The Thielen Student Health Center is searching for a new director, and students and faculty had the opportunity to hear from one of the two candidates Friday.

Shelley O’Connell, spoke at an open forum Friday morning in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union. Nine people were in attendance, none of whom were students.

O’Connell started at the University of Northern Iowa health clinic in 2001 and became director in 2008. Her duties expanded in 2014 to oversight of the campus’s counseling center and recreation services.

The open forum began with the role of the health center. O’Connell said the health center should provide quality care and also collaborate with other health and wellness units.

“Isn’t that why we’re here, to help students succeed?” O’Connell asked.

One unit is through mental health services. O’Connell said it was much easier at UNI to walk a student upstairs to their counseling appointment compared to Iowa State, where students are sent away as the provider hopes the student makes it to the counseling appointment.

The health center’s role also includes other medical services including physical therapy, orthopedics and keeping students on top of their immunizations.

O’Connell views student health as a campus-wide initiative. Employees should connect with students and know the resources on campus for the students.

O’Connell has multiple goals for the Thielen Student Health Center.

These goals include showing the years of experience employees have as well as making sure that Thielen maintains accreditation standards through the Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). After accreditation, O’Connell believes that accomplishment should be displayed in Thielen.

O’Connell said she would also like to add an educational aspect to student services.

O’Connell suggested that Career Services could include information on health insurance because it is an important part about choosing a job.

Questions during the open forum included how O’Connell was going to bridge the gap between the student populations at UNI compared to Iowa State.

O’Connell said her skills are what would bridge the gap.

“I don’t make decisions in a vacuum,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell views herself as a collaborative leader who consults others before a decision is made and maintains an open-door policy for employees.

O’Connell also addressed the differences she made while she was at UNI. She said she increased student use of the health center from below 50 percent to 63 percent during her time at the university.

She owes this increase to a renovation of the health center, meeting national standards and marketing the health center to change the stigma from “student death” back to student health. She plans on accomplishing this at Iowa State through the use of surveys and creating a graphic to show the results.

“The past is something we can learn from, but ultimately it is the past,” O’Connell said. “What’s important is the future.”

Erin Baldwin, the second candidate, who has served as chief operating officer for the Mahaska Health Partnership in Oskaloosa, Iowa, since 2012, will be available to meet with students and answer questions in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union at 4:10 p.m Thursday.

Baldwin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in respiratory care from the University of Kansas in 2003, and a master’s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Iowa in 2006.