SUNA Spotlight: Matt Mackinder

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This month’s featured Great Lakes SUNA member is Matt Mackinder. Falling into the associates category, Matt has been a member of SUNA since last November when he started in his current position as a research science writer at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., after working for three years in the inpatient pharmacy as a pharmacy technician.

Matt also maintains and updates our Great Lakes SUNA Web site among other things that keep his whirlwind life constantly going.

Last October 16, Matt took the plunge and married the former Stephanie McKinney, a hospice/oncology nurse on a medical-surgical floor at Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, Mich.  This September, the couple is expecting their first child!  The baby’s room is getting assembled and names have been picked out. Should they have a girl, Madelyn Grace will be the newest Mackinder and if a boy pops out, he will be called Ethan Matthew.

Matt joined SUNA at the friendly urging of Shelly Lajiness, NP, a gung-ho member of SUNA and co-worker of Matt’s at Beaumont. Along with Beth Ernst and Susanne Quallich, the foursome put together the GLSUNA site to positive reviews.

“Much of my experience writing has been in the hockey field,” explains Matt, a 2001 Wayne State graduate. “When I caught on with the Department of Urology at Beaumont, it was a new experience, but one that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Then, to get involved with SUNA has been another treasure uncovered that I am grateful for.”

A native of Ferndale and now living in Pontiac near Sylvan Lake, Matt, 26, still covers a multitude of hockey teams and leagues for a handful of Web sites and publications, but has produced the Beaumont Urology News and ‘U-R-INE’ The News – two newsletters that focus on the happenings at Beaumont.

Contact Matt at mmackinder@beaumont.edu for Web site info or to suggest anything for the site. He is open to criticisms, positive and negative, and will respond promptly.