Working with prosthetics as a biomedical engineer may not seem like a traditional mission field, but for Hollie (Gfroerer) Mincone ’20, it absolutely is. By combining her passions for STEM and missions, Hollie has found a way to care for people holistically, treating patients not just as technical cases, but as individuals with stories, struggles, and spiritual worth.
Her journey began as a student at an all-girls college prep high school, where she discovered her love for math and science. But it was after her first mission trip in high school that she felt a pull toward something deeper. Searching for a college where she could study both engineering and missions was difficult, but at Geneva, her admissions counselor helped her visualize a clear four-year academic plan that included both engineering and missions. Throughout her undergraduate years, Geneva became more than an academic institution; it was a community of faith that expanded her understanding of missions and reinforced her sense of calling.
After her freshman year, Hollie traveled to Haiti, where she encountered a prosthetics unit during her mission trip/internship. The experience was eye-opening, and she instantly knew this was what she wanted to do with her calling in the engineering field. At the start of her sophomore year, she changed her civil engineering major to biomedical engineering. Completing two majors — missions and biomedical engineering — in four years wasn’t easy, but Hollie credits her professors and Geneva’s culture of support. Both her advisors, Mark Tronzo, PhD, and Jonathan Watt, PhD, went above and beyond with independent studies and support to be sure all her requirements could be met in four years.
Her engineering degree gave her the skillset to develop prosthetics, but it is a highly specialized field that allows individuals to interact directly with patients to determine specific needs and create custom orthotic designs. It was this people-oriented engineering work that attracted Hollie, though. For this, she pursued her master’s degree at Eastern Michigan University, completing two years of clinical residency — one with Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor and a second with East Coast Orthotics and Prosthetics in Buffalo, New York.
Graduate school presented a different challenge: an environment focused more on performance and individual achievement. Despite the challenges, Hollie remembered the culture at Geneva and how it informed her experiences in her studies and the workplace. “The professors at Geneva fostered an environment where I could ask a lot of questions. I was never turned away ... that helped me in my master’s and now in my work because my first instinct when I have a challenge is to ask colleagues, to collaborate and seek guidance.”
Now as a certified orthotist and prosthetic resident, Hollie regularly meets with patients to create custom orthotics. This creative process involves molding, casting, or scanning a patient’s limb and creating a device based on said data collection. No prescription is straightforward, so Hollie makes design decisions based on her interaction with a patient. “We have to evaluate them and based on what we see, a lot of us start designing in our head.” If a device needs redone to make it more usable or comfortable, she is eager to go through multiple iterations — her designs are unique, specially crafted for each patient.
For Hollie, missions is no longer confined to a specific country or church-sponsored trip. Her office in Buffalo has become her mission field, and she knows the Lord has placed her there for a purpose, using her creativity and engineering skillset to benefit her patients.
By Hannah Schultz
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