This week’s interview is with long-time Menomonie resident Heidi Stratton Dowd. She was recommended to me in an email by her proud sister Kari Stratton Janes.
Looking back on her MHS experiences, Heidi wrote “I loved Mrs. (Sue) Halama and her no-nonsense attitude. She kept it fun but held us accountable. She also challenged us to think for ourselves and not just go with the crowd.”
Her memories of high school were varied—spending many mornings before school in chemistry class (teacher Harold Vlcek) redoing experiments that had gone wrong. Since Heidi went into the nursing field, I can imagine why this was such a strong memory for her.
She also vividly recalls Homecoming during her freshman year. The class had spent all week building their float and then piled so many people on it that nobody could actually see what the float looked like!
Having spent all four years of high school as a pitcher on the softball team, Heidi remembers “countless evenings” in the dugout and bus with the softball team. She noted that “we were a competitive team in a very talented Big Rivers Conference, so there were a lot of close games and hard work!” Heidi also participated in basketball and volleyball during her freshman and sophomore years.
Besides athletics, she was in FCCLA (Future Career and Consumer Leaders of America) where she served as co- president during her senior year. “We had a great group that year. Many of them, myself included, participated at the state competition for skills.”
After MHS, Heidi attended UW-Eau Claire and graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She worked at Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire and went on to earn her master’s degree in nursing in 2011. In the last fifteen years, Heidi has held a few different nursing positions. Most recently, she opened her own functional medicine and direct primary care clinic—Wildflower Wellness Center—in Menomonie. In addition, she works at UW-Stout Health.
Heidi married her high school sweetheart, Nolan Dowd. They live in Menomonie along with their three children. Their daughter attends Menomonie Middle School and their sons are a freshman and a sophomore at MHS.
In her free time, she stays busy gardening, camping, playing with her dogs—a beagle and a chocolate lab—and “watching my three kids at the hockey rink.”
When asked, Heidi responded enthusiastically to my final question: What do you feel are some of the qualities that made growing up in Menomonie special to you?
“I loved growing up in Menomonie! Being in a small town with a university gave it a great mix of small-town feel with opportunities not typical of a small town. I never felt like just a number, instead it felt like we knew people everywhere we went. (I still feel that way today). Teachers took the time to give us extra help. They would go above and beyond to help students succeed.”
Menomonie—a great place to raise families, as Heidi shows by settling here. And we’re glad she feels so closely tied to her hometown.
Judy Foust is a retired longtime 7th Grade Reading Specialist at Menomonie Middle School. To submit info to her or to request an interview she may be contacted at [email protected]
