Community Health Champion

Lauren Lehmkuhl ’18,’24 blends hands-on care with system-wide improvements at St. Paul’s Riverland Health

By Joe Tougas ’86

St. Paul’s West Seventh Street neighborhood is a portrait of diverse ethnicities and incomes, and the Riverland Community Health clinic stands ready to serve them all. 

It’s an environment that provides Lauren Lehmkuhl, a nurse practitioner at the clinic, both a philosophically satisfying approach to her work and an opportunity to improve care for patients and providers. 

Riverland is the type of care facility that took shape with federal funding in the 1960s and was once called a “free clinic,” serving the basic medical needs of low-income residents. Today, such clinics are known as Federally Qualified Health Centers, or FQHCs, and they provide care for more than 32 million Americans. A family nurse practitioner at Riverland since 2023, Lehmkuhl is a full-time clinician who sees about 22 patients a day. 

“We have staff that represent all of our racial and cultural groups, so many of our patients can be greeted with their native language and that's a powerful tool, even just to bridge cultural barriers,” Lehmkuhl said.  

“Sometimes they just don’t know how to navigate the complicated health system, and we have a whole team committed to guiding them,” she said. 

She grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, home of the Mayo Clinic. But the proximity to a world-famous healthcare institution didn’t immediately instill her with aspirations of pursuing a career in the field, she said. 

“But as I explored my areas of interest, it always came back to things that nursing incorporated,” she said, listing social sciences, psychology, biology and ecology. "And nursing incorporates those aspects.”    

A registered nurse since 2012, Lehmkuhl earned her master’s degree in nursing in 2018 from Minnesota State University, Mankato; in 2024, she also completed the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at MSU. “I chose to pursue my nursing education at MSU because of its strong history and reputation in nursing education,” she said.  “The university's commitment to advancing family and societal health through education, research, and practice aligns perfectly with my goals.” 

She has led several initiatives, including a recent project to implement an AI-powered clinical documentation tool that reduces administrative burden and allows providers to be more present with patients.  

“I envision that at some point I’ll go part time as a clinician and take on an administrative role,” she said. “I wish I had all the time in the world to do both, but I want to use the skills I developed in my doctorate to lead these efforts.”  

Lehmkuhl believes she can help demonstrate to stakeholders and policymakers the economic value of a healthy community through value-based care models such as those delivered by Riverland Community Health.  

“We’ve shown since the 1960s that this model of care improves health outcomes and reduces costs,” she said. “It’s more important than ever that practicing clinicians like myself move into leadership roles where we can share our voice and the impact of this work. Investment in preventive, primary and chronic care has so many payoffs.”  

“Lauren is a great example of a graduate who is working to the full extent of her licensure and experience,” said Rhonda Cornell, nursing professor and director of the DNP program at MSU. “She sees clinic patients from underserved populations and is sensitive to the health disparities that exist.” 

Her doctorate, Lehmkuhl said, “has given me the skills and really opened doors to projects like this, where you might not traditionally imagine a nurse practitioner being involved.” 

Dave Thorson, a family medicine physician and Riverland Community Health CEO who has worked with Lehmkuhl for two years, said she has become a vital part of Riverland’s care and leadership efforts.  

“She has a passion for preventive and primary care, as well as a desire to improve how we do things clinically,” Thorson said. “She brings an energy for change that every clinic needs but rarely finds. Lauren has embraced our vision of relationship-based care, which sets us apart from transactional clinics. She embodies our mission of teaching and serving, and she leads by example.”