Scheduled for Wednesday, April 8, 2026
12:00-1:00p.m. CST
Nursing Innovation: A Collaborative Path to Better Healthcare
As Marquette University celebrates its 90th anniversary, we honor a legacy of nursing excellence shaped by generations of leaders committed to advancing health and healing. This panel conversation features distinguished Marquette nursing alumnae who are driving innovation across the healthcare landscape. Hear how nursing innovation is accelerated through partnerships with business, engineering and beyond, and explore real world examples of interdisciplinary teamwork that fuels new ideas, enhances patient care, and creates sustainable solutions for the future of healthcare.
Sarah Bellenger, Nurs ’99, MBA, MSN, CRNA, LTC(R)
Founder and CEO, Manage You App
Sarah Bellenger is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist with 25 years of clinical experience and the rare combination of an MBA and MSN. She has been credentialed more than 20 times throughout her career, sitting on both sides of the process as a provider and a leader. That firsthand experience with a broken, fragmented system is exactly what led her to build Manage You, a healthcare credentialing platform that puts providers back in control of their professional identity. She is a founder who didn't set out to disrupt an industry. She set out to solve a problem we could no longer ignore.
MANAGE YOU Healthcare credentialing is a $20 billion administrative problem hiding in plain sight. Every time a clinician changes jobs, picks up a contract, or renews a license, they start from scratch. Documents get lost. Deadlines get missed. Facilities wait weeks to bring a provider on board. And the provider who spent a decade building a career suddenly can't work because of a filing gap. Manage You was built to change that. Not by replacing existing systems, but by giving clinicians something they have never had before: one secure, provider-owned record of their complete credential history, ready to share instantly and verified completely. When providers own their credentials, the entire system moves faster. That is the problem we are solving. The product is just how we do it.
Kelly Ayala, Nurs ’01, DNP, APRN, RN
Co-Founder, Streamline Flow
Kelly Ayala is a primary care nurse practitioner, co-founder and innovator who works outside traditional health care systems. Since 2001, she has worked to develop paths for her patients and herself in the areas of advocacy, self-advocacy and equity. Her work in nursing consistently revolves around themes of high risk, complex care whether in the ICU, specialty or primary care and always combined with ensuring that all her patients know how to receive care and advocate for themselves. She co-developed Streamline Flow, a tool designed to keep patients on their care plan which is going to market this year, and her day job is developing, executing and scaling a start-up aimed at serving patients recently discharged from short term rehab settings using chronic care and remote patient monitoring. She has attended or mentored over a half-dozen hackathons and loves engaging with nurses across the globe working to improve care, while aiming to amplify the work of nurses across systems. Most recently, she was honored to receive the Equity Minded Nurse Practice award from the AARP and co-sponsored by the American Nurses Association and the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing. To ensure her skills are prepared to advocate for her patients and teams, she practices self-advocacy in the form of gardening, walking outside, reading, and spending time with her family.
Olivia Lemberger, Nurs ’97, PhD, RN, NPD-BC
Innovation Scientist, American Nurses Association
Olivia Lemberger began her nursing career as a health service Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. Olivia’s time in Guinea initiated an appreciation for innovation and created an opportunity to learn how to practice nursing with limited resources. Over the past twenty-five years, she has worked as a nurse in Neurosurgical, Emergency, and Nursing Professional Practice Departments. Olivia obtained a PhD in Health Sciences at Northern Illinois University and was one of the twelve inaugural Johnson and Johnson nurse innovation fellows. During her fellowship, she innovated the Nurse Innovator Index, an open-access repository dedicated to disseminating the work of global nurse innovators. Olivia is thrilled to work for the American Nurses Association as their Innovation Scientist.
Emily R. Will, Nurs ’06, MHA, RN, ONC
Nurse Executive & Clinical Strategist
Emily R. Will is a nurse executive and clinical strategist dedicated to advancing innovation at the intersection of care delivery and digital health. With a background spanning ambulatory nursing, system-level leadership, and health technology strategy, she works to ensure that emerging solutions meaningfully support both patients and care teams.
In addition to her executive role, Emily serves as a volunteer leader with the American Nurses Association’s Innovation initiatives, where she champions nurse-led innovation and the integration of frontline clinical insight into scalable solutions. She is passionate about building strong, team-based models of care that improve access, outcomes, and the clinician experience.
Jill Guttormson, PhD, MS, RN
Dean, College of Nursing, Marquette University
Dr. Jill Guttormsonis the dean of the College of Nursing. A professor of nursing, she previously served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the college, has chaired the College of Nursing Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, the University Board of Undergraduate Studies and the University Committee on Teaching. She has been recognized by the university for her commitment to teaching, receiving the Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.
Guttormson has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in nursing education from the University of Minnesota. She joined the College of Nursing faculty in 2011 after earning her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Guttormson’s research focuses on supporting best practices in critical care nursing, symptom management and patient communication during mechanical ventilation with the goal of enhancing patient-centered care and the patient experience.
Moderator: Cheri McEssy, Nurs ’85
Co-Founder, Neela Cares
Cheri McEssy is a nurse executive turned entrepreneur and investor whose work spans healthcare innovation, aging, and women's leadership. Due in part to her role as a family caregiver herself and seeing the need to support the tens of thousands of unpaid caregivers across the country, she is Co-Founder of Neela Cares, which uses agentic AI to transform how families manage loved ones' care, and founder of Healthspan Navigators, focused on expanding the role of trusted advisors in health and wellness.
Through CMAC Ventures and McVentures LLC, Cheri invests in and advises healthcare and wellness startups, with a special emphasis on women-founded companies. She is also a partner with Project Sunflower, a private equity platform that champions the female perspective in investment strategy.
Following a successful exit from BrightStar Care, a franchised business spanning home care, care management, and healthcare staffing, Cheri brought her clinical and operational expertise to the investment and advisory world. Her clinical background is rooted in critical care nursing, and she holds a degree from Marquette University, where she serves on the Leadership Council of the College of Nursing.
A committed community leader, Cheri chairs the Governance Committee of the Illinois Alzheimer's Association, serves on a faith-based Strategic Planning Board, and has led medical mission trips to Bolivia. She is the founder of Springboard Chicago, a professional development network for high-performing executive women.
