Foundations Pledge $5 Million Each to Building Fund

By Lynn Schultz-Writsel

Two well-known philanthropic organizations—the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the France-Merrick Foundation—have made pledges that reaffirm their continuing commitment to the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

According to Dean Martha N. Hill, the two gifts of $5 million each now bring the total funds raised for an addition to the School of Nursing building to nearly $15 million. Hill noted, “These foundations continue to be vital and steadfast partners in helping us to develop the 21st-century Hopkins brand of nursing and to address the critical nationwide nursing shortage.” She added that their commitment and those of others will be “instrumental in positioning us as a global leader in nursing excellence. The additional space will translate to enhanced programs, more faculty, and more opportunities to educate those who will set this century’s standards of nursing excellence.”

The School’s Anne M. Pinkard building opened in January 1998 as the first structure on the East Baltimore campus dedicated solely to nursing education at Johns Hopkins. The proposed addition, two-thirds of which will be occupied by the School of Nursing and one-third by the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute, is scheduled to open in 2009 and will cost an estimated $26 million.

Walter D. Pinkard, Jr., chair of the school’s National Advisory Council and a member of the Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees, and president of the France-Merrick Board of Directors, sees the addition to the building as key to maintaining the School’s prominence. “That beautiful building played an important role in moving the School to its current prominence and top national rankings, but today it has reached capacity and the School is beginning to feel the structural limitations.” With the addition, he noted, “nursing education at Hopkins will continue to be conducted in an environment of excellence and innovation.”