During the summer between high school and college, Strader underwent the first of three surgeries to treat her condition. As a college sophomore, struggling to sustain her college education and social life while navigating her health issues, she looked for ways to connect and share support with other students with similar experiences.

“There was no national organization to support people with all types of disabilities – only specific types of illnesses,” Strader said. Because it is extremely rare, no support group exists specifically for her illness.

So Strader, now a second-year medical resident at UofL, created a blog to share her experience and to connect with other college students with long-term health problems. She went on to establish , a non-profit organization to provide scholarships and emotional support to students facing chronic illness or disability. Strader assembled a board of directors that included college classmates and other advisers, established the 501(c)3 corporation with support from family, friends and her school – the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and began accepting donations.

Bella Soul awarded the first three scholarships in 2013.

“Since then, we have awarded 50 scholarships to young adult students to help with medical bills or other expenses related to their illness or disability,” Strader said. Strader said Bella Soul receives 50-to-100 scholarship applicants for every scholarship available and has given between 2 and 10 scholarships each year, depending on funds raised that year.

Reviewing all the applicants is time consuming, Strader said, but she is glad to be able to connect with each of the students, who apply by sharing their stories and proof they are students.

“It is exhausting, but all very amazing,” she said.

As an undergraduate, Strader studied neurobiology and stem cell sciences and worked in the regenerative biology lab of James Thomson at the Morgridge Institute for Research at UW – Madison. Her interest in stem cells is motivated by her own illness as well as that of her twin sister, Lauryn, who had cerebral palsy and died when they were 8 years old.

After graduating from UW – Madison, Strader obtained a master’s in biomedical sciences and received her medical degree from Lincoln Memorial University – DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Knoxville, Tennessee. She chose UofL for her residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation because of the extensive inpatient opportunities available to the residents at UofL Health – Frazier Rehab Institute. She hopes to pursue clinical care as well as conduct biomedical research into neurological disabilities such as cerebral palsy.

“I came to UofL because the program was one of only a couple of places that offer good inpatient experience caring for individuals with complex disabilities,” she said. “My main goal is to figure out better treatment options for these individuals. Their treatment options have not changed in 20 years.”

Lovelace, who studied finance and business prior to entering medical school, developed the tool as part of the , sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Foundation. Lovelace, one of 30 participants selected for the first cohort of the year-long program, participated in the group’s leadership workshop last summer, then worked with a physician mentor to create a project in Personal and Practice Leadership, one of three leadership tracks available to the scholars. The other tracks were Policy and Public Health Leadership and Philanthropic and Mission-Driven Leadership. Judges selected Lovelace’s project as the best in the Personal and Practice Leadership track.

Lovelace tapped into his business experience to create the detailed financial planning and budgeting tool. He explained that although physicians beginning residency may qualify to purchase expensive cars and higher-priced homes based on future income potential, it’s dangerous to make these purchase decisions without careful analysis of the whole financial picture – including medical education debt that may exceed $175,000.

“Often people will buy a car and sign an apartment lease as independent decisions and not consider how much of their monthly income they are committing to those two items. Those are binding agreements, so you can make two relatively straightforward decisions and put yourself in a bind throughout residency,” Lovelace said.

Lovelace’s budget program uses answers to 35 questions related to the user’s financial obligations to calculate their financial trajectory, including a detailed analysis for multiple student loan repayment options and a retirement savings projection. It then generates a report revealing areas of budget concern (too high or too low) and whether the user is projected to reach a retirement goal. It even provides suggestions of how to correct an underfunded retirement plan.

As part of the project submission, Lovelace created a of the budgeting tool and a poster describing the problem and how the analysis can help individuals avoid common pitfalls. He said his project mentor, Marc Matthews, MD, a family practitioner with the Mayo Clinic, encouraged him to increase the functionality of each module, adding value for the user, while keeping the project within the original scope.

Jason Marker, MD, MPA, past president of the AAFP Foundation who chairs the foundation workgroup that launched the FML Emerging Leader Institute, said Lovelace’s project exemplifies the leadership potential of the students and residents participating in the institute.

“One of our hopes with the FML Emerging Leader Institute was that we would take a group of scholars, many of whom had little formal family medicine leadership training, and accelerate their capacity and motivation toward being physicians with the understanding to practice medicine in the context of social determinants of health, elimination of health disparities and avoiding future physician burnout,” Marker said. “In that latter category, Michael’s project is a standout. As Michael is lecturing on this topic, I know he will help a lot of young physicians be successful.”

Stephen Wheeler, MD, associate dean for admissions at the UofL School of Medicine and a senior faculty member in the Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, has mentored Lovelace in family medicine and leadership at UofL.

“I first met Michael during his path toward medicine as a non-traditional applicant. Then, I worked with him during the two-year introduction to clinical cases small group experience. I am ecstatic that he feels called in this direction. He will be an exceptional family doctor,” Wheeler said.

At last summer’s leadership workshop, Marker led a session on Personal and Practice Leadership with Lovelace and the other FML Emerging Leader Institute participants.

“We talked about financial realities of practice and how ill-prepared many medical students and residents are for life beyond residency. The way Michael addressed this topic is excellent. He has made the information accessible for the broadest possible audience,” Marker said, adding that he hopes the project will ultimately be adapted for use by medical schools and residency programs to help physicians avoid financial missteps.

As the creator of the top project in his track, Lovelace will give an oral presentation of the project at the American Academy of Family Physicians on July 28 in Kansas City, Missouri, and attend , the annual educational meeting of the AAFP to be held in Orlando, Florida, in September.