Bellarmine Interim President Dr. Doris Tegart joins Norton Healthcare’s President Russell Cox in announcing Norton’s $1.5 million grant to the university. Photo Credit: Bellarmine University
BY IAN COX, NEWS EDITOR
A grant provided by Norton Healthcare’s James R. Petersdorf Fund on Aug. 15 will fund new programs and expanded services on Bellarmine University’s campus.
“Norton Healthcare and Bellarmine University have a partnership that dates back more than 15 years,” said Norton Healthcare’s director of special projects, Laura Chandler. “Norton Healthcare Board of Trustees was fully supportive of the grant and considered it an extension of their joint commitment to workforce development, health, and wellness.”
The grant will support four main objectives identified by Bellarmine to meet needs across several different departments and programs. The money will be used to improve existing programs and to kickstart programs the university has just launched.
Norton Healthcare will continue its support for nursing education in Bellarmine’s Lansing School of Nursing & Health Sciences. The Norton Health Science Center construction began in 2002, adding 28,500 square feet to Bellarmine’s campus for research and teaching 12 core science classes. Norton’s gift, in addition to contributions made by both Brown-Forman Corporation and the James Graham Brown Foundation, accounted for nearly half of the $6 million project that was finished in 2004. The continued support in nursing education is important as it is one of Bellarmine’s most popular and well-known programs.
“We celebrate the sciences no less than we celebrate the humanities as essential to the educated person,” the late President Joseph J. McGowan said in 2002 at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Norton Health Science Center.
The grant will also assist in expanding campus health services. Students will reap the benefits whenever they visit the nurse’s office to receive treatment for illnesses. Dr. Alice Kimble, Bellarmine’s director of health services better known as “Nurse Alice,” said a nurse practitioner will be available more often.
“Starting October 1, we will have a nurse practitioner on campus with 20 additional hours a week,” Kimble said.
One of the newer programs the grant will help with is the Institute for Advanced Analytics. Bellarmine established the Institute for Advanced Analytics in 2014, and it is the first of its kind in Kentucky. The grant will fund the development of a new learning space for the program.
Zain Khandwala, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Analytic, said the Institute “will be housed on the third floor of Centro. In addition to offices for staff of the Institute, the new space will contain a reception area, study/meeting rooms, and – most prominently – a special-purpose classroom designed to accommodate the needs of the Master of Science in Analytics program.” Many businesses and organizations use advanced analytics to discover and improve their offerings, processes and outcomes.
The final objective of the grant is to enhance support for student athletes by Norton Sports Health through the Bellarmine sports medicine office. Bellarmine’s goal is to expand its sports medicine program and to make sure sports trainers and doctors are always available to Bellarmine athletes.
None of the money Norton is giving will go toward Bellarmine’s Centro project. Interim president Dr. Doris Tegart said the university still needs to raise a substantial amount of money in order to finish McGowan’s signature project.
“We still have $2.3 million to raise before we can finish the second and third floor. We have donors identified in terms in whom we are going to ask,” Tegart said.
Norton will divide the grant over a five year period, Tegart said. She also said although students may see some effects of the grant as early as the fall semester, the grant will really make an impact by 2021.
“I think (the programs the grant affects) will just keep getting better and better,” Tegart said.