Alumna Establishes Jeanette Lancaster Fund for Faculty Excellence
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CONTACT: Dory Hulse
Director of Communications
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A FITTING TRIBUTE TO A NATIONAL NURSE LEADER
Alumna Establishes Jeanette Lancaster Fund for Faculty Excellence
Recently, University of Virginia School of Nursing Dean Jeanette Lancaster was asked what one fund raising aspiration she had yet to fulfill during her tenure as dean. That was easy to answer: she wished she had been able to raise more private money to support faculty. She said her job as dean has been an annual exercise in stretching resources to the max, and it has always been her greatest frustration to be unable to do more to support faculty professional development. She said if she just had a larger pool of money to support pilot studies in research, innovative teaching initiatives, and faculty development in all its forms, then she would be much better able to stimulate and reward excellence.
It was a timely conversation. Rebecca Ruegger (BSN 1973) had been pondering how she could celebrate Dean Lancaster’s extraordinary accomplishments with a meaningful tribute. Earlier this month, the School of Nursing Advisory Board announced that Ruegger bestowed a cash gift of $500,000 to establish the Jeanette Lancaster Fund for Faculty Excellence. Others are being encouraged to contribute to this endowment fund to raise the invested principal to $1 million. Ideally this additional funding will be in place by the time Dean Lancaster steps down as dean in the spring of 2008, after 19 years of service.
Ruegger’s gift is also homage to her own experience as a student and the supportive connection she felt with her faculty mentors. “I feel honored and fortunate to be able to do this,” Ruegger said. “I’ve been so inspired by Jeanette as a nurse and a nursing leader. It’s amazing to me that one person can show a level of leadership that is helping to address the nursing shortage.”
While humbled by such generosity, Dean Lancaster is thrilled by the gift. About Ruegger and the gift, she said, “By establishing an endowment for faculty excellence, she has responded to one of my most heartfelt desires which is to have resources to fund the innovative ideas that our faculty have for new programs, new ideas and new types of research.”
The School’s chief development officer, David Black, who had asked Dean Lancaster about her yet unfulfilled goal and then shared the story with the Advisory Board, sees the new endowment as a fitting gift. He knows how much the School means to the Dean and how much the Dean means to the school. “Dean Lancaster’s long and determined efforts to get the message out about nursing and about this school, and her tireless efforts to make and gather friends on behalf of our community – those are the principal reasons why philanthropic support for the school have grown so dramatically over the past decade.”
The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5% in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the School is ranked 22nd in National Institutes of Health nursing research funding and #1 in the country for doctoral-student authored NRSA Fellowships. The School has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. Dean and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN, is president of the prestigious American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). For more information about the UVA School of Nursing and its programs, visit www.nursing.virginia.edu.