JULY 2025
Heritage week celebrates Mount Carmel’s rich history
Across the health system and the community, Mount Carmel celebrated Heritage Week July 14 - 19, honoring its founding 139 years ago by the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Colleagues had the opportunity to reconnect to the rich history and Mission of Mount Carmel through a variety of events, exhibits, virtual Blessings of the Hands and a celebratory meal.
“This week is a time for us to look back at the storied history of Mount Carmel; focus on how our amazing colleagues raise up our Mission; and, look forward to the future,” says Mission Leader William Hubbard. “Our colleagues are leading us into the future, and they are aware of the things that never change here - our compassionate touch and the reverence that the Sisters of the Holy Cross instilled in us. We are grounded in that history and realize that we are the ones writing our story for 100 years from now.”
Here's what our colleagues have to say about working at Mount Carmel.
Amanda Moore, BSN, RN receives 2025 Sisters of the Holy Cross Award
During Heritage Week each year, an exemplary colleague receives Mount Carmel’s most prestigious honor for living the Mission and Core Values – the Sisters of the Holy Cross Award. Amanda Moore, BSN, RN is this year’s award recipient!
Amanda works in Labor and Delivery (L&D) at Mount Carmel East and lives our legacy of providing radically compassionate care to our moms and families. According to one of her nominations, “Her care transcends the clinical; it is deeply personal, rooted in empathy, and delivered with a reverence for life that brings light into the darkest of circumstances.”
Amanda also leads in the service of some of the most vulnerable L&D patients. “Amanda reflects the heart of Mount Carmel – where healing meets hope and love endures even in loss.” Her work in bringing hope through healing upholds the legacy of the Sisters of the Holy Cross incarnate.
Learn more about the legacy of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
L to R: Philip Berger, MD, Katie Wille, LPCC, Josh Tadevich, MD, Rahim Mangalji, MD
Mission trips give residents amazing experiences to develop new skills and connections
Mount Carmel Graduate Medical Education (GME), steeped in our Mission, fosters commitment to service and develops insight into health and social inequalities here and around the world. The Global Health program, named for Dr. John “Jack” O’Handley, (Dr. O. to many at Mount Carmel.) gives residents in the program that he once directed opportunities to provide care on mission trips to vulnerable and underserved locales. The GME Global Health track was established in 2024. The first graduate, Dr. Josh Matzke, was conferred a Global Health Track completion in Graduate Medical Training by Mount Carmel in June, 2025.
Rahim Mangalji, MD, assistant program director and director of Global Health, Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Family Practice Residency, cites his own experiences as a resident physician who participated in medical mission trips – 2017 to 2020 –as one of the reasons he leads that effort today. “We’ve completed five trips to Jamaica and Peru since re-starting the program, post-pandemic, in 2022,” says Dr. Mangalji. “We most recently worked in Kingston, Jamaica, where we go once each year. With recommendations and support from our in-country partners who tell us where we are most needed, we set up clinics for local residents. We educate, treat, and connect them to their own government’s resources to help them better manage their health long term.”
The mission trips are supported by generous donors to the Mount Carmel Foundation and are part of a larger Global Health Initiative within Trinity Health, Mount Carmel’s parent company. The Kingston trips are generally 8 to ten days long and include the Family Practice residents, nurses, as well as a physical therapist, pharmacist, behavioral health and social work professionals from the Trinity system. The team may see up to 500 patients in the five to six days in which clinics are open.
“For the Chulucanas, Peru, trip, one faculty member and one resident from our system go,”, says Dr. Mangalji. “We perform one week of clinic duties in Chulucanas and then pack supplies to go up to set up clinics with a team in the surrounding mountain regions to provide ambulatory care. This is usually a 13-day trip with has about 10 different physicians/advanced practitioners from multiple systems. We see, on average, 1,700 to 1,800 patients on these trips.”
“Our medical missions are grounded in strong, collaborative partnerships with our in-country colleagues. We approach each mission as guests, with deep respect for the local healthcare systems and professionals,” he continues. “By sharing knowledge, expertise, and resources, we aim to build sustainable, long-lasting care together. This approach has developed into strong partnerships that have been sustained for many years in Kingston, Jamaica (since 2000) and Chulucanas, Peru (since 1989) via Global Health Volunteers.”
“The way you touch a community through a Global Health mission trip is far more than just delivering medicine,” Katie Wille, LPCC, director of Behavioral Sciences says. “It breathes life into a community. The way we make people feel when they are with us and then leaving them with sustainable resources to better care for themselves is so powerful. It gives our residents a better sense of the things that really matter. It’s remarkable what a simplified environment can do to bring everything back to the essentials of caring.”
If you’d like to support resident educational opportunities at Mount Carmel, please visit our giving page and select Graduate Medical Education from the drop-down menu.
Mount Carmel colleagues attending this year’s pilgrimage trip were (L to R, front to back row): Cyndi Roberts, Don LaFollette, Sister Pat, Desaree Vina, Alison Jones, Drew Evans, Stephanie Stafford
Pilgrimage re-connects current colleagues to spiritual beginnings
Mount Carmel Foundation’s Alison Jones, senior development officer, was selected as one of the fortunate few colleagues to visit the Sisters of Stella Niagara earlier this year. Formally known as the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, who founded Mount Carmel St. Ann’s, have their motherhouse in Stella Niagara, New York. The group spent four days at the motherhouse meeting with and learning about the incredible women who were instrumental in founding and running St. Ann’s and then making it part of Mount Carmel.
“It was a humbling, inspiring and empowering experience,” Alison says. “From the moment we got there, we were immersed in the history, the experiences and the incredible lives these women have led. We toured the facilities, which included staying in the retreat center, which used to be the living quarters of the nuns who studied there. We met with them, heard their stories, learned the history of St. Ann’s founding and how they’ve used what they call the ‘Gift of St. Ann’ to maintain and improve their motherhouse and services provided there to their sisters who need care or are retired and living the latter part of their lives at Stella Niagara.”
Mount Carmel St. Ann’s was founded in 1908 on Brydon Road in Columbus as a home for orphans up to age two. It became St. Ann’s Infant Asylum and Home for Unwed Mothers in 1920 and was renamed St. Ann’s Hospital for Women in 1950. It then became St. Ann’s Hospital in 1972 as it began taking male patients. The hospital moved to Westerville, Ohio, in 1984 and was acquired by Mount Carmel in 1994. The sale proceeds or ‘Gift of St. Ann’ helped create a retirement trust for the Sisters, a Trust for the Poor, and building upkeep funds for the motherhouse property.
“Knowing and being able to share the story of St. Ann’s founding makes me better at my job. Beyond that, it was simply inspirational – no other way to put it – to witness the Sisters’ incredible devotion to service,” says Alison. “One of the Sisters told me she was called to live in community with these women and the opportunity to serve the Lord is an added blessing. It was an amazing experience. So much so that it’s hard to put into words. What I am sure about, though, is that it was the most transformative, most important thing I’ve done at Mount Carmel.”
Learn more about Mount Carmel St. Ann’s Hospital.