Page 30 - BusinessWest 2023 40 Under Forty

Sara Hulseberg
Owner, Excel Therapy & Conditioning: Age 38
Sara Hulseberg tells a story that demonstrates the meaning of a loyal clientele.
When COVID forced her to find a new home for
Excel Therapy & Conditioning, the practice she started in 2012, she found a run-down garage
and eventually cleaned it up, built it out, and prepared to move the practice and
everything in it, thinking moving would take three 12-hour days to complete. Then the help started to show up
— not only her team, but clients. In three hours, she was not only moved
in, but totally set up.
The nominations supporting her
40 Under Forty selection explain that loyalty.
“As a patient of Sara’s, I’ve regularly witnessed her
reach out to help people under extreme trauma and hardships,” one wrote,
sharing her own experience with pain reduction and greater mobility under Hulseberg’s care. “She has been a friend to me, going above and beyond every time —
and I’ve seen her do this with every person that
comes to her.”
Ashley LeBlanc says it’s “weird to be happy when you find cancer.”
But that’s certainly one of the emotions
she experiences when a patient screened for lung cancer is given that heavy dose of bad
news.
That’s because, quite often, that cancer
is found early, in stage 1 or 2, when it is much more survivable than when found later. Indeed, lung cancer is the deadliest cancer, and finding it early is critical to winning one’s battle against it.
And LeBlanc certainly knows that. She has lost four relatives to lung cancer, several of whom would have qualified for screening had it been available at the time
of their diagnosis.
“That’s why this work is so rewarding,”
said LeBlanc, who earned associate degrees in both health sciences and criminal justice
at Holyoke Community College, but eventually chose a career in healthcare; she has earned an associate degree
in nursing from Springfield Technical
Community College and a bachelor’s degree from Westfield State University,
and is currently working on her master’s in
executive nursing leadership at Chamberlain University.
“I’ve loved every second of it,” she said of
Others talked about her pro bono work, her insistence on not laying off anyone during the pandemic, her donations of time and resources to local charity events, her mentorship and internships for aspiring therapists ... the list goes on.
Hulseberg, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Springfield College and her doctor of physical therapy degree at Northeastern University, said she became frustrated with how patients were being treated in other practices where she worked, and sought to create a different model. “I saw a lot of treatment based solely around what their insurance was or whatever their pain was, not what it stemmed from. It was disheartening.”
She said the immediate gratification she gets from helping people isn’t something one finds in every field of healthcare.
“Someone comes in with a lot of pain, and if you do your job, they leave with significantly less pain and more functionality over the weeks and months. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to do that for somebody.”
Hulseberg said she was first inspired by the way her father, an ophthalmologist in Holyoke, treats his patients, and asked him, before she launched Excel, why she doesn’t experience the same kind of relationships where she worked.
“I said, ‘I must be in the wrong field,’” she recalled. “He said, it’s not easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, but you often have to plow your own way to get there.’”
—Joseph Bednar
her work in nursing, adding that she was eventually recruited by physicians in the Thoracic Surgery unit, where she now serves in her dual role. In addition to overseeing the department, she has been instrumental in creating a Lung Cancer Screening Program (LCSP) that has been designated a Screening Center of Excellence.
That program has screened more than 12,000 people since it was created in 2016, and identified cancer in more than 200 of them. In two-thirds of those cases,
it was found in stage 1 or 2, which takes us back to where we started — that sensation of being happy to find cancer.
LeBlanc’s passion for lung-cancer treatment and screening is evidenced by her extensive work in the community. She has served as the nurse planner for the American Lung Association’s annual LUNG FORCE education events in Springfield and East Hartford, and spearheaded the creation of the first Springfield LUNG FORCE event after learning there were few lung-cancer continuing-education opportunities for local providers. Prior to the pandemic, she coordinated an annual fundraiser for Mercy’s LCSP to provide ‘scholarships’ for individuals who could not afford a screening.
“It’s so fulfilling to know that others may be spared the heartache of that loss through early detection and a wider variety of treatment options,” she said of her work. “It’s what keeps me going.”
—George O’Brien
A30 2023
BusinessWest
Ashley LeBlanc
Nurse Practice Manager of Thoracic Surgery and Nursing Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program, Mercy Medical Center: Age 38