Fostering a Family Legacy
The Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHP) was founded in 2012 by Erik Brodt, an Ojibwe family medicine physician, to improve recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of Native American health professional students at UW–Madison. This center has provided instrumental support for Indigenous students from the Schools of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH), Nursing, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine, and the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work with the goal of improving the overall health and well-being of Native people and communities.
Imbued with a similar vision, Army veteran Ralph “Doc” Olsen ’51, MD’54 generously gave annual contributions to support NACHP. He was a passionate pediatrician, a lifelong Wisconsinite, and a proud Badger. The seeds of his Midwest roots were planted more than 170 years ago when his great-great-grandfather immigrated from Dormitz, Bavaria, in the 1850s. Born in 1929, Ralph came of age in Milwaukee and developed a profound love of outdoor pursuits — canoeing, camping, hunting, fishing, sailing, and scouting. During his journeys throughout Wisconsin, the western United States, and Canada, Ralph became cognizant of the unmet health care needs among tribal communities, which led to his deep respect for Native customs and traditions.
Ralph’s wife, Eugenie, was originally from the Bronx, New York, and they met while serving in the army. The couple worked hard, volunteered often, and raised their children to appreciate their values. “Our parents taught us to respect and preserve nature, explore the world, and learn about history, music, art, and different cultures,” says their daughter Jordana Lenon ’84, ’94. “My dad loved children. I worked for him in his pediatrics practice and saw this firsthand. To this day, we hear stories from his former patients — generations of them — about how kind and dedicated he was.”
The Olsen family is brimming with Badgers. Ralph and Eugenie’s four children and two of their grandchildren have earned degrees from the UW. Following the death of their parents in 2023, the siblings created the Ralph N. Olsen, MD, Native American Scholarship for Health Professions to foster and grow his legacy.
“He gave annually to the Native American Center for Health Professions,” says Lenon. “We wanted to continue to support this cause that meant so much to him, so we created this endowed scholarship in his honor. It will help students with expenses not covered by the Tribal Education Promise, such as tuition for qualifying out-of-state medical students or for housing in-state students.”
With support from donors like Ralph and the Olsen family, NACHP is helping to increase the representation of Indigenous people in the health care workforce, while building interconnected relationships between tribal communities. Success can be seen in the extraordinary graduation rates of all Native American and Alaska Native health professional students at SMPH, averaging just under 100 percent. And since the inception of NACHP, the number of Native applicants has increased by 240 percent.
Ralph’s children hope this scholarship will encourage recipients to never give up. When things got tough in medical school and in his personal life, Ralph walked to Bascom Hall to turn in his request to drop out. When he got back to his apartment, he called his mother to let her know his decision. No one knows exactly what was said, but at the end of that conversation, he marched straight back to Bascom, asked for his form back, and tore it up.
“UW–Madison not only gave many in my family an education and training in fields where we could enjoy meaningful careers and enrich our lives, but it also taught us to keep on learning, to respect others who may not share our beliefs and opinions, and, above all, to be grateful for the opportunities we have had,” says Lenon. “I’ve worked for the university for the last 28 years, and I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that UW professors and staff have on our students. It’s hard to fully describe, but it has all been so rewarding. To be able to give back in such a meaningful way makes it even more worthwhile.”