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Former Air Force Reservist attributes medical school journey to University of Minnesota pathway program

  • Published
  • By Maristela Romero
  • Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs

AFMS Around the AFMS Button

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Sarah Loudon walked across the stage for the University of Minnesota’s August white coat ceremony. The tradition symbolizes her commitment to patient-centered care as an aspiring physician but also validates a new pathway for military medics transitioning into civilian medicine.

Loudon is part of the inaugural class of the Military Medic to Medical School one-year program at UMN, designed to prepare service members with operational medical experience to gain admission to its medical school.

MM2MS: Where military medicine skills intersect with civilian care

The program recognizes the high levels of critical care training, adaptability, and resiliency in resource-constrained environments that combat medics have to offer to the Minnesota population - six percent of which are veterans, according to a 2019 report from the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs.

MM2MS was developed under UMN’s Translational Center for Resuscitative Trauma Care, founded in 2022 by trauma surgeon and retired U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) Greg Beilman to improve acute trauma care to rural Minnesota patients and military combatants.

Image of Service members posing for a photo.

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Sarah Loudon, former flight medic and flight instructor, smiles with fellow veteran, retired U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. 1st Class Isaac Schneider, formerly with 18 Delta Special Forces, at their white coat ceremony celebrating their admission to the University of Minnesota Medical School, Aug. 29, 2025. They represent the inaugural cohort of the university’s Military Medic to Medical School, a program that aims to provide individualized guidance to military medics with field experience to gain admission and translate clinical skills for its medical school. (Courtesy photo from U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Sarah Loudon)
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“These individuals were practicing medicine in some of the most challenging environments on the planet. We look very heavily on what people’s military experience looks like with regards to their leadership potential, their ability to think and problem solve critically,” said Chris VanBrenk, MM2MS co-director and TCRTC director of education and training. “We take a holistic look at all facets of what they were able to do, military-wise, academically, and even in whatever life space they happen to find themselves in.”

MM2MS provides individualized guidance to a cohort of two to five students, ensuring that each individual receives support to meet the prerequisites needed for automatic admission to the UMN Medical School.

Dr. Jill Foster, co-director of MM2MS and assistant dean of Pipelines and Pathways for the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education, shared how vital the program can be in creating a support network for military medics seeking community as new members of the student population.

“They can lean on each other and can carry those relationships into medical school,” she said.

The program also includes weekly seminars featuring guest speakers with military medicine backgrounds who have transitioned to practicing civilian medicine, as well as a formal curriculum on health disparities affecting the general population.

From flight medic to medical student

Loudon’s initial interest in a medical career began before she joined the Air Force Reserve in 2013. She originally studied economics, business, and solar energy systems. Working with Doctors Without Borders, an international nonprofit, Loudon witnessed how physicians provided care in a rural, resource-constrained environment.

“They had large-scale community solar energy projects that allowed for new hospitals to be built and new medical technology to be more accessible in those communities,” Loudon said, reflecting on how the experience inspired her to serve in the Air Force within a medical capacity.

She first learned about the MM2MS program through her network at the 934th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By then, she was already preparing for the MCAT and considering a career as a physician assistant.

MM2MS played a crucial role in helping her pursue a career in medicine. Loudon completed her final prerequisites, received MCAT preparation funded by the program, and practiced translating her military medical skills into the language of civilian medicine.

“[They] continue to help you translate those skills, both personal interaction, professional interaction skills, and clinical care skills,” she said. “How that would serve us well, how we need to reframe that mindset and be sure that we could apply that differently in this new environment, in academia and in clinical practice.”

Loudon even completed her MCAT while deployed, balancing study sessions with operational missions.

Image of Airmen posing for a photo.

Then U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sarah Loudon, flight medic and flight instructor, poses with her deployed crew on a C-17 Globemaster III during an aeromedical evacuation mission at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, December 2018. Loudon now represents part of the inaugural cohort of the university’s Military Medic to Medical School, a program that aims to provide individualized guidance to military medics with field experience to gain admission and translate clinical skills for its medical school. (Courtesy photo from U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Sarah Loudon)
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“I took my first run at the [MCAT] test like after just having an overnight mission that had come down,” she said. “It was an unusual kind of environment in which to go through those final preparatory steps. But the MM2MS school cohort - they were extraordinarily accommodating.”

Her clinical interests gravitated toward rural medicine, where similar challenges reminded her of practicing care as a flight medic.

“[It’s] not completely dissimilar from a lot of my experience as a flight medic, where you’re in a hospital in the sky with minimal resources providing medical care in that challenging setting. I really like that idea of being able to serve in that capacity where you’re overcoming those unique challenges,” Loudon said.

Although she separated from the Air Force earlier this summer after 13 years of service, she plans to return through the Health Professions Scholarship Program.

“I am very likely going to take advantage of the HPSP and commission through that pathway,” she said, which could allow her to complete a civilian residency in Minnesota or through the military.

As she embarks on medical school, Loudon carries with her years of military medic experience, a passion for helping underserved communities, and a new mission to bridge the worlds of military and civilian medicine for those who will follow.