Alumni Profile:
Dana McWay, HIM ‘82, LAW ‘88
1. Why did you choose SLU for your education?
I primarily was interested in Catholic universities
to attend after high school. At
the time, I was undecided about my major and SLU offered
a wide variety of
majors to choose from. I had used the University Library
(Pius) as a student for
some honors classes at my high school, and liked the atmosphere
of the campus
and the feel of the students. On top of it all, they offered
me a partial academic
scholarship, which was quite helpful as I was paying for
college myself.
2. What is your favorite memory from your days
as a SLU student?
Several memories come to mind: (1) going to the soccer games,
although at that time they were held off campus instead
of the great Hermann stadium of today; (2) some great professors
who I felt genuinely cared about my progress as a student.
I kept in touch with some of them and even exchange Christmas
cards with one to this day (more than 20 years later); (3)
Mu Rho Sigma, which was the HIM student group on campus;
(4) the general store/eating area in the base of Walsh hall
where everyone would gather throughout the day on north
campus; (5) Humphreys and Clarks (Clarks is now gone but
was across the street from Humphreys - I think there is
grass and a sculpture there now).
3. What is your professional role today as an attorney?
My title is Clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The role
is
responsible for all nonjudicial functions of the court -
operations,
automation, personnel, finance, administrative, etc. In
the context of
running the court, the Board of Judges of our Court serve
a similar role
as a Board of Directors for an organization. My role is
analogous to a
CEO of an organization..
4. Many of our students and alumni have used your
textbooks in the classroom. Can you please
tell us about them?
My first book, Legal Aspects of Health Information Management,
is in its
second edition and is published by Delmar Publishers, a
subsidiary of
Thomson Corporation (a large publishing conglomerate out
of Canada). The
Legal Book is used at SLU and many other colleges/universities
in the
US. I am completing a second book to be titled, Delmar/Thomson's
Comprehensive Textbook on Health Information Management.
It should be
available in 2007.
An interesting point is the way I got into publishing.
I had written
some journal articles and a former SLU professor read them.
She served
on an editorial board of Delmar and knew that they were
looking at
developing a new series of textbooks. She contacted me about
whether I
would be interested. From there, I submitted a proposal
with curriculum
vitae, which was both peer reviewed and examined by Delmar.
A contract
resulted out of this process, which is where my first book
came from.
That was a success from the perspective of the publisher
(in number of
sales) so they contacted me about my second book.
5. You’ve been very generous to the University,
particularly to the
College of Health Sciences, with your time, financial contributions,
ideas, guest lectures and willingness to hire a SLU intern.
What has
motivated you to do so?
As a general philosophy in life, I do believe that you should
give back. The SLU motto of service to others is compatible
with that philosophy and you might say reinforces it. I
was fortunate to be helped by many educators at SLU, both
during my time as a student and post-schooling.
Also, there were moments when schooling was tough or a
struggle. You can look at that and either say: (1) that
later students should have to undergo the same thing I did;
or (2) later students shouldn't have to go through it like
I did. I chose the latter, because I didn't think it wouldn't
be right for later students to struggle through the same
thing. For example, I am a big believer in experiential
learning. It sometimes is hard to understand legal concepts
only from textbook reading or lecture. That is why I once
organized and conducted a mini mock trial for the students
so that they could go through this experience (albeit mock
experience) as a way to improve understanding. The alternative
of letting them struggle through understanding the legal
concepts just didn't seem like the way to go.
6. Is there anything you would like to say to fellow
SLU alumni?
Students?
For students, I would say that once they reflect upon how
SLU has helped them, they will want to consider helping
out SLU once they become alumni.
This help could take many forms. Whether that takes the
form of being active in the alumni association, spreading
the word about SLU to others, talking to a
potential future student about going to SLU, or giving money,
there are many
things they can do.
For fellow alumni, I would say they need to visit campus
if they haven't been here lately. They will be blown away
with the many physical changes the university has undertaken
over the years and the plans for the future.
