Wendy Angst
Wendy Angst, who took a personal medical records business from startup to sale across more than a decade, has included ESTEEM students in her Commercialization Analytics course in the Mendoza College of Business since she started teaching at Notre Dame in 2011. This summer, she’s teaching Design Thinking in the ESTEEM program.
Her family moved to South Bend in 2007, and Carolyn Woo, then Dean of the Mendoza College of Business later introduced Angst to ESTEEM, which appealed to her interest in cross-disciplinary learning. When she started teaching, she created classroom teams that included both ESTEEM students and MBA students.Angst participated in creating a startup with angel funding in Wilmington, Del., aimed at providing access to medical information for patients, in 1999 during the early days of sharing electronic health information. The company, CapMed, helped develop national standards for such sharing and built national interfaces as well as connections to hospitals and health plans. She became CEO of CapMed, led the company through acquisition by a small, publicly traded firm, and led the division for that firm until it sold to a much larger firm.
Students in Design Thinking, a methodology aimed at finding creative practical solutions to problems, will practice what they learn by working in a real agency environment.
“Students will develop their design thinking skills by engaging in a community project in collaboration with La Casa de Amistad, a community center on the west side of South Bend that offers programs for Hispanic youth and adults,” Angst says. “Teams of students will immerse themselves in the west side where they will learn about the community, the families and business that compose the community, and better understand current and potential home ownership challenges and opportunities.”