VCU to celebrate Founders Day

By Mary Beth Alford

RICHMOND, Va. – A ceremony honoring 11 outstanding alumni and a nursing conference will be among the highlights of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Founders Day activities in November. This year’s events, sponsored by the VCU Alumni Association and the Medical College of Virginia Alumni Association of VCU, feature:

• Eleven Alumni Stars -- selected for their humanitarian and professional achievements, as well as their community and university service -- will be honored on Nov. 3. The event will begin with a 6 p.m. reception, followed by the awards dinner at 7 p.m. The event will be held at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St.; tickets are $30. For reservations, call 828-2586.

• On Nov. 27, a reception and "New Artists, New Works" exhibition will be held. The show features works by graduate fine arts students including those in VCU’s Sculpture Department, rated among the nation’s top five graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report. The event, sponsored by the VCU School of the Arts, will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the School of Arts Building, 1000 W. Broad St.

• The 8th Annual Alumni Conference and 33rd Annual Nursing Lectureship, will feature a keynote address on "A Legacy of Meaning." The address will be given by Denise C. Thornby, R.N., M.S., nurse educator at VCU’s Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, at 8:30 a.m., Nov. 3.

At 2:15 p.m. Nov. 3, nationally recognized nurse educator, author and clinical ethicist Diann B. Uustal, Ed.D., M.S., R.N., president of Educational Resources in HealthCare, Inc., will discuss "The Power of One: The Ethic of Care in Healing Relationships" at The Mahoney-Hammer Nursing Alumni Lectureship. Uustal will be available after the lecture to sign her books Clinical Ethics and Values: Issues and Insights in a Changing Health Care Environment and Caring for Yourself-Caring for Others: The Ultimate Balance.

Other conference activities will include a reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Program. Hosted by the VCU School of Nursing Department of Maternal Child Nursing, the celebration will be held at 4:30 p.m., Nov. 2.

The two-day conference also will offer several educational sessions, covering topics including "The Future of Nursing," "Comforting Comforters: How to Cope with Chronic Grief in Nursing," "Child Health Linkages: Partnerships Multiply the Impact" and "Organ Donation: A Unique Perspective."

All events for the conference, sponsored by the VCU School of Nursing and the Nursing Division of the MCV Alumni Association of VCU, will be held at the Richmond Hotel and Conference Centre, 6531 W. Broad St.

For information and or to register for nursing conference events, call 828-3900. For other Founders Day events, call 828-8191.