Career serving student health needs

Dr. Mary Buchwalder ’82 is retiring this summer as medical director, capping a 30-year career as a physician attending to students’ medical, wellness and social needs, and leading for the past 17 years the evolution of the UD Student Health Center.

“Mary’s length of service demonstrates her deep commitment to the University’s Marianist values,” said Bill Fischer, vice president for student development. “Her approach with students is holistic, which includes focusing on the overall development of each student she interacts with.” 

Buchwalder’s greatest challenge has come in the past year, when her role expanded beyond the student realm of the health center to help lead the coordination of the University’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborate with regional health leaders to support the larger community.

“Mary’s length of service demonstrates her deep commitment to the University’s Marianist values. Her approach with students is holistic, which includes focusing on the overall development of each student she interacts with.” 

“For more than 20 years, there have been pandemic planning documents, but the reality is so much more intense and prolonged,” she said of the shift.

Buchwalder, a Marianist Educational Associate, said her greatest pride is how the Student Health Center serves student needs. Located in Gosiger Hall, the center is staffed by a team of board-certified primary care physicians and registered nurses who provide professional, compassionate care to students. 

“It’s not just coughs and colds. We see students who have complicated, even rare histories sometimes,” she said. “And part of our role is to help bring them along in the developmental process of becoming an adult.” 

Buchwalder graduated from UD summa cum laude as a premed major, went on to graduate from the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1986, completed a three-year training in family medicine and started working at the UD Student Health Center in 1991. She is a board-certified family physician and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice. This year, she was a recipient of the Lackner Award, given by the UD Marianists to honor lay members of the UD faculty or staff for their contributions to the Catholic and Marianist character of campus. She shares the 2021 honor with Ryan Allen, director of e-learning, and Robin Oldfield, associate vice president of audit, risk and compliance and chief risk officer.

Buchwalder said the stresses of the pandemic aren’t the reason she’s retiring — she and her husband Mark Buchwalder ’82, who recently retired from his dental practice, have a couple of big bucket-list items. The Buchwalders, who have been married for 37 years, hope to spend more time in Hawaii; they have visited the islands several times. 

An avid cyclist, Buchwalder has coordinated campus events for National Bike to Work Month, which over the years has encouraged hundreds in the Flyer community to take to two wheels.

“Cycling is the perfect way to see the world and connect to people and nature. You can really see the gorgeous natural areas,” she said. “When you go to a small town, the residents see the bikes and the bags, and they just open up. You meet so many wonderful people who you wouldn’t if you just pulled into town and stopped at the gas station. 

“It’s refreshing to the soul to see the good and the joy in humanity — and it’s good exercise.”