nancy Steele Brokaw '71
The margin of error for Ann Stroink ’76 is pretty much zero. If she’s a millimeter or two off, to the right or the left, it can mean the difference between life and death, between newfound mobility and paralysis, between continued intractable pain and relief.
Ann’s patients are in good hands knowing she has more than 25 years of experience as a celebrated neurosurgeon who is the founder of Central Illinois Neuro Health Sciences. Not to mention, Ann was the first woman to enter the neurosurgical residency program at the Mayo Clinic. She was the only woman in the program during her entire time there.
“I’m a little bit OCD [Obsessive Compulsive Disorder],” Stroink says with a smile, as if that explains everything. She insists that her operating rooms, equipment, supplies, records, everything, be just so. “I’m very demanding in that way,” she adds.
But precision only takes you so far in a field that also requires fierce intelligence, critical thinking, drive, stamina, an ability to stay abreast of rapidly emerging technology and, perhaps most of all, a sense of adventure.
Stroink’s upbringing in Bloomington was a rigorous one. Her mother, Victoria, taught her a lot but it was her German-born pathologist father, Hans Stroink, who asked the demanding questions — with the expectation that his daughter’s answers would make perfect sense.
From fifth grade on, Stroink worked in her dad’s pathology lab after school and on weekends. When it came time to choose a college, the elder Stroink determined “a big, state school” was the most sensible choice for his daughter and, accordingly, young Ann was dispatched to the University of Illinois.
“I had no professors,” only teaching assistants, Ann said. “I didn’t like it; I wanted to come back to Illinois Wesleyan for second semester,” despite what her father believed.
The decision paid off for Ann. “I remember the day I found out I got into medical school,” she recalled. “I was sitting in the library, looking out the window, and here comes Dr. [Biology Professor Bruce] Criley, almost at a run. ‘Ann, Ann,’ he says, ‘you got into medical school!’”
After medical school, it was time to convince her father again — this time that her choice of a medical specialty made sense. “My dad poured a glass of German white wine,” Ann said. “He had just raised it to his lips after saying, ‘So, you have finally decided what you want to be?’”
“Yes,” Ann replied. “I want to be a neurosurgeon.”
The elder Stroink spilled his wine, then made a quick recovery. He promptly suggested neurosurgical pathology.
“No,” Ann told her dad. “I don’t want to see a tumor I could have taken out.”
Her father’s balking at the idea was warranted. The inhumanly intense workload is one reason that the number of doctors in her field is scarce. There are now fewer than 3,700 neurosurgeons in the U.S.“We’ve lost a lot of neurosurgeons,” Ann said. “It’s just too demanding.”
Stroink’s commitment to improving her profession motivated her to help found the Bloomington-based Central Illinois Neuroscience Foundation over 20 years ago. Stroink saw a need to bring a neurosurgery resident program to Central Illinois to help alleviate the burgeoning needs for neurosurgical patient care and also to provide an educational resource to health providers, the community and medical students and residents.
“Our residency program brings in the best young minds out there,” she said.
Is it hard for her to keep up with those agile young minds?
“They have to keep up with me,” she said with an ardent gleam in her eye. “I’m very competitive; you should see me whip through journals.”
“I try to teach them to think critically,” Ann continued. “It’s important not to assume anything but to think on your own.”
The foundation keeps expanding in new ways. Jennifer (Johns) Troyanovich ’94 was there almost from the beginning and became executive director. Now she is the coordinator of Carle Hospital’s neurosurgical residency in Champaign, Illinois.
“Dr. Stroink motivates and inspires her colleagues, associates and staff with her commitment to excellence, genuine goodwill and frank enthusiasm” Jennifer said. She described her involvement in the foundation — and keeping up with the fast pace of Stroink’s schedule — as “a very wonderful adventure.”
Keith Kattner was Ann’s neurosurgical partner, being a co-founder of Central Illinois Neurohealth Sciences until he retired from the profession in 2010. “Residents love working with her,” he said. “She’s a strong educator,” likening Stroink to “the tough teacher you loved.”
Ann considers teaching doctors to be one of the most essential, and one of her favorite, parts of her job.
In 2008, Ann cut back her hours to 95 a week in order to become more politically active as president of the Illinois State Neurological Society. She was most recently president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. “From a national perspective,” Kattner said, “she’s among the most powerful women in neurosurgery. ... She’s widely respected and well-known.”
