Alumna uses harrowing medical journey to help others navigate life’s hurdles

Dr. Kari Turkowski isn’t letting anything stop her — not even flatlining.

The St. Cloud State University alumna and three-sport Huskies athlete has always been active. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in accounting she was on SCSU’s volleyball, women’s hockey, and track and field teams before graduating in 2005. She was recruited by CliftonLarsonAllen to join its accounting firm in Minneapolis, and worked there for several years.

Then, life took a turn.

Having been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — which causes the heart to have a harder time pumping blood to the rest of the body and can lead to symptoms of heart failure — Turkowski underwent a catheter ablation to treat her heart’s irregular arrhythmias or heartbeats. But during the minimally invasive procedure, Turkowski’s heart stopped and medical personnel had to take extreme measures to revive her. The experience didn’t just change her physical outlook, but her professional one as well.

“Things changed — the course of what I thought I wanted to do in my career, what I was passionate about; how I wanted to change the world in the sense of helping people,” she said. “That's where I found myself wanting to find answers for my condition and others living with similar to what I was going through.”

Turkowski came back to SCSU and started undergraduate and master’s courses in biomedical sciences while working as an assistant coach with the Huskies volleyball program. She set her sights on getting into Mayo Clinic’s doctoral program, as she had seen firsthand how Mayo Clinic approached patient care as a team.

“That's all I have ever known to be, what I thought would create success, is working with others and having a a solid team,” she said. “I set my sights on getting into the doctoral program because I chose that I wanted to do research and find ways to be preventative and proactive versus reactive.”

She focused her thesis on genetic heart disease, and ultimately on how health care is changing as far as the solutions different therapies provide patients. She started building risk prediction models for heart conditions. As she was finishing her doctorate with Mayo Clinic during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic while most job opportunities were under hiring freezes, she continued on as a researcher until more opportunities opened up. She is now director of services and solutions development for Mayo Clinic Platform, a “digital ecosystem of health care solutions” at Mayo Clinic.

“It aligned perfectly with my business background in accounting and understanding how to navigate the business world and developing digital solutions. My focus has been enabling Mayo Clinic as a practice and developing digital solutions with them,” she said. “To me, this is the way I feel I get to pay it forward. I may not be bedside with the patient, but I have opportunities to develop solutions that are so proactive and preventative. My hope is others won't be in the place I was because they have the ability to catch things early and care in a different way.”

While Turkowski pursued professional avenues to help others going through similar medical challenges, she refused to give up on her own personal athletic ambitions.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs; it’s been a rollercoaster with my health. A lot of different procedures, a lot of moments where it was really touch and go with what was going on,” she said. “I think any athlete, they base their quality of life off of that foundation, because it’s not only being healthy, it’s the mental health. It’s the best version of yourself. It's this intrinsic motivation, and if I didn't have that, I felt like it was hard for me to navigate life, because I didn't know what to do without having that.”

Turkowski said she was always pushing with her doctors that her quality of life directly correlated with being active. Maybe she couldn’t compete like she once did, but she wanted to get to a place where she could still be active enough to satisfy her athletic side and to live the way she wanted. She started working closely with trainers and medical personnel to push her body to see how far it could go. Turns out, it could go pretty far.

“I was on all these different therapies and various procedures to correct a lot of the rhythm that was causing me to pass out. But it led me to, ‘I want to compete again. I want to train for an Ironman. I want to pursue that.’ Granted, it's a very, very difficult triathlon. I had a lot of convincing to do with my cardiology team,” she said. “But through that choice I started to understand that when I needed to find ways to get through the unthinkable, I was trying to reach out to people who had this hope and they wanted to be uncommon and they didn't live by the, ‘Oh, you have 5% to live.’ I was finding those who would bring me this energy and this cup-filler. I knew how much that meant to me, so when I started to move forward on this journey, I was like, ‘Well, is paying it forward also being that person for others?”

She started working with her cinematographer brother to start documenting and sharing her story in the hopes of helping others in similar situations. It led Turkowski to start Iron Heart, through which she is a motivational speaker.

“You have to be very vulnerable and authentic to share these pieces, because there's a lot of crap that went on that is not something you feel proud about, that’s your lowest low — but it's real. I just opened the door to conversations which led to refining my public speaking. I didn't like public speaking when I was in college; I didn't like people staring at me and I didn't like being the center of attention,” she said. “But I felt I had a different purpose when I was on the stage and I was sharing my journey. And the response I was getting from people was it felt like coaching, and I grew up coaching all the time and I just loved it. I loved being a part of somebody's growth journey. So it wasn't this fear of standing on stage; it became something that was: if I can leave them with something today, that could help be a part of their change. I wanted to do that.”

Turkowski has had several speaking engagements over the years since starting Iron Heart, including a TED Talk in St. Cloud. While she hopes the messages have helped others, she said they’ve helped her as well.

“It definitely has been quite an experience and it's helped me grow in ways that, not only have I been able to bring different energy to others looking for it, but it's helped me grow in the world where I'm at Mayo Clinic and all the public speaking I do, all the engagements I do. But being also a face of, ‘You can get through the unthinkable.’ I love when I read a story of somebody who's just conquered it, you know? Granted, I'm still working through stuff, I’m just still going. But I think I've come to a place in my life that… you have a lot of options; what’s it going to be? And you’ve just got to fight for it.”

Turkowski has had an interesting journey, and she credits St. Cloud State with playing a part in the foundation that’s gotten her this far. She grew up watching her mother work at the University before both Turkowski and her brother attended.

“I am where I'm at today because a significant part of my life has been St. Cloud State. Whether it was growing up as a kid and the impact my mom had on us and the love she had for St. Cloud State — I honestly, truly believe I had the opportunity to engulf myself in the best education. I had amazing professors. I was scared as heck to go back at age 30 and go into biomedical science — and these courses are hard. All these things where I knew I could accomplish it, but it was scary. It's a testament to the professors there; those programs are solid,” she said. “I can't say enough. I had the foundation to have the opportunity to apply to any school across the nation, and that's because of the education I got there. Granted, we all have to immerse ourselves in it and apply ourselves, but the opportunity was there. College sports, everything — my experience at St. Cloud State both times was truly memorable and I loved it.”

Through her work with both Mayo Clinic and Iron Heart, Turkowski hopes people continue to press on through life’s challenges.

“I want to focus on the positive, and so I try to give that to others. I’ll be honest and straightforward and say this road sucks sometimes. But I’d always say to myself, ‘What if tomorrow was the day where it all changed and I got everything I dreamed about? If I stop now, what if I'm giving that up?’” she said. “Granted, that day came years later, but I held on to that hope. So I want to give somebody that: it's not easy, but don't give up.”