Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the health care workers on the front line are the heroes who are working long hours to save lives. Many Villanova Field Hockey alumni pursued careers in the medical field, becoming nurses, physician assistants and doctors. We want to thank all of those working in health care, including the 15 Alumni that are highlighted below.
Cliggett graduated from Villanova with a nursing degree in 2019. She currently works in the emergency room at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City as a registered nurse. She is working on the front line of the pandemic, helping to take care of patients who have COVID-19.
Jenny Nelson - Class of 2008
Nelson is the Nurse Manager of the Inpatient Cardiology Unit at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Villanova in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She is a Registered Nurse, has her Masters of Science in Nursing and is a Critical Care Registered Nurse.
Sarah Schmidt - Class of 2007
Schmidt has been as a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Nurse for 12 years. She graduated with her Masters in Education last summer. She is now the Certified Education Specialist in the emergency department at the Children's Hospital of Colorado.
Erin Scott - Class of 2007
Scott is currently in her third year of medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine where she is training to become a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.
Leah High - Class of 2015
High graduated from Villanova in 2015 with a degree in biology. She is currently a Physician Assistant in the Emergency Room at Einstein Healthcare Network where she has been for three years. She graduated in 2017 from Arcadia University where she earned her Master of Physician Assistant Studies.
Abby Freitag Neff - Class of 2015
Freitag Neff started working at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pediatric Oncology before transitioning over this past summer to Penn Medicine Radiation Oncology at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. There she works on the thoracic team, primarily treating lung cancer patients with radiation.
Meredith Tarbell (Sabatini) - Class of 2011 & Lauren Wilson - Class of 2015
Tarbell (left) is an Emergency Practitioner at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She graduated from Villanova's College of Nursing with her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing.
Wilson (right) has been a Registered Nurse at CHOP for the last five years. Currently, she is pursuing her master's degree to become a Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sally Poliwoda - Class of 1987
Poliwoda is a registered nurse at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She is seen here on her 14th Operation Smile surgical mission trip in 2019 to Chiapas, Mexico.
Marianne Connelly - Class of 1994
Connelly is a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurse Practitioner at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. She has been working with children suffering from cancer and blood disorders for the past 22 years. She also received her Masters in Nursing from New York University in 1998.
Meghan Fleming (Ryan) - Class of 2011
Fleming is a Labor and Delivery Nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she also plans to deliver in the next few weeks. She is also pursuing her masters degree to become a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner.
Catie Ebner - Class of 2019
Ebner graduated from Villanova's College of Nursing in 2019 and is now a Registered Nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She normally works on a cardio thoracic surgery floor, but because of the pandemic, she has volunteered to float to floors designated to COVID-19 positive patients.
Gina DeMaestri Gall - Class of 2006
DeMaestri Gall has worked at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital in the Pediatric Cardiac ICU for the past 13 years. Pictured is a medical mission trip she took to Cambodia last year with an Italian organization called Mission Bambini to do pediatric open heart surgeries.
Ann Romanowski - Class of 2006
Romanowski graduated from Villanova with a degree in biology in 2016 before graduating from Nova's Accelerated Nursing Program in 2018. She served as a Volunteer Assistant Coach for Villanova Field Hockey for the 2016-2017 season. In 2019 she started at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania working as a Registered Nurse on their oncology floor. She primarily works with liquid oncology patients. Romanowski's younger sister, Kate, is currently a junior defender for the Wildcats.
Dr. Jennifer Banzhof - Class of 2002
Banzhof is a Orthopedic Surgeon at St. Luke's University Health Network in Allentown. She specializes in adult reconstruction and mostly does total hip and knee replacements. With the coronavirus virus outbreak there are no elective cases going on to conserve personal protective equipment, but she is still helping with trauma cases. She graduated from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (CHOP) in 2008, finished residency at PCOM in 2013 and completed her fellowship at New England Baptist Hospital in 2014. She has been at St. Luke's since then.
Lauren Boyle (Campanelli) - Class of 2007
Boyle graduated from Villanova with a degree in biology in 2007 and then received her Master's of Medical Science from Arcadia University in 2009. She is currently a Physician Assistant in the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she has been for the last nine years.
