Nurse Practitioners: Leading With Heart
By Caitlin Hanbury
The VCU School of Nursing commemorates 50 years of nurse practitioner education this year, a milestone that underscores decades of leadership, innovation and commitment to community health.
The school marked the anniversary with a special event Jan. 30, where alumni, students, faculty and partners gathered to celebrate the program’s impact and its next chapter.
As advanced practice nursing programs emerged nationwide, VCU launched its own in 1974 and graduated its first cohort in 1976. Since then, thousands of nurse practitioner alumni have entered the workforce.
“For 50 years, VCU’s nurse practitioners have provided essential services to communities across the commonwealth, country and globe,” said Marlon Levy, M.D., senior vice president of VCU Health Sciences and CEO of VCU Health. “They’ve filled gaps in care especially in rural areas, used versatile skillsets to improve health outcomes and helped lower health care costs for patients and systems alike.”
The nurse practitioner role became a critical way to address a national primary care shortage in the 1970s, building on nursing’s long‑held position as a trusted profession and helping to expand care to more communities. VCU’s early students were part of that pioneering movement.
“I think a lot of people that came to the program early because they were not satisfied with traditional nursing roles and wanted to be better able to take care of patients and families,” explained Barbie Dunn, Ph.D., retired faculty and MCV Foundation lifetime honorary trustee.
Over the years, the school has continued to evolve the program in response to the expanding scope and complexity of the nurse practitioner role.
“In 2015, we began offering nurse practitioner education at the doctorate level, which is really important because we’re helping our students not only be expert clinicians but also change agents,” explained Patricia Kinser, Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Nursing. “Our students are learning how to identify problems, identify solutions and stand up for the change that they see needs to be made.”
Proceeds from this year’s anniversary event will support the Crystal Goodwin Community Engagement Fund, which provides resources for nurse and nurse practitioner-led programs that improve the health and well‑being of the greater Richmond community — work rooted in a long tradition.
From the beginning, nurse practitioners have been clinicians who expand traditional care models to better serve patients and communities. That spirit of possibility continues at VCU, where nurse practitioner students and graduates broaden access, champion preventive care and shape the next generation of community‑centered health, transforming lives well beyond clinic walls.
That momentum is clear to program alums such as Judy Collins, a professor emeritus and MCV Foundation lifetime honorary trustee. “The whole world of health care is recognizing that nurse practitioners are playing a critical role on the team to give quality health care — which is what we are all about.”
If you are interested in supporting the VCU School of Nursing, please contact Jess Sorensen, the school’s senior director of development, at 804-615-5877 or jlsorensen@vcu.edu.
