Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences is excited to announce this year’s recipients of its prestigious Alumni of the Year and Rising Star awards. Among these remarkable individuals are educators who have passed on their knowledge to thousands of DMU students. They are practitioners who have significantly advanced health care. Each recipient brings a unique set of skills and perspectives, using the power of their DMU experience to make the world a better place.
“These individuals are exceptional in their fields and embody the spirit of service and excellence that DMU stands for. They truly deserve this recognition,” says Andrew English, associate director of alumni relations. “DMU is dedicated to preparing tomorrow’s health leaders through outstanding education, significant research and exemplary patient care. Our alumni are making a difference globally by applying their expertise and compassion to improve health care for all.”
The DMU Alumni Board of Directors and university leadership selected this year’s honorees based on their outstanding contributions to their respective fields and dedication to service. To be considered for the awards, recipients must:
- Be in good standing as members of their respective professional state or national organization and the DMU Alumni Association.
- Demonstrate excellent service to DMU, its students and their profession.
- Exhibit a record of service to their community on a local, state and/or national level
2024 Award Honorees
Kelsey Millonig, D.P.M.’17, M.P.H.’17, FACFAS, DABPM
Kelsey Millonig, D.P.M.’17, M.P.H.’17, FACFAS, DABPM, a fellowship-trained foot and ankle surgeon with the East Village Foot and Ankle Surgeons in Des Moines, Iowa, has been awarded the Rising Star Award. She led the Global Health Student Club and participated in service trips to rural Honduras and Uganda as a student. Millonig also was president of DMU’s American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons chapter. She founded and served as president of Podiatric Medicine Advocacy, now part of the American Podiatric Medical Association. She was also the first-ever podiatric student selected as a research intern at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where she focused on age-friendly cities and communities. Today she is active in organizations including the Iowa Board of Podiatric Medicine, American College of Foot and Ankle Surgery, the American Podiatric Medical Association and the American Association for Women Podiatrists. She lectures nationally educating surgeons on her specialities in minimally invasive surgery and deformity correction. She also focuses on mentorship for women in medicine who have similar interests.
“I’m really just a small-town Iowa farm kid who sought out a lot of opportunities with the support of some really amazing people,” Millonig says. “It brings me so much joy to be able to come back home and share what I’ve learned with the people of Iowa.”
Thomas Benzoni, D.O.’83, AOBEM, FACEP, ABFM, and Noreen O’Shea, D.O.’84, FAAFP
Thomas Benzoni, D.O.’83, AOBEM, FACEP, ABFM, and Noreen O’Shea, D.O.’84, FAAFP, have taught and inspired thousands of aspiring health care professionals. Experts in emergency and family medicine, respectively, they both recently retired as DMU faculty members. The couple has been named the College of Osteopathic Medicine 2024 Alumni of the Year.
Benzoni, a board-certified emergency medicine physician practicing at UnityPoint Health in Central Iowa, and O’Shea, a board-certified family physician and the medical director for the Clive Community Services Free Clinic in Clive, Iowa, have a long history of helping establish medical services in areas that did not previously have them.
Their combined list of credentials is impressive. She was president of the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association Board of Trustees. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, a founding member of the Iowa Disaster Medical Assistance Team, a holder of multiple certifications with the Iowa Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue, and an active physician in the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline, among many other entities. He also served on the Iowa Medical Society Board of Directors and is currently secretary-treasurer of the Polk County, Iowa, Medical Society. Benzoni and O’Shea continue to amplify their impact on patients and their families by expanding access to care in communities and teaching and increasing educational opportunities for aspiring health professionals.
“Medicine is a passion,” O’Shea says. “If you want to choose something that will invigorate you for the rest of your life, that will let you make a living but also make a difference, choose medicine.”
Stephen DeVries, M.S.P.A.S.’12, PA-C
Stephen DeVries, M.S.P.A.S.’12, PA-C, is the College of Health Sciences 2024 Alumnus of the Year. He is a cardiothoracic surgery physician assistant and clinical organ recovery lead at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also an instructor of thoracic organ recovery for Vanderbilt's cardiothoracic surgery fellowship program. He began saving lives as a firefighter/paramedic before earning his physician assistant studies degree at DMU. He is the second PA in the United States to become nationally credentialed to independently procure donated hearts and lungs for transplantation. In December 2019, DeVries was part of a team at the University of Wisconsin that was the third in the United States to recover a heart after donation after cardiac death using normothermic machine reperfusion. In May 2024, he was part of a team with Vanderbilt that was the first in North America to recover a DCD heart directly to a novel cold organ perfusion device. His dedication and determination are helping drive innovation in the field to save more lives.
“It’s kind of surreal when I step back and think about the impact this work has on so many people, not just the patients but also their families and the donors’ families,” DeVries says. “Because of this technology, we’re recovering more organs and maximizing the gifts of the donors in ways we weren’t able to before.”
Joshua M. Vest, D.P.M.’08, FACFAS
Joshua M. Vest, D.P.M.’08, FACFAS, is a podiatric physician. Known for his dedication to educating others about podiatric medicine, Vest mentors medical students and residents and leads the podiatric surgery department at Bryan Medical Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is this year’s College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery 2024 Alumnus of the Year. As a DMU student, he served as the president of the Iowa Podiatric Medical Student Association. In 2011, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to join two other podiatric physicians at a practice that provides foot and ankle trauma care services at Bryan Health System. Vest also is president of Capital Foot and Ankle in Lincoln and a governor-appointed member of the Nebraska State Board of Health. He emphasizes the importance of keeping abreast of new treatment protocols and procedures.
“Some physicians choose a treatment option because that’s the way they’ve always done it,” Vest says. “I never felt it was the right to make decisions for your patients,” Vest says. "It’s always been important to me to base decisions on the most up-to-date evidence shows. We owe it to our patients to constantly immerse ourselves in the latest literature and data.”
