Lorraine (Grunewaldt) Fernandes credits her medical records administration degree and Viterbo’s broad curriculum for preparing her for a variety of roles in her career, including consulting, management, sales, and executive leadership.

“I surveyed the Midwest landscape and chose Viterbo as they had a new, unique program that was designed for transfer students that provided working experience in the field,” she said of Viterbo’s medical records program.

Fernandes trained for two years at St. Francis Hospital where she gained a solid foundation in clinical knowledge. These skills were instrumental in developing her technical and analytical experience in the health care field. She landed her first job post-graduation in West Virginia and was specifically hired because Viterbo graduates had a good reputation at the hospital.

Fernandes has been a proven leader in data governance and health care information for over 30 years. Her specialties are information governance, health information management, privacy, data sharing and exchange, person and provider identification, analytics, big data, sales, and customer relationships.

“I have particularly enjoyed the personal and professional relations I’ve established during my career,” she said. “Working with clients to understand their challenges, explore and measure potential solutions, and then see results is heartwarming. It’s energizing to hear how people have advanced their careers while helping their communities and families. I use my Viterbo acquired written and communication skills every day.”

Fernandes is the ­principal at Fernandes Healthcare Insights and is serving a three-year term as ­president of the International ­Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA), which is the highlight of her career. They are building critical infrastructure and communications tools to advance quality health data and digital health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges and opportunities during her IFHIMA presidency as they undertook a global survey in early April to assess the impact the pandemic is having on international health information. According to Fernandes, “This survey has seeded many new activities to serve our members, better prepare the profession for future health crises, and has affirmed the importance of health data in measuring and improving health.”

While a student at Viterbo, Fernandes lived in McDonald apartments and made friends from all majors.

“I didn’t know a soul when I moved to La Crosse,” she said. “My music major roommates really expanded my horizons, and I was the only non-music major who was ‘allowed’ to take piano lessons from Sr. Annarose Glum. I still smile when I recall all the conversation we had about life and music. Sr. Celestine Cepress and Alec Chiu fed my love of Greek mythology and philosophy.”

Fernandes’s lifelong love of global travel was sparked when Thea Bowman, FSPA ’65 organized a group trip to the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, and a Viterbo winter trip to what was then Czechoslovakia and Greece in 1979.

Today, Fernandes has scaled back her work to part-time. Her husband, Michael, recently retired from his work as a contractor. After the pandemic they wish to travel more. They have two adult children, Cole and Janelle. Fernandes and her husband recently moved to Bigfork, Mont., which is 45 minutes from the west entrance of Glacier National Park. They never tire of visiting new areas of the park for kayaking and hiking. In her spare time, she loves to garden.