Steve ‘73 and Deb Wannemacher ’74
Story by Chris Francis '13
Steve ‘73 and Deb Wannemacher ’74 have been a part of IWU ever since Steve's Uncle
Earl started taking him to IWU basketball games when he was a grade schooler in the
‘60s. At the same time, Deb's father was broadcasting the IWU basketball games for
local radio, building relationships with the university’s athletic staff and bringing
Deb along to campus as well.
Both Steve and Deb are the oldest siblings in their families, and they were both first generation college graduates. Like many post war families their parents were eager for their kids to take advantage of the educational opportunities they didn't have. Both of their parents believed in IWU as a great place to do so and made a financial stretch to send them.
The two met in October of 1970. They married after the first semester of Deb’s senior year. Their Greek connections helped bring them together with Steve being a Sigma Chi and Deb a Sigma Kappa.
“We took a three-day honeymoon to Saint Louis,” Steve remembered, and upon return the couple became temporary house parents for Sigma Kappa while Steve began work at State Farm. They raised two daughters together, Allison and Sarah. Steve and Deb will have been married for 50 years in February 2024. They have three grandchildren.
“Right from the beginning we belonged to what was then called the Century Club,” Steve said. The Century Club included anyone who gave a $100 donation to the university, though for new graduates you could still count as a member by giving $25 each year for four years. “That was a lot of money to us back then. It really was a sacrificial gift.”
Since then, Steve says he was very fortunate to have a growing career in finance and insurance at Champion Federal. He eventually went into elder care administration with Heritage Enterprises. Deb was a small business owner and later worked at Country Financial.
Illinois Wesleyan has been a big part of the Wannemacher’s life. They have enjoyed being a part of a vibrant network of current and former administrators, staff, and alumni. Most of all, they are grateful for the breadth of the liberal arts education they received from their time at IWU that has stretched into a lifetime.
Deb says, “I feel a liberal arts education is a good foundation for any career. There's such a need for Wesleyan students to absorb the wisdom and knowledge as well as social skills and values of this institution. It is critical to the graduates we send forth as citizens into a world hungry for their leadership.”
As Steve notes, “IWU graduates launch into life with tremendous potential. They have acquired the learning and social skills that predict success as a human being and good citizen. It is a privilege to do our part and carry it forward.”
Colleen O’Connor ‘14
Story by Chris Francis '13
Colleen came to IWU as a psychology major. Despite a long-standing love for language,
she didn’t plan to pursue an English major until she took one of Professor Mike Theune’s
classes as a general education requirement.
“He said, ‘Colleen, what are you doing? You need to be an English major!’” Colleen recalled, “So, I figured out how to make a double major work.”
Now Colleen uses her training in both psychology and communication to help young people who are at risk for suicide and mental health issues.
Her passion for mental health education began years before she arrived at IWU, however. Colleen started struggling with her mental health when she was in elementary school, and has based her career on the desire to provide the kind of information and support that she wishes that she received when she was young.
She first combined these skills in a professional setting when she received IWU’s Re-Centering the Humanities scholarship. She used the funding to design a creative expression curriculum for the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, where she worked after graduating in 2014.
“We used writing and other forms of expression to shed light on the painful stories that people needed to share in order to move forward,” Colleen said. The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery expanded Colleen’s program, and by the time she left, multiple branches were implementing her curriculum.
In 2016, Colleen joined Project Oz, a non-profit organization in McLean County that focuses on supporting youth and families. She began as a substance use prevention education specialist, but her legacy at Project Oz centers on suicide prevention.
“I realized that many schools didn’t provide suicide prevention or mental health education, and many teachers were interested in providing it, but didn’t know where to start,” Colleen said. “I wrote a grant that focused on youth education as a volunteer with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and it turned into a partnership with Project Oz.”
This brought NAMI’s national suicide prevention program, Ending the Silence, to Bloomington-Normal. After successfully piloting the program in 2016, she expanded the program to serve all twenty standard, public junior high schools and high schools in the county.
While teaching, Colleen focuses on preparing students to recognize the warning signs of mental health challenges, reach out for support, use healthy coping skills, and start important conversations with their friends and families. She also shares her own story of hope in order to reduce stigma and show students that they are not alone. She has directly linked thousands of struggling students with resources and support.
Colleen also provides suicide prevention and mental health education for other groups, including school staff and parents, and she has worked with neighboring communities to help them start mental health education programs. She has also collaborated with over a dozen local community members to help them share their stories of hope.
At this point, Colleen has educated over 25,000 students and adults. Reaching about 3,000 each year, she plans to help many more.