VCU news

By Jennifer Terkeltaub
VCU Communications and Public Relations

This fall, the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing will launch a three-part lecture series for the 2009-2010 academic year.

The nursing lecture series is meant to enhance the educational experience for students, while at the same time connect alumni and professional colleagues with the school.

The school will kick off the series with the “Jackie Denise Jackson Memorial Cultural Diversity Lectureship,” featuring VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., who will speak on the topic of diversity in higher education and at VCU.

The event will take place Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building, 1217 E. Marshall St. The event is free and open to all VCU faculty, staff and students, as well as School of Nursing alumni.

Established in 2000, the Jackie Denise Jackson Memorial Endowment was created to honor the life and work of Jackie Jackson, a dedicated member of the School of Nursing community for over 18 years.

Jackson, who served on the cultural diversity committee, strongly believed that people of diverse backgrounds could come together, overcome differences and learn from each other. School of Nursing officials hope that the endowment will honor the legacy of “unity in community,” which Jackson fostered during her life and throughout her work in the school.

The lecture series will continue with the “Legacy Lectureship in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing,” featuring Teena McGuinness, Ph.D., professor, School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham. It will take place Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 4 p.m. in the VCU School of Nursing Building’s Younger Auditorium, 1100 E. Leigh St.

McGuinness, a 1982 graduate of the VCU School of Nursing's master's program, will present "A Psychiatric Nurse on Every Street Corner,” in which she will talk about access to mental health care and the huge global disease burden of mental disorders.

Established in 2002 by four former nursing faculty members, the Legacy Lectureship brings prominent psychiatric-mental health nursing scholars to the school to raise awareness of mental health issues and underscore the importance of psychiatric nursing.

“The Mahoney-Hamner Nursing Alumni Lectureship,” the final lecture in the series, will feature Patricia Grady, Ph.D., R.N., director of the National Institute of Nursing Research, and will take place Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m. in the Younger Auditorium.

The Mahoney-Hamner Lectureship, the school’s oldest endowed lectureship, was established through a grassroots alumni and community fund-raiser effort led by Anne F. Mahoney of the class of 1929 and Nora Spencer Hamner, class of 1914.
Receptions will be held immediately following each lecture. For more information, call 804-828-3620 or e-mail vcunursing@vcu.edu.