On a recent August morning in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 45,000-pound vehicle left its garage equipped with two exam rooms, on-board computers, a treatment room, a health assessment station, a pharmacy and a lab. This mobile doctor’s office, St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, was on its way to the rural community of Crossville.
The clinic traveled nearly 11,000 miles last year to reach new and returning patients throughout east Tennessee. Crossville is its newest and 10thsite.
After an hour’s drive, the clinic arrived at its destination: St. Alphonsus Catholic Church.
A team of staff and volunteers immediately set to work getting this doctor’s office prepared for its patients: extending the vehicle’s slide-outs, leveling the wheels, hooking up the electricity and bringing supplies into the building.
Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, the medical director of this mobile clinic, had been following closely behind in her own car. She and a crew of additional SLMC workers joined in the preparation efforts—an operation that has become literally and figuratively a well-oiled machine.
Sister Mary Lisa is Catholic Extension Society’s 2024-2025 Lumen Christi Award recipient. The annual award is our highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve.
In addition to being a Religious Sister of Mercy from Alma, Michigan, she is also a physician. Her stethoscope hangs close to the cross she wears around her neck, showing not only “what” she does—treat patients—but also “why” she does it: to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
As the medical director of St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, she and her team of staff and volunteers provide primary care to improve the lives of the medically underserved and uninsured in the rural areas of East Tennessee.
Below, she explains how SMLC upholds the dignity of each person they serve:
After the temporary clinic site was set up, Sister Mary Lisa gathered her staff and volunteers for a prayer: “Help to us show your love and mercy to each person that we meet today,” she prayed.
Healing more than the body
St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic is a part of the Diocese of Knoxville’s entire humanitarian outreach effort.
The Catholic Church in east Tennessee is uplifting the poor in every part of their lives. In Crossville for example, residents can go to St. Alphonsus Catholic Community—located just across the parking lot from the mobile clinic set-up—for financial help including rent and utility assistance. No religious affiliation is required for this aid. And of course, anyone can go to St. Alphonsus Church for spiritual care.
“So in one place you can find everything that you need to help move you to your next spot in life,” said Martin Vargas, SMLC’s executive director.
Double vocations
Sister Mary Lisa’s passion to serve God has always been a part of her life. “I always knew that the Lord loved me and I always wanted to give my life to Him,” she said. “There’s really no explanation for that other than grace.” She was studying theology and biology at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio when she found her calling.
She went on a mission trip to Ecuador and worked with abused children. “I met Christ there in a very real way,” she said. After much prayer and discernment upon her return home, she knew she wanted to give herself completely to God. She joined the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma and transferred to Michigan State University to finish her bachelor’s degree and earn her doctorate in osteopathic medicine.
She completed her 3-year residency in Iowa before she came to Knoxville in 2020 to serve as SMLC’s medical director. She took the reins from Sister Mariana Koonce, RSM, MD, who founded the clinic in 2013 and was named a Lumen Christi Award finalist in 2016. Vargas said, “We’re so grateful for [Sister Mariana’s] leadership … she built such a strong base for us to grow.”
The number of patients that SMLC serves has nearly doubled in the past four years. The need is great; Tennessee has the second highest rate of rural hospital closures in the nation. SMLC now has over 1,400 patient visits per year; it averages one new patient every day. Perhaps even more importantly, they “graduate” 15 percent of their patients each year, meaning they either become insured or physically well.
Vargas described how it feels when a patient reaches this milestone:
Many patients face long-term health struggles. Diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease and lung disease are common illnesses. Others come in with wear-and-tear injuries after decades of working physically demanding jobs such as painting or construction.
Sister Mary Lisa said it is important to never look at a patient as a bundle of complex problems to solve, but as a human being with dignity.
Some patients require treatment outside of what the mobile clinic can provide. SMLC has access to specialists and facilities that can provide this care, even major surgery, for free. Staff and volunteers help patients apply for these health services, which is often an incredibly complex process. Sister Mary Lisa said navigating insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital systems is far more difficult than medical school.
SMLC is also tackling preventative care by partnering with other organizations that provide health screenings, such as mammograms, to catch disease and illness before they upend a person’s life
As the number of patients grows, Sister Mary Lisa has maintained the clinic’s one-one-one high quality health care. She has increased the number of staff from two to six, including a nurse practitioner. Under her leadership the number of volunteers has expanded from 50 to over 100.
Now she and SMLC staff are preparing to introduce a new, larger mobile clinic to replace the current 11-year-old vehicle and meet their increasing needs.
Sister Mary Lisa’s responsibilities don’t end after the mobile clinic is packed up and driven away. When she’s not in “the field,” she is conducting telehealth follow-up appointments, resupplying the clinic, updating medical records, training workers and volunteers and coordinating for upcoming visits.
Exceptional health care
Anyone who doubts that the free health care SMLC provides is anything but high quality needs only to speak with its patients. Their faces light up as they describe the exceptional care they have received and the genuine love they feel at every appointment or follow-up phone call.
Carolyn Dunaway lost her job and health insurance after she was diagnosed with kidney cancer. She had her kidney removed, but her condition worsened to the point that she couldn’t walk. Then she heard about a clinic run by Catholic nuns. She arrived in a wheelchair for her first appointment.
She shares her story below:
Dunaway says that each appointment at the clinic is like coming home. She tells anyone without insurance to go to SMLC.
She said,
They’ll get your life back for you.”
Another patient, Irwin Jane Shelton, used to work at Walmart. She had terrible problems with her knees, but without insurance or medicare, she couldn’t afford treatment. Shelton said the clinic has been a godsend. She often tells people about it, assuring them that they will be treated with kindness and respect.
Rhonda Pratt began coming to the clinic when her mother, Helen Jensen, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Rhonda began to receive treatment herself after she developed a herniated disk in her neck.
Pratt says SMLC’s medical care is unparalleled. She says they actually listen, unlike other medical centers she has encountered before. They even help with expenses like gas money.
The mother and daughter describe their experience with SMLC below:
Catholic Extension Society’s president, Father Jack Wall, said, “Sister Mary Lisa knows that her mission is about more than providing health services to those in greatest need. When speaking with her patients, it is clear that she is also eradicating sicknesses in people’s spirits. She is truly a light in their darkest moments.”
For Sister Mary Lisa and everyone who keeps St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic on the road, it all comes back to God:
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