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Denise A. McCartney, assistant dean for management services at the School of Medicine, is a plucky solution seeker who thrives on coming up with creative approaches to problems.
"If I have a situation and I don't know where to go, I go to Denise," said Edwin K. Hinrichs, executive director of anesthesiology. "She also is a great sounding board. She comes back to you with very thoughtful ideas and questions."
Known for her dedication and resourcefulness, McCartney finds no problem too small or too grand to tackle. Her colleagues say she takes an employee inconvenience just as seriously as, for instance, working with department heads to implement a new faculty compensation system, one of her latest projects.
She also is known for her sense of humor and ability to find the lighter side of almost any situation. "There's never a time that I interact with her without having a laugh," said Beverly Hahn, executive director of the Department of Pediatrics, who has worked with McCartney for about 10 years.
McCartney has administrative responsibility for human resources, research administration and performance improvement. She also functions as a liaison between department heads and the central administration.
Lee F. Fetter, associate dean for administration and finance and McCartney's boss, said McCartney is a consummate team player who serves as an example to other employees. "Her tireless devotion to the University's mission, her strong service ethic and her ever-present optimism are inspiring to those of us fortunate to interact with her on a regular basis."
McCartney said she enjoys working with such a large cast of customers -- department heads, business managers, administrators and faculty. In addition to acting as a liaison, McCartney spends a great deal of time building consensus and writing policies. She enjoys delving into the rules and regulations that will affect policies and looking at other universities' approaches. And she delights in the intellectual discussion that goes into these decisions.
One of the most difficult parts of McCartney's job, however, is deciding where priorities lie. "There are so many things going on, and they're all really interesting," she said. "Everyone has so much excitement about what they're trying to get done that sometimes it's a little hard to know where to go first."
The family moved 12 times in Oklahoma by the time McCartney was 14, then to Berkley Heights, N. J., and eventually to St. Louis. But it didn't deter them from becoming involved in their new communities. Whenever her family moved to a new town, they did volunteer work and joined a local church. "We were always taught to give back," McCartney said.
McCartney became interested in science as a child. Her mother had wanted to become a laboratory researcher and often talked to McCartney about the field. After McCartney earned a bachelor's degree in medical technology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1978 and worked for six months as a medical technologist, she decided to get a master's degree in business administration. She wanted to direct a hospital laboratory.
Four weeks before getting married in 1980, McCartney fell off the roof of her house when she was cleaning the gutters. She woke up in the hospital paralyzed from the waist down. "It was a very stressful time," she said. "With spinal cord injuries, it's almost as devastating for the family and friends as it is for the person affected by it. It changes everyone's perspective of what the person's life is going to be like."
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She and her fiance postponed their wedding and later parted ways. She said they were both too young to figure out how to handle her injury.
Within six months, McCartney returned to her job in a blood bank. A year after the accident, she re-enrolled in graduate school. When she graduated, she landed a job as a supervisor at Barnes Hospital and later became laboratory manager of the Laboratory Services Department there.
"After you go through an accident like mine, you really do make a choice," McCartney said. "You can feel sorry for yourself or realize that you're pretty lucky. I saw people in rehabili-tation who were injured much worse than I was and had fewer options."
In 1989, McCartney was hired as the Irene Walter Johnson (IWJ) Rehabilitation Institute business manager, a joint position between the School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital. At the time, the IWJ provided all the inpatient and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy for Barnes and St. Louis Children's hospitals. She worked there until becoming assistant dean for management services at the medical school in 1993.
McCartney has not let her disability limit her life -- she likes to tell people she can do everything but walk.
"One of my favorite things about Denise is that nothing stops her," said Joan M. Podleski, assistant vice chancellor for clinical affairs and also a personal friend of McCartney. "If an obstacle gets in her way or makes life more difficult, she finds a way to get around it. I think she is strong in ways that many people aren't."
She also teaches a Sunday School class for 3-year-olds, plays in the handbell choir and serves on several committees at Manchester United Methodist Church.
For a number of years after her injury, she made spinal cord injury awareness presentations at area high schools, helping students understand the risks of drinking and driving and of not wearing car seat belts or bike helmets. She also has participated in disability awareness programs at churches and at the medical school.
"The thing that guides me most in my life is providing service or support to people," McCartney said. "Every day when I leave my job, I feel as if I've contributed something."
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