Newly elected Alumni Board members |
Reunion
On Friday, May 2, Alumni Reunion was held at the School of Nursing. Alumni from the Class of 1946 to the Class of 2007 attended, in addition to many students, faculty and friends. It was a wonderful day full of reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. The day began with breakfast and the Annual Meeting. Dean Mary O'Neil Mundinger gave the State of the School Report.
Elected to the Board of the Alumni Association were:
Laura Pearson Armstrong '85
Maria Magliacano '06
Roxana Sasse '92
Catherine K. Tanksley '98
Sally Ann Whelan '61
Glenn Wurtzel '00, '02
Beth Zedeck '04, '06
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Annual Fund Update
As you may be aware, the Alumni Association does not have a treasury report, because there is no treasury. All monies raised through the Annual Fund go toward financial aid for current students. By doing this, the future of the School of Nursing is protected. As of May 25, the 2007-08 Annual Fund has raised $257,511, an increase of almost 20% over the same time period last year. To give to the annual fund, please click here. If you have already given, thank you for keeping the momentum going. The more we raise, the more student scholarships we can award! In the Fall, named scholars are designated in honor of those alumni and friends who contribute $5,000 or more to the Annual Fund. The great classes of 1943 and 1953 have raised enough money to each name a scholar this year. (It's not too late to send in this year's contribution.
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Alumni Scholars |
Alumni Scholars
Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends last year, this year we awarded SIXTY-THREE Alumni Association scholarships for the 2007-2008 academic year. These scholars were chosen based on academic achievement, financial need, and an essay about how they contributed to the student experience while at the School.
At reunion, tours of the School of Nursing and NewYork Presbyterian Hospital were conducted by the alumni scholars. (Many alumni were surprised to learn that Maxwell Hall was owned by the Hospital, not the School of Nursing, which had been part of Columbia University since 1937. When Presbyterian Hospital needed more space for patients, it was the hospital that forced the School of Nursing to leave the building. The School of Nursing has been in the Georgian Building on West 168th Street since 1984.) The tours were followed by a wonderful luncheon in the Winter Garden of the new Babies and Children's Hospital.
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Posie Carpenter ’88
Kara Ventura ’01 ’07
Major General
Deborah C. Wheeling ’75 |
Reunion Speakers
The afternoon speakers at Reunion were:
Posie Carpenter '88
Ms. Carpenter earned a bachelor of science in Nursing from Georgetown University and holds master's degrees in Nursing and Public Health from Columbia University.
She is the Chief Administrative Officer for Santa-Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital. Her management career began at UCLA in 1989, serving first as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Unit Director for the Department of Nursing, and later as Director of Nursing for ambulatory care. She went on to serve as Assistant Administrator and Executive Director of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic where she had responsibility for four practice sites, oversaw co-ownership of the practice's surgery center and office building, and provided oversight of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Foundation. Ms. Carpenter returned to UCLA Healthcare in 2004 as Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center's Chief Nursing Officer.
Kara Ventura '01,'07
Kara Ventura graduated from Fairfield University in Connecticut and worked after graduation at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork Presbyterian with pediatric transplant patients. She then continued on in the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at Columbia University School of Nursing, graduating in 2001. After working at Maimonides Medical Center for a few years, Dr. Ventura returned to Children's Hospital to help start the intestinal rehabilitation and transplantation program.
When the School of Nursing began its DNP Program, Dr. Ventura enrolled in one of the first classes, graduating in 2007. She has remained at NYPH and is responsible for the care of children with a variety of intestinal and liver ailments. She is an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing at Columbia and is a preceptor for DNP students.
Major General Deborah C. Wheeling '75
Major General Deborah C. Wheeling assumed duties as Deputy Surgeon General for the Army National Guard, Office of the Surgeon General on November 1, 2005. As Deputy Surgeon General, General Wheeling provides consultative services and strategic planning in all aspects of medical readiness, health care, medical personnel and medical operational and training issues that comprise the critical medical readiness indicators pertaining to the Army National Guard and its more than 340,000 citizen soldiers.
Major General Wheeling began her military service in 1975 with a direct appointment to the Army Nurse Corps. While at Columbia, she was a member of the Army Student Nurse Corps. In 1980, she received a MSN from Duke University in Adult Oncology and she also earned a MS in Strategic Studies from the Army War College in 2001. She is one of three siblings who graduated from Columbia University School of Nursing.
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Alta Woodworth Miller '53 reminisced with fellow almni |
Reunion Reception and Dinner
The evening cocktail reception and dinner was fun for all. The food was delicious and everyone enjoyed seeing all the displayed School memorabilia.
Videos of the Class of 1953 graduation and of the 60 Minutes piece about the School's practice at CAPNA were shown. The evening ended with the traditional 'fun' awards for those who had traveled the furthest to come to the reunion, have the greatest number of grandchildren, etc. Everyone was happy that they had come and are planning to return soon. Please keep checking the School's web site (www.nursing.hs.columbia.edu) as photos from Reunion will be appearing soon.
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Alumni Association President Roxana Sasse '92 (left) with Distinguished Young Alumna Velta Willis '04 (right) |
Distinguished Young Alumni
A Distinguished Young Alumni award was presented to Velta Willis and Dawn Bucher.
Dr. Bucher received a BSN and MSN from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. She is a 2006 graduate of the DNP program at Columbia. She has been a Family Nurse Practitioner for over eight years and specializes in rural health, Indian Health, chronic conditions and family medicine. Her practice interests are genomics, serving health care needs of underserved populations and the future of health care in the United States. Dr. Bucher is currently teaching at South Dakota State University and delivering care to patients and families at the Ivanhoe Clinic in Ivanhoe, Minnesota. She has two grown children, Kayla and Derek, and one granddaughter, Charlize. You can read more about Dawn in the current issue of the Academic Nurse, which you should have received.
Velta Willis has been a nurse for 23 years, and 17 of those years have been dedicated to Oncology. Ms. Willis has worked in medical and surgical oncology, cardiothoracic ICU and bone marrow/stem cell transplant. She earned her BS at Pace University in 2000 and her masters in Adult and Oncology Nurse Practitioner in 2003 from Columbia. Ms. Willis is a certified oncology NP as well as a chemotherapy/biotherapy trainer and has been certified by the Oncology Nursing Service as a cancer genetic educator. She is currently practicing as an oncology NP in the new Maimonides Cancer Center where she manages patients with many cancer diagnoses and conducts teaching seminars which target nurses and advanced practice nurses. Ms. Willis is also actively involved in developing the IMPAC electronic medical record system for the cancer center.
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A morning at the Cloisters |
Upcoming Events
We are hosting a welcome event for the new class of Entry to Practice students joining us this spring. It will take place on Saturday, May 31 at 10:00 am. All alumni are invited and we will meet in the School of Nursing's Georgian Building lobby for a light breakfast before heading off to the Cloisters museum. Please join us.To register, please click here or contact the Development and Alumni Affairs Office at 800-899-6728.
Alumni News
Arthur Manalac '07, who is currently part of Hospital for Special Surgery's Nurse Residency program for the Operating Room, was chosen by the educators and management to be interviewed for this month's Advance for Nurses magazine, vol. 8 issue 8.He is featured on page 17.
If you would like to share information about yourself for upcoming e-newsletters or class notes, please let us know at jh2526@columbia.edu. Class notes may also be submitted online at www.nursing.columbia.edu by selecting "Alumni" and "Class Notes." Are you interested in reconnecting with former classmates? Become a Class or Program Representative. Please call our office at 800-899-6728 for more details.
Have a wonderful summer!
Reva Feinstein
Janine Handfus
Jennifer Smith
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