Celebrating 20 years of service: U of M Medical Reserve Corps

In public health, we focus on the health and well-being of communities locally, nationally, and internationally. As we celebrate and reflect on our 20 years of service, I want to focus on our own community: students, staff, and faculty who make up the membership of our Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). As the fourth registered unit in the country, it is the largest in Minnesota and one of the largest in the nation. It exemplifies the University’s commitment to be of service to our community. As of this update, there are 2225 current members and rising. Our members are students, staff, and faculty in the Health Sciences schools, as well as Boynton Health, Student Counseling Services, and Community-University Health Care Center. Our members range from undergraduate students to world-renowned experts. They are scholars, researchers, leaders, practitioners, administrators, and support staff. They put their knowledge to practice, and demonstrate their skills in action, all to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. Their work is important, impactful, and deserves to be recognized. Every day they ensure that our MRC operates according to our mission, vision, and values of: preparedness; outreach and public service; physical and mental health; partnerships and collaboration; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and data-driven response. 

Among MRC units, ours is unique for its inclusion of students, who in turn have the unique opportunity to be involved in health-related emergencies that affect our campus and our community. It provides practical application of skills they are learning in their academic clinical programs, and many say it has been one of the best parts of their educational experience. Each fall we benefit from new students who bring their talents, life experience, wide-ranging goals, excitement, and optimism, enriching all of us with their perspectives and determination. Our members lend their time and skills, often without public awareness or recognition, to respond to emergencies in profound and often incalculable ways.

Over the past 20 years, our members have responded to all types of disasters, including hurricanes, flooding, infectious diseases, and more. Even as the COVID pandemic, the largest infectious disease emergency of our lifetime, remains with us, we continue to look ahead to other emerging infectious diseases as well as threats to our community like mass casualty and fatality incidents, mental health crises on campus, and the public health impacts of the climate crisis. Planning for and responding to these incidents requires dedicated and diverse teams capable of looking at these issues through multiple lenses. We will continue to demonstrate what our MRC members are capable of working together on innovative, evidence-informed approaches.

More than any community I know, our MRC and our campus is filled with people who are caring, selfless, and united in a common mission to respond to the physical and mental health impacts of public health emergencies on campus and in our greater community. We have so much to be proud of over the past 20 years, and I look forward to all we can do in the next 20+ years.

In honor of our 20^th anniversary, we hope you can join us to celebrate! 

Register here

Courtney Wetternach, MPH
Manager, U of M MRC