Recruit, retain, return

Ron and Joyce Tello discuss taking advantage of North Dakota’s Challenge Grant program to help build the state’s healthcare workforce

All it took was a nudge.

“Up to this point, Joyce and I have been concentrating our giving on the Bismarck area,” said Dr. Ron Tello from his home in Bismarck, N.D., of he and his wife’s shared philanthropic decision-making. “We both grew up here, and both of us went to Bismarck State College. We’ve really been concentrating our giving to the health sciences up at BSC and to local facilities.”

Then, said Ron, he and Joyce began attending UND hockey games . . . and participated in a tour of the state’s only M.D. education program.

“So we decided,” he smiled, “that we need to start giving to UND – to the medical school.”

Recruit and retain

In truth, the Tellos’ decision to support the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS) involved much more than hockey and a short building tour. In addition to the pair’s daughter helping them understand the giving opportunities at UND – that would be 2007 UND alum Christina Tello-Skjerseth, M.D. – Ron acknowledged that North Dakota’s physician shortage sealed the deal.

“We have a shortage in primary care,” added Ron, who graduated with UND’s first four-year M.D. class in 1976, “and even trying to get some of the specialties in medicine to come to Bismarck is difficult—”

“And then it’s difficult to keep them here,” interjected Joyce. “If their spouse was from the area where they did their residency, they want to go back to where they did their residency. Some recruits said to us, ‘No, we have to go back home to where our families are.’”

So the couple initiated a conversation with the UND Alumni Association & Foundation (UNDAAF) last year on assisting UND medical students in need of financial support, hoping that more local support might encourage grads to stick around North Dakota.

They settled on the scholarship option, said Ron, eventually establishing the Dr. Ron and Joyce Tello Scholarship Endowment. The hope, the pair said, is that students aided by the scholarship recognize the benefits of practicing in North Dakota.

From RuralMed to PCAT

As the School’s most recent Biennial Report notes, the physician workforce in North Dakota has fewer practicing physicians per 10,000 residents than both the U.S. as a whole and the Midwest average. Although efforts by the SMHS and other state entities have helped narrow this gap, current estimates still indicate a shortage of around 300 physicians in North Dakota.

Addressing this shortage has been a focus of the School for years, of course. Even so, the issue took on renewed significance in 2025 when UND began its North Dakota 85 (ND85) campaign.

In an effort to grow North Dakota’s healthcare workforce, the SMHS expanded its efforts to recruit and retain North Dakotans interested in healthcare careers by setting a goal of 85% North Dakota students in the School’s M.D. and physician assistant (P.A.) programs by 2030. The logic behind the plan is that more M.D. graduates with ties to North Dakota will translate into more physicians staying in North Dakota to practice medicine.

To that end, the School is building on its RuralMed program – which reimburses M.D. graduates their medical school tuition in exchange for five years of practice in a rural North Dakota clinic or hospital – with a new Primary Care Accelerated Track (PCAT) program. Through PCAT, which the School hopes to stand up by 2028, medical students graduate in three years in exchange for a spot in a North Dakota primary care residency such as family medicine or internal medicine. They will then also practice in North Dakota for at least five years after their residency is completed.

State match

Think of PCAT and RuralMed – which Joyce was “so glad” to hear was still in effect – as UND’s version of North Dakota’s challenge grant match, of which the Tellos took advantage. “We found out about the 50% state matching gift on our giving,” said Ron. “That’s a great incentive to give, not only for us but for others.”

Even more of an incentive, added Joyce, is seeing the growth of their hometown healthcare workforce. Of course, receiving thank you notes from student scholarship recipients helps too.

“It’s the most humbling experience when we read that thank you note,” explained Joyce. “That’s what helps us feel so fulfilled and gives us purpose – setting the foundation of education for these young people that maybe have come through with many hardships.”

Ron agreed, adding that he’s increasingly excited by the new proposals coming out of North Dakota’s only interprofessional school of medicine and health sciences.

“What I’m looking forward to is the expansion of residency programs,” Ron said of the School’s efforts to grow class sizes and medical residency programs across the state. “I’m hopeful that some of the residents, when they finish their training\ here in Bismarck, will stay here. Or even if they go away for a subspecialty, they’ll come back to the Bismarck-Mandan area.”

We should all be so hopeful.