Editor’s note: The University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC) will recognize several entrepreneurs at its annual Iowa JPEC Honors Celebration on April 8 at the Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City. The event highlights individuals whose work reflects innovation, leadership, and meaningful impact within their communities and industries.
 

A notebook and a dream with plenty blood, sweat, and tears in between.

That’s how Tracy Ongena describes the meteoric rise of her Manhattan, New York-based company Alvita Care. The University of Iowa graduate (BBA in economics, ’01) predated the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (Iowa JPEC), but she relied on “Iowa Values” to create a private home health care company that allows seniors to age in place.

“I have your usual hard-working grit, and I definitely learned that from growing up in Iowa,” Ongena said. “Those are Iowa values: humility, honesty, perseverance.”

What sets Alvita Care apart?

“We’re obsessed with patient care, and I will not compromise on that,” Ongena said.

Ongena graduated from West Des Moines Valley High School and later joined the University of Iowa rowing team, earning a varsity letter in 1998. Her first job post-college was in investment banking at Lehman Brothers. During that time, her grandmother was going through the aging process and cycled painfully through the healthcare system.

“I didn’t like the way she was treated,” Ongena said. “It was expensive and I was helping the family with that burden. That was the light switch where I saw something broken in this industry, and I thought I could fix it.”

With no funding, no connections, and no road map, Ongena took those Iowa values for a drive. She heard “no” on repeat and while trying to make connections was escorted out of hospitals and assisted living facilities. Still, she pressed on, long before a single dollar came through the door.

“In the beginning, you’re fighting against yourself and you have to keep going,” she said.

Eventually Alvita Care gained a client and Ongena hired a nurse. Then there were two clients and she added a scheduler. Today, Alvita Care is in three states, with more than 3,000 employees, and still no institutional investors.

“Entrepreneurship taught me to think boldly,” Ongena said. “You have to lead with purpose. Turn ideas into impact. That is how the company scaled.”

Ongena will be recognized with the Alumni Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from Iowa JPEC at an awards event April 8, 2026, at the Old Capitol Museum. She says this award brings “everything full circle.”

“I went to the University of Iowa and that matters to me,” Ongena said. “The foundation of who I am was shaped there. This award validates that Iowa values can scale nationally.”

As she looks ahead, Ongena hopes her experience encourages others, especially Iowans, to push past hesitation and embrace possibility.

“Start before you’re ready,” she said. “Sometimes in Iowa, we get a small-town mindset and think we’re not worthy. Clarity comes from action; you just have to lean in.”

Because sometimes a notebook and a dream really are the beginning of something big.