Loren & Ann Hamel

Loren Hamel, MD, MHSA, graduated from Andrews University with a BS in biology with honors in 1976. He is currently the president & CEO of Lakeland Health based in St. Joseph, Michigan.

What are you involved with that allows you to change the world around you?

During my time at Lakeland Health, I have integrated three other organizations into Lakeland: a large multi-specialty Christian medical group, a hospice organization and a hospital. I am currently working to integrate Lakeland Health into Spectrum Health, an organization with over 20,000 employees.

I have also led eight major construction projects including a current $160 million medical and surgical pavilion. It is rewarding to build facilities that will attract the next generation of talented physicians and other healthcare professionals and will provide a healing environment for the next generation of patients.

In addition, I serve on the executive committee and I have chaired the Michigan Hospital Association. I am also the chair of Affirmant Health Partners, a large clinical integration Network (super CIN) of six health systems in Michigan. I co-chair a Strategic Leadership council of 150 business, education, not-for-profit and government officials with a mission for improving the lives of those living in Southwest Michigan. Lastly, I serve on the Andrews University Board of Trustees, along with the finance, investment and governance committees.

How did you get into this work/activity/project/etc.?

I spent 23 years practicing family medicine at the University Medical Center on the campus of Andrews University with 10 years also as a vice president of Medical Affairs at Lakeland Health in Southwestern Michigan. For the last eight years, I have been leading Lakeland Health, a not-for-profit health system with about 4,000 employees, 1,000 volunteers and 600 physicians and other licensed providers.

How have you been changed by this?

Ultimately, my most solemn responsibility as the CEO in healthcare is the responsibility to save lives. It is the focus of our strategies, goals, budget, staffing and training. It is considered 24/7/365 in our daily safety. The most inspiring initiative I have been a part of is the “Bring Your Heart to Work” initiative. It is a multi-year strategy to show love and respect to each of our patients, their families and our team members. It was indirectly inspired by some research between Florida Hospital and Disney reported by Jay Sanchez, and directly inspired by the words of Christ, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Over the years we have accumulated more than 7,000 stories of Lakeland team members touching the hearts of others. Some of my favorite stories involve team members extending grace to those who are initially combative, disruptive, unappreciative or have otherwise done nothing to “deserve” love and respect. It is also inspiring to lead an organization where I was born and to have my twin brother Lowell, also a physician, on my leadership team.

Ann Hamel graduated in 1979 with a BS in elementary education from Southern Adventist University. She received an MA in community counseling from Andrews University in 1994, which she quickly followed with a PhD in counseling psychology in 1997. She went on to receive a DMin in formational counseling from the Ashland Theological Seminary in 2007.

She currently practices psychology and provides mental health care for missionaries. She is a psychologist with the General Conference International Service Employee Support Team for 80 percent of her time and a psychologist with University Medical Specialties in Berrien Springs for the other 20 percent of her time.

What are you involved with that allows you to change the world around you?

I work with missionaries serving around the world to provide support and mental healthcare, particularly in times of crisis. I also meet with missionaries while they are being trained for cross-cultural mission service in preparation for their work and I travel to where they are serving when there is a need. In addition, I work with individuals within our community who need support and mental healthcare.

I have been involved with this work since 1994 with University Medical Specialities and Adventist Frontier Missions and since 2011 with the General Conference and the Medical Center. If I were to describe it in one sentence, I would say that I support missionaries and cross-cultural missions. One verse that comes to mind about what I do is Acts 1:7, “And you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

How did you get into this work/activity/project/etc.?

During my senior year in college, my husband and I received a call to go to Africa as missionaries. Immediately after graduation, we left the United States to go to Bujumbura, the capital of the small Central African country of Burundi. While still very young God had birthed a desire within me to serve Him in a way that I knew would require sacrifice. Serving Him in Africa was the fulfillment of the dream that He had placed in my heart years before.

After spending three years in Burundi my husband and I were asked to move to Rwanda where the church was building a university to serve students from the French-speaking countries of Africa and the Indian Ocean. I had learned to love Africa and its people. We were blessed by the birth of three sons during our time there. Life in Africa was so much a part of who I was that I often felt like God had created and designed me to be a missionary. Eight years later, my time in Africa ended abruptly with a car accident in which my husband was killed instantly and my youngest son and I were seriously injured. I was evacuated, while still unconscious, from a hospital in Africa to a hospital in Belgium and eventually to a hospital in South Carolina. I didn’t leave Africa by choice and although I was American, America was no longer home.

My interest in the field of psychology, particularly in the treatment of trauma and its impact both emotionally and spiritually, stems from my own tragedy. Returning to my homeland was many times more difficult than going to Africa. I left the States when I was 21. My entire adult life had been as a missionary to Africa and my heart was still there. I felt abandoned by God but at the same time, I clung desperately to Him. I found myself in both an emotional and spiritual crisis. I began classes in psychology initially to help me deal with my own grief. Lee Kirkpatrick says there are “situations in which people feel as if they have indeed been abandoned by God, and the consequences are invariably traumatic, particularly if this is perceived to occur at a time that God is most needed” (Kirkpatrick 2005, 71). The circumstances of my life screamed that God had abandoned me. Returning to the United States was not returning home for me, but Africa didn’t need a widow with three young children.

A year after our accident I went back to Africa to see my husband’s grave and to say goodbye to our lives there. Only then was there room in my heart for God to plant a new vision of His plan for my life. As a result of the care of and ministry of a Christian psychologist, I began to see the places of pain and suffering in the hearts of people here in my homeland as a mission field. I began the PhD program in counseling psychology at Andrews University in preparation for the next phase of my life.

How have you been changed by this?

After returning to the U.S. after my husband was killed, I longed to return to Rwanda. Rwanda had become my home and being a missionary wife and mother had become my identity. I had a deep passion to be a part of taking the gospel to the “uttermost parts of the earth.” In my heart and mind that was Rwanda, not Berrien Springs. But God brought an amazing man into my life who showed me that one does not have to go far from home to be a missionary. Loren was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, grew up in Berrien Springs and lived in Berrien Springs his whole life except during the time he was in medical school and residency. Yet he believed that caring for the healthcare needs of the people of this community was his mission. I was often touched as he addressed the spiritual needs and questions of my young sons. It was clear that his work was just as much “mission” as our work had been in Rwanda. Five years after our return to the States, Loren and I married and blended our seven children into a family of nine. Today, Loren is the president and CEO of the hospital he was born in. It’s still his mission. His goal is to create an environment where patients receive the best possible care and also feel loved and cared for by those providing that care.

How have you changed others?

Over the past 24 years, I have had the privilege of using the tools of my profession to help many people deal more effectively with the challenges in their lives. I have had the privilege of helping hundreds of missionaries deal with the unique challenges of cross-cultural ministry. I have had the sacred privilege of entering the pain-filled chambers of their lives where loss is real and suffering is intense. For me, my work is a ministry. Jesus is particularly near those who suffer. It is our privilege to invite Him into our pain and to seek His healing presence.