AMHERST — A $2 million gift from an alumna will support scholarships, mentoring and peer-to-peer support for nursing students from diverse backgrounds at the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts.
The university announced this week that a comprehensive mentoring and scholarship program, called the Seedworks Equity in Nursing Fund, aims to enhance diversity and inclusion within the college.
Susan Hagedorn, who graduated from UMass Amherst in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, made the gift. She is a nurse practitioner and educator who has dedicated her career to social justice.
“The Seedworks Fund is committed to the UMass Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and believe they have the will and ability to engage and support diversifying the nursing program,” Hagedorn said in a statement. “Diversifying nursing education makes nursing care better and, therefore, improves the health of all. This program is meant to increase equity in nursing and social justice in health care.”
The announcement of the latest donation comes less than a week after a $21.5 million gift from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation, the largest in campus history.
Seedworks Fund is a nonprofit fund founded by Hagedorn and her children Hope Hagedorn Reeves, Will Hagedorn Paterson and Jennifer Paterson Turner. Hagedorn is a longtime supporter of the College of Nursing, and previously donated funds to start an endowed professorship in social justice in nursing.
Starting this fall, the gift will provide funding for scholarships to nursing students who may have challenges to accessing higher education. It will also support a mentoring program that will include faculty and nursing leaders, networking and professional development workshops, and activities that will strengthen recruitment of high school students interested in health care careers.
Trustee Will Paterson said in a statement that workplaces including medicine, accounting and teaching have been dominated by white people, particularly at the leadership level.
“The Seedworks Fund is designed to address some of those disparities in the specific field of nursing and we are incredibly proud of both the design and aspiration,” Paterson said.
Hagedorn is a professor emerita at the University of Colorado, where she earned a doctorate degree in nursing. She also holds a master’s degree from Boston College in maternal-child nursing. She has practiced and taught psychiatric, pediatric and public health nursing, and provided training for pediatric and women’s health nurse practitioners.
She also is a filmmaker who has produced more than 20 films focusing on nursing and social justice and is currently working on a new documentary about racism in nursing.
Gabrielle Abelard, a professor in the College of Nursing who graduated from the department, said in a statement that the gift from the Seedworks Fund is impactful, observing that 24 years ago she was the only person of color in a cohort of more than 200 pre-nursing students. When Abelard returned in 2001 for a graduate program, she co-founded the ALANA, Asian, Latino, African and Native American program for nursing.
“Diversity in nursing is important because the patients in our health care system are diverse with a wide range of life experiences,” Abelard said. “This is where we can really make a difference with this funding by recruiting and training cohorts of nursing students to care for patients.”
“Too often, our patients don’t see themselves in the people taking care of them. UMass Amherst will be a leader in changing that, and that is very exciting,” Abelard said.
The Seedworks Equity in Nursing Fund is modeled after similar initiatives, including Marquette University’s BEYOND project and the Dotson Bridge and Mentoring Program at Simmons University.
