Campus News
March 16, 2011
School of Nursing exceeds $20M goal
School of Nursing students, faculty and staff celebrate surpassing their $20 million fundraising goal.
By Jasmine Hoffman
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing has exceeded its $20 million fundraising goal nearly two years ahead of schedule. To date, the School of Nursing has raised more than $20.4 million to support student scholarships, faculty research, service learning projects and academic programming. The school's fundraising efforts — part of Campaign Emory — will continue.
"To have early success is thrilling, but more than anything it is a call to continue our work. Nearly 80 percent of our students need financial aid to pursue an Emory nursing degree. As long as there are initiatives in the School of Nursing that need additional resources — and there are — we have a job to do," says Emory Trustee J. David Allen, who chairs the School of Nursing's campaign along his wife Beverly Dew Allen (both are alumni).
"This fundraising milestone is a reflection of the School of Nursing's upward trajectory as an internationally recognized nursing program," says Dean Linda McCauley. "We are immensely grateful to our extraordinary donors whose gifts are having a meaningful impact on the School of Nursing. Because of generous support from these donors, the school is able to invest in key strategic priorities that advance our mission to educate nurse leaders and scholars, generate new knowledge, and improve health and health care—all in service to the global community."
The School of Nursing's fundraising success is tied to broad-based support from more than 3,000 individuals, corporations and foundations.
Since the launch of the campaign in 2005, the School of Nursing has attained a number of notable accomplishments:
• Increased the Fuld Segue Program, which provides critical financial aid to Emory nursing students with undergraduate degrees in fields other than nursing who want to become nursing leaders. This program was created with generous support from the Helene Fuld Health Trust.
• Received an $8.1 million grant—the largest donation in the nursing school's 106-year history—from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a 2½ year project designed to improve maternal and newborn survival rates in rural Ethiopia. This historic donation has enabled associate professor Lynn Sibley and a team of Emory investigators to create a community-oriented strategy to improve maternal and newborn health care services in rural Ethiopia and position the approach to be expanded throughout the country..
• Raised $100,000 from 265 alumni and friends to create the Elizabeth Mabry Scholarship in honor of longtime faculty member, Elizabeth Mabry. This scholarship provides aid to deserving undergraduate students each year.
"We deeply appreciate the overwhelming support of our alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends," says Amy Dorrill, associate dean of development and alumni relations for the nursing school.
"We also continue to count on their generosity, because although we have reached our overall fundraising goal in terms of numbers, some of our most important priorities—including student scholarships, faculty support, and service learning programs—still are not fully funded. As the School of Nursing continues to seek support for these initiatives, we look to private philanthropy to fuel our work and advance Emory's legacy of excellence in nursing education and research."
