People of The U: Kathy Doonan
Published on Monday, April 10, 2023
By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu
Photos By: Melanie Thortis/UMMC Photography
Kathy Doonan’s classroom is where her patients are. From bedside to clinic visits, hospital school educator Doonan has helped Children’s of Mississippi patients stay up to date with schoolwork while getting treatment for illnesses, injuries and chronic conditions.
A 30-year University of Mississippi Medical Center employee, Doonan plans to retire this May after a 36-year teaching career. For some Children’s of Mississippi patients, Doonan has been one of their teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade.
“It’s been a privilege to help our patients get the resources they need to succeed,” Doonan said.
Doonan, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, decided to move south to start her education career. “I never did like the cold,” she said.
After teaching a year in Virginia, Doonan moved to Jackson to teach at Poindexter Elementary. After five years as a Jackson Public School teacher, Doonan and her husband moved to Mobile, Alabama, briefly before returning to Jackson.
“At that point, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be a teacher,” she said. Spotting a UMMC job board posting for a program specialist with an education background, Doonan applied.
“It was a part-time job in Children’s Rehabilitation Center, which was off of Lakeland Drive at the time,” she said. “After two years, I was moved to what we called the Big House – the circle tower where the children’s hospital was.”
Opened in 1968, the circle tower’s children’s hospital floors included a classroom for a hospital school in the basement, but there was a lot of bedside teaching that happened as well. Not all children could physically leave the floors to come to class, so the classroom came to them.
“We had children with chronic health conditions who spent a good bit of time at the hospital,” she said. “The hospital school gave them some normalcy, and it still does.”
Once the Batson Tower opened in 1997, Doonan taught there, with technology allowing for bedside lessons as well as pulling the students into the teacher’s offices to teach. “There is only room for one-on-one teaching in the Batson Tower offices, but we feel it is important to get the kids out of their rooms if at all possible.”
After the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower opened in 2020, Doonan has worked in the concussion clinic assisting families and schools with the restrictions that come with a concussion protocol.
“Over the years, I’ve taught patients in three children’s hospital towers,” she said.
Teaching is just a fraction of what hospital school teachers do. Acting as liaisons between patients’ families and school districts, teachers at Children’s of Mississippi work to get patients the services they need so that these students can have the best chance possible for school success once they return home.
“We work to help patients and their families get the accommodations they need in order to have a successful school year.”
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