St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic introduces directors and new medical van
By Dan McWilliams
A Mass and volunteer luncheon on Oct. 29 at All Saints Church in Knoxville allowed the community to meet the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic’s new leaders and see the ministry’s new mobile clinic van.
Bishop Mark Beckman celebrated Mass, cut the ribbon on the new van, and blessed the vehicle following the luncheon.
Bishop Mark Beckman blesses the new St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic van with holy water outside of All Saints Church on Oct. 29. The new van replaces the original mobile clinic that went into service in 2013. (Photo Dan McWilliams)
“The healing power of Christ touches us all—the body, mind, soul, and spirit. The beautiful dimension of what you’re doing here, I believe, also touches the whole person,” the bishop told those gathered for the ribbon-cutting. “Those who come to you who are in need of healing are healed in multiple ways. Let’s just simply thank the Lord for that.”
This summer, the Legacy Clinic welcomed a new medical director in Sister Gianna Marie Savidge of the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich.; a new executive director in Jessica Wenzlaff; and a new pediatric nurse practitioner and patient navigator in Sister Claudia Marie Murray, RSM.
Sister Gianna Marie is a board-certified physician in family medicine. She succeeds Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, as medical director. Mercy Sister Mariana Koonce was the clinic’s original medical director when its first van was dedicated in September 2013 and when the first patients were seen there in January 2014.
Sister Gianna Marie last served in Oklahoma, where she saw patients in need through a primary-care clinic in Muskogee and the Marian Medical Clinic, whose mission includes helping women achieve their health and fertility goals.
She began serving in East Tennessee in early August.
“It’s a joy to take over the work of the previous Sisters, Sister Marianna and Sister Mary Lisa, who have been assigned in this role beforehand,” Sister Gianna Marie said. “As Sisters, we are assigned to different works in obedience as part of our vow of service. It’s a great joy and a great gift to be assigned to this particular work, which involves collaboration with the diocese and with so many volunteers and our wonderful staff as well. It’s so far been a big learning curve but also a source of energy and a source of renewal as a physician to see another aspect of medicine on wheels.”
The mobile medical clinic van now sees patients at 10 sites around the Diocese of Knoxville.
“The mission has expanded over the last couple of years with an increase in the number of sites. I think our goal is simply to go deeper in the mission, to bring awareness of the heritage that we’ve received and also to impart to patients and volunteers and staff a spiritual depth to this mission,” Sister Gianna Marie said.
At the luncheon, Sister Gianna Marie told the audience of volunteers about the history of the Sisters of Mercy, from Sister Catherine McAuley, who founded the community in 1831, through the founding of St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville in 1930, and on to the present day.
“Mother Catherine’s charism of mercy and of union and charity is what we as Sisters of Mercy all participate in as members of our institute,” Sister Gianna Marie said. “Each of the volunteers and staff who work in this mission collaborates in that work. Mother Catherine had a very similar approach of inviting people into her work and the work of the Sisters, to be able to be of service to those who are sick and those who are in need of instruction in being able to care especially for children and for women in distress.”
Sister Gianna Marie professed final vows in 2024 and has been a Sister for nine years.
Mrs. Wenzlaff follows Martin Vargas, who retired last spring, as executive director.
“I am very honored to have this position. The work that the clinic does is incredible and kind of speaks for itself, and so being welcomed into this community and being a part of this mission is really an honor,” she said.
Mrs. Wenzlaff comes to the diocese from Winona, Minn., where she owned a private-practice outpatient physical-therapy clinic. She expressed her goals for the Legacy Clinic.
“I think right now we are just kind of getting to our roots and being super mission-focused and making sure the mission and the charism of mercy through which this mission flows is just embodied through all that we do,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of growth in terms of expansion of clinic sites over the past couple of years, and I think right now for this next year and maybe the next couple of years what we’re looking to do is just grow deeper, and that looks like growing our partnerships and referral sources so that we can give better care to patients whether that’s through dentistry partnerships or X-ray partnerships and imaging services.”
The clinic doesn’t currently provide those last three services but hopes to “make connections with referral partners and people who would be able to provide these services at low to no cost to our patients,” Mrs. Wenzlaff said.
The new executive director said “first and foremost, we are really grateful to St. Mary’s Legacy Foundation, which provided the funds for both the original clinic and this new vehicle.”
