Innovators in Medicine
Join YoungND for “Innovators in Medicine,” a conversation with 2025 Domer Dozen Honorees about reimagining healthcare through innovation, empathy, and global collaboration.
Experience the Event
Join YoungND for a virtual Notre Dame Leaders speaker series event, “Innovators in Medicine” for a conversation with 2025 Domer Dozen Honorees about reimagining healthcare through innovation, empathy, and global collaboration.
☘️ Abbey Santanello, D.O., ’15, ’16 M.S., blending medicine, wellness, and innovation to help children and families lead active, healthy lives
☘️ Christy Lucas, M.D., ’16, improving the lives of children and families suffering from pediatric cancer
☘️ John Michael Templeton ’22 Ph.D., innovating to create technologies that improve patient outcomes
Meet the Speaker: Christy Lucas, M.D., ’16
Leading a compassionate career in pediatric oncology and palliative care, Christy Lucas, M.D., ’16, is advancing a future where every child and family facing cancer experience dignity, support, and hope. Now in her third year as a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Dr. Lucas is applying for palliative care fellowships with the goal of serving as a pediatric palliative oncologist, joining dedicated clinicians who listen to the silence, find the glimmers, and help flowers bloom, even in valleys.
As a medical student at Penn State Medical College, Dr. Lucas received the Sylvia & Gilbert Nurick Medical Achievement Award—the “most prestigious medical student award” for “outstanding academic excellence”—as well as the Andrew Creasy and Savino Family Award, presented to a graduating medical student who shows potential for curing and treating childhood cancer and other life-threatening pediatric illnesses. During her residency, she founded “Stitches with Hope,” a program providing pediatric patients with comfortable clothing, which became a permanent fund at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Blending clinical care with considerations in patient voice, parental bereavement, and palliative communication, Dr. Lucas has published across patient experience and narrative medicine. At Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s, she currently researches patient voice in adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease, while completing her capstone project “Ever After,” a storytelling approach to honor parents’ experiences after a child’s passing. Dr. Lucas also envisions the use of expressive arts to improve patient, provider, and caregiver experiences, including before, during, and after end-of-life.
Dr. Lucas received her bachelor’s of science in preprofessional studies and psychology from the University of Notre Dame in 2016 and graduated from Penn State College of Medicine in 2020. She completed her pediatric residency at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lucas is currently completing her masters of media, medicine, and health from Harvard Medical School. A proud native Pittsburgher, Dr. Lucas holds onto the adage, “Still waters run deep,” and firmly supports South Dining Hall’s superiority.
Meet the Speaker: Abbey Santanello, D.O., ’15, ’16 M.S.
A proud University of Notre Dame alumna, Abbey Santanello, D.O., ’15, ’16 M.S., is dedicated to helping children and families lead active, healthy lives. As a pediatrician and current Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellow at NYU, Santanello’s career blends medicine, wellness, and innovation. During her residency, Dr. Santanello served on a global health rotation in Kenya — caring for children with limited resources and collaborating with local clinicians to strengthen pediatric care systems. She has since made it her mission to stay engaged through fundraising, teaching, and raising awareness of challenges in these healthcare systems.
Integrating her career with her love of innovation, Dr. Santanello partnered with Complete Sports in Kenya, a faith-based organization that uses running to help underserved youth access scholarships and job opportunities. Additionally, she is co-founder and director of operations at Vampiro Inc., a medical device company, where she secured grants and coordinated a national product launch in 2023 of their first minimally invasive surgical instrument. She also serves as a junior board member at GallopNYC, a therapeutic riding organization for children with autism.
Dr. Santanello earned her undergraduate degree in economics and pre-professional studies and her master’s of science through Notre Dame’s Engineering, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Excellence Master’s Program. She received her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2022 and completed her residency at Staten Island University Hospital, earning SIUH Pediatric Residency Intern of the Year in May 2023. In her free time, she enjoys running, traveling and spending time with her St. Bernard, Eloise, who is a certified therapy dog.
Meet the Speaker: John Michael Templeton ’22 Ph.D.
Integrating computer science, engineering, and biomedical research, John Michael Templeton ’22 Ph.D. advances healthcare innovation as an assistant professor in the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Computing at the University of South Florida, with active affiliate appointments in the Department of Medical Engineering, Center for Neuromusculoskeletal Research, Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute, and the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital. Templeton’s interdisciplinary work blends his education in computer science and biomedical engineering with a focus on smart health systems and connected care.
Following the completion of his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, Templeton became the director of the SHIELD LAB (Smarter Health by Innovating, Enabling, and Linking Devices), which bridges computing and hardware development to create technologies that improve patient outcomes and advance proactive care models. His work actively brings together experts in engineering, medicine, and clinical practice to solve pressing medical challenges around cancer, cystic fibrosis, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, and cardiovascular disease.
As an award-winning educator, Templeton is recognized for his dedication to fostering innovation in the next generation of engineers and health professionals, with courses—particularly in smart and connected health—that integrate cutting-edge research with hands-on problem solving to prepare students to address complex health and technology challenges.
Templeton received both his bachelor of science in engineering (2015) and master of science (2016) in biomedical engineering from Arizona State University before completing his Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2022. He serves as a mentor for ESTEEM and as an advisor for McCloskey New Venture Competition teams at Notre Dame. Outside of academia, Templeton holds board membership with the Indiana Parkinson Foundation, as well as service to other organizations. He is an Eagle Scout who enjoys the outdoors, spending time with his family and loved ones, and his dog, Wrigley.