O’Neil retiring after a ‘great adventure’ in allied health

Pat O’Neil is retiring after 19 years at the medical center. She began as assistant manager of sponsored program accounting and moved to the then school, now UNMC College of Allied Health Professions, where she’s served as director, assistant dean and now associate dean for finance and administration.

The campus is invited to a retirement celebration on Wednesday, May 14, from 2-4 p.m., in the Linder Reading Room, with remarks at 2:30 p.m.

Dean Kyle Meyer, PhD, in announcing O’Neil’s retirement, listed a CV’s worth of administrative accomplishments. But what implementation of all these policies, processes, functions, models and mechanisms really meant, he said, was that O’Neil, through her leadership and acumen, was a crucial contributor to the school becoming a college and to allied health’s remarkable growth over those 15 years. You could see the results in tangible ways, he said.

“Her work created the important human resource and financial foundation for us to grow, to add multiple new programs and to expand several of our programs to the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus,” Dr. Meyer said.

O’Neil marveled at the memory of the very first meetings on expansion to Kearney and then, a few years later, seeing those dreams come true.

“The first time I walked into the building,” she said, “it was like, oh my gosh, how did we get from circles on a piece of paper to this amazing structure?”

Working at the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions “has been just a really great adventure for me,” she said. “I’ve loved it. I want to say I loved every minute of it.” She laughed. “That’d be a lie. I loved just about every minute of it, and it’s all about the people that I work with, that I get to work with, and the work that we do.”

The importance of that work, she said, is easy to see and easy to feel.

She loves the professionalism ceremonies, which are a rite of passage for students in the college to begin their professional program or clinical encounters with patients. “I get a little choked up seeing how excited the students are, and they’ve got their families with them, and a lot of them have little kids. It’s just such a big deal for them. They’re so excited, and their families are so proud,” she said.

But that’s only the beginning. That excitement is even more meaningful when they graduate.

“And then they go out and they touch so many patients and impact so many lives. You know, again that’s why I’ve enjoyed this so much, because I think what we do is important.”

As noted, O’Neil’s career and leadership at UNMC corresponded with the time when allied health became a college, both on paper and in spirit, as its multitude of unique programs came together during this period to create a new, unified, collaborative culture. And O’Neil has loved being a part of that.

But what will she do in retirement?

“All the same old things that everybody says,” she said. “More time with the grandkids, more travel. I have lots of hobbies. I like to sew. I like to cook. I like to garden. I golf. I ride my bicycle. I work out. Lots of things.

“I also have family and friends all over the country. And so, if I did nothing but visit my family and friends, I’d be gone every month of the year.”

So, she is looking forward. But also looking back fondly.

“It was a huge team effort,” she said of her time with the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions. “It was a lot of work, a lot of fun and a lot of learning about so many things.”