"From Inspiration to Innovation: The Bakken Legacy Endures"
Mary Jo Kreitzer PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP
Founder and Director, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing
Professor, School of Nursing
University of Minnesota
Abstract: As the co-founder of Medtronic and one of the leaders who created Medical Alley, Earl Bakken imagined a future that did not exist. He had an enormous capacity to think outside the box and draw together scientists, healthcare practitioners, and entrepreneurs to innovate new products and systems. The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing has been an innovator in the whole health and wellbeing space for 30 years and collaborates with partners at the University and beyond to advance human flourishing. Dr. Kreitzer will discuss the implications of whole health and wellbeing for healthcare and medical technology as we strive to advance affordable, scalable, and personalized “wellbeing for all.”
Bio: Mary Jo Kreitzer PhD, RN, FAAN is the founder and director of the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota where she also serves as a tenured professor in the School of Nursing. She has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of numerous clinical trials focusing on mindfulness meditation with persons with chronic disease including studies focusing on solid organ transplant, cardiovascular disease, chronic insomnia, diabetes, and caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studies include the use of social technology to enhance healing and wellbeing and the impact of mindfulness on brain-computer interface performance.
Dr. Kreitzer has authored over 150 publications and is the co-editor of the text Integrative Nursing 2nd Edition published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. She earned her doctoral degree in public health focused on health services research, policy and administration, and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing. Dr. Kreitzer was named in 2020 as one of the 100 most influential health care leaders in Minnesota by MN Physician. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a distinguished policy fellow in the National Academies of Practice and a Fellow Ad Eundem of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.