NSU Alum Takes His Education to Health Care Heights

Renaud Jean Louis could be the poster child for Shark Nation. Step into his office at his Hollywood, Fla., clinic and you’ll find a wall dominated by NSU degrees.

There’s his 2006 Master of Public Administration from the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship. Next to it is his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of Nursing in 2012. Then his Master of Science in Nursing from 2016 and his Graduate Certificate in Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner in 2020.

Despite the academic credentials, Jean Louis is not one to rest on his educational laurels. With the knowledge he’s accumulated over the years, he’s built a successful health care business dedicated to helping underserved populations learn about and benefit from preventive care. Many of his patients hail from his homeland of Haiti.

In 2020, Jean Louis and his business partner, Martine Phillips (also an NSU graduate), opened Remart Medical Clinic, which provides a spectrum of services, such as immunizations, annual physicals, birth control, disease screening, psychiatric disorder diagnosis, treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, opioid addiction, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“When I graduated from NSU with my MPA, one of my instructors told me ‘Don’t just come here and take the diploma and hang it at your house. Go out there and make a difference in your community,’” he said. “It’s a statement that I never forgot.”

While he was working on his Family Nurse Practitioner specialty at NSU, Jean Louis met Dr. Stefanie La Manna, now dean of NSU’s Ron and Kathy Assaf College of Nursing. She has been one of his mentors, and the two have remained close.

“Dr. La Manna always told me the same thing,” he said. “Use that diploma to make a difference. These are words that fueled me to open the clinic and provide good, efficient health care to my community.”

Education did not come easy to Jean Louis growing up. He was raised in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, a small town on the north coast of the country. Jean Louis was one of seven children raised by a single mother whom he considers his hero.

“One thing she believed was that a proper education could open any door for us,” he said, adding that Sonia Jean Louis died last year. “She was my role model, my inspiration and my hero. I don’t think anyone will ever replace that woman, as she raised me to be a very respectful and responsible man.”

Jean Louis attended elementary at a Catholic school in Cap-Haïtien and would later attend  Cap-Haïtien’s College Martin Luther King  where he graduated from high school. Thereafter,  he went to Port Au Prince where  he enrolled at the Institute Des Hautes Etudes Commerciales Et Économiques, where he studied economics before coming to the U.S.

After stints at Miami Dade Community College (Associate of Arts in Computer Science) and Florida International University (Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems and Business Administration), Jean Louis set his sights on NSU.

One of reasons Jean Louis chose NSU was the helpfulness of its advising staff.

“It was the best decision that I could have made,” he said. “I was treated with respect and the services that I needed were fast-tracked. At NSU, I didn’t have to wait for weeks to see an adviser. I was assigned my own adviser and I could reach him anytime I wanted.”

And his experience got even better once classes started, Jean Louis said. He says his professors were always available to assist, listen and direct him on the right path.

Jean Louis has always been interested in the health care field, even with his early business interests. Remart Medical Clinic, derived from part of his and his partner’s first names, has allowed him to combine both interests.

“In 2009, I was working with the American Red Cross as a shelter manager,” he said. “I had nurses and doctors who volunteered their time to assist people in need. I could see the compassion, caring and passion that they had while helping those people. I said to myself ‘I need to do that.’”

While working on his Master of Science in Nursing, Jean Louis met Martine Phillips and the two developed a strong relationship.

“We saw the struggle of the working family when it comes to seeing a health care provider,” he said, “because many don’t have insurance, fail to get annual checkups and don’t properly follow up with providers.”

Jean Louis’ work as a nurse practitioner for palliative care patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital further fueled his desire to develop his own health care business. Palliative care is aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex and often terminal illnesses.

“Most of the time, those patients did not know they had a critical condition until the late stage because of the lack of proper follow-up with a health care provider,” he said. “Seeing that, I said to myself that I needed to do something about it by educating my community about preventive medicine and the importance of annual physicals.”

When Jean Louis and Phillips introduced their clinic, they decided to have it open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week to better serve those who work weekdays. With dual certification in nursing and psychiatry, Remart Medical Clinic focuses on medical and mental health issues.

“I can sincerely say that NSU is my backbone and made me who I am today,” he said. “Each one of us has our own exam in life. Focus on yourself and do not take ‘no’ for an answer. Do not be afraid to use your knowledge in any community that you will find yourself in in the future.”

Posted 04/08/24