St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic staff include, from left, LaShay Connor, Sam Souza, Sarah Grimes, Bri Vinyard, Sister Claudia Marie Murray, RSM, Sister Gianna Marie Savidge, RSM, Jessica Wenzlaff, Jackie Benton, Maria Arredondo-Hermon, and Maria Richardson. The staff organizes the van’s monthly visits to 10 East Tennessee sites. (Photo Dan McWilliams)
The new clinic van is 45 feet long, 5 feet longer than its predecessor.
“The old clinic served us really well for 12 years, but it just started, as vehicles get older, having maintenance issues and things like that,” Mrs. Wenzlaff said. “This new replacement clinic is much nicer and upgraded and will have fewer maintenance issues and safety concerns. We log a lot of miles throughout each month. Just being able to have a trustworthy and dependable way of getting the clinic to each clinic site is important.”
Mrs. Wenzlaff lives in Knoxville with her husband, Sam. The couple is expecting baby No. 3 this month, who will join their 3 1/2-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter.
Sister Claudia Marie succeeds Sister Marie de Paul Stokes, RSM, as patient navigator. Sister Marie de Paul became interim executive secretary to Bishop Beckman last summer. The clinic has had pediatric volunteers in the past, but Sister Claudia Marie is its first pediatric nurse practitioner on staff.
As patient navigator, “I help connect our patients to resources beyond what we can meet at the clinic medically, if they need food or housing or they need assistance with utility bills,” Sister Claudia Marie said. “I’m also there just to be a spiritual companion with them. Sometimes they just need someone to talk to about the problems that are going on with their family, or they need someone to pray with them or pray for them. A lot of times that’s my role as patient navigator, to walk with them and to meet the need wherever it is.”
More young people are coming with their families to the Legacy Clinic.
“As a pediatric nurse practitioner, I’m able to see patients for primary care who are under the age of 21. We’re seeing more children come into the clinic needing medical care,” Sister Claudia Marie said. “As more and more children in the area are uninsured because of financial reasons for the family or their immigration status and different things like that, we’re starting to see an influx of pediatric patients. I think also having a dedicated pediatric provider makes them more comfortable that there’s someone there who can see the child and know what’s best for them and how to take care of them.”
Sister Claudia Marie graduated from Vanderbilt University’s nurse practitioner program in 2016.
“I was in private practice, pediatric primary care, for about seven years before I took a break from work because I entered religious life,” she said.
Sister Claudia Marie is a second-year novice.
“God willing, I will profess first vows in August of 2026,” she said.
In his final remarks at Mass, Bishop Beckman said he wanted to “thank Sister Gianna Marie for the great work of being our medical director now, her first year in this new ministry. It’s a gift to have you here. Also Jessica, who is our new executive director this year as well—two new key leaders in our community. I’m deeply grateful for what you all are doing for the clinic as well as the many employees and the great volunteers.”
In a little more than a year since his ordination as shepherd of the Church in East Tennessee, Bishop Beckman said that as he “travels around the diocese, everywhere I’ve gone I hear about the good work of the mobile medical clinic, so know that you are making a real impact in the lives of the community. People witness the experience of your presence, of your care, and of your response, and in our world today this is a much-needed ministry here in East Tennessee. I’m very, very grateful for what you all are doing right here for our own folks in East Tennessee. Know that: my gratitude for you.”
The St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic has expanded over the years to where it sees patients at 10 sites, including its headquarters at Divine Mercy Church in Knoxville. The clinic also makes monthly visits to St. Mary Church in Athens, the Crab Orchard Care Center in Cumberland County, St. Alphonsus Church in Crossville, Decatur United Methodist Church in Meigs County, St. Mary Church in Gatlinburg, Holy Cross Church in Pigeon Forge, St. John Paul II Catholic Mission in Rutledge, Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s Pregnancy Help Center in Helenwood, and Northside Community Center in Washburn.
St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville operated from 1930 until its owner, Tennova Healthcare, closed it on Dec. 28, 2018. Funds received by the Diocese of Knoxville when St. Mary’s was sold to Tennova by Mercy Health Partners in 2011 helped fund the St. Mary’s Legacy Foundation, which has contributed several million dollars to benefit health care, education, and charity through grants distributed by the diocese.
The foundation provided funds for the purchase of the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic to extend the healing ministry of Jesus to East Tennessee.