Dr. Loretta C. Ford
2003 Elizabeth Blackwell Award RecipientGiving Nurses Authority
by Darlene Palmer
Dean and Professor Emerita at the University of Rochester School of Nursing Loretta Ford has enhanced not only the lives of nurses, but the health care of the general population, particularly children. Finding pediatric health care lacking because nurses did not have the authority nor the requisite knowledge to make high level decisions regarding patient care, Ford worked to create a model that would combine aspects of clinical care and research to give nurses the education necessary to help their patients. This model was the pediatric nurse practitioner. Nurse practitioners diagnose patients by taking into account the patient’s health, social, physical and economic status to produce effective care.
In 1942, Ford joined the Army Air Force and served at U.S. base hospitals until 1946. Attending college on the GI Bill, she earned a bachelor's degree, public health nursing certificate, master's in public health nursing, and a doctorate in education at the University of Colorado Medical School. While working toward her master’s, Ford was a public health nurse and saw firsthand the need for nurses to make clinical decisions for patient care. In 1964, Ford collaborated with Dr. Henry Silver, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Medical Center, to form an experimental master's degree curriculum at the university. Ford herself taught several of the classes. Such training included well-baby care, and routine treatment such as immunizations and vaccinations.
In 1972, Ford moved to Rochester, N.Y., to become the founding dean of the University of Rochester Medical School, where she taught and advocated for unifying practice, education and research in nursing. She retired from the university in 1985, and in 1988 returned as acting dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She also served as program director for the Commonwealth Fund’s Executive Nurse Leadership Program, until 1987.
Today nurse practitioners function much the same way Ford envisioned: as vital, educated and authoritative members of health care teams.
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Doctors in the House
First Blackwell Scholars arrive on campus
by Jeanne Nagle
Through her work and by her example, Elizabeth Blackwell helped many realize their dream of studying medicine. This fall, her legacy continues at Hobart and William Smith as two first-year-students begin their quest to become doctors under the auspices of a scholarship that bears her name.
Kathryn Parrinello ’07 of Middlesex, N.Y., and Brandon Carmack ’07 of Harrogate, Tenn., are the first Blackwell Scholars at the Colleges. They were chosen for their outstanding academic records and demonstrated commitment to a career in medicine. To qualify, candidates also must be either from a rural background, an under-represented minority or the first generation to attend college.
In addition to a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to attend Hobart and William Smith, Parrinello and Carmack each are guaranteed a seat at SUNY Upstate Medical University’s College of Medicine at Syracuse upon graduation and successful completion of the program.
“Throughout my college search I never came across any scholarship program that offered the same opportunity as this one does,” says Parrinello. “The combination of guaranteed entrance into medical school and full tuition to HWS, and a computer, is amazing. I feel extremely privileged to be part of it. Just to have my name associated with Elizabeth Blackwell’s is a great honor.”
This moment has been a long time coming for Parrinello. “If you asked me in kindergarten what I wanted to be when I grew up, my response would have been a doctor,” she says.
Toward that end, she participated in the New Visions Medical Careers Program as a senior at Marcus Whitman Junior/ Senior High School in Rushville, N.Y. New Visions enabled her to shadow several health professionals, including those on staff at Geneva General Hospital—an experience that should stand her in good stead when she interns at the hospital as a Blackwell Scholar.
A combination of factors led Carmack to pursue a medical career. He knew he wanted to go into a field where he could help people, but how would remain unclear until he hit high school. Gently nudged by a teacher at Bell County High School in Kentucky, he discovered an affinity for, and love of, the sciences.
“This past year I took AP biology and found myself wanting to study for a class that was really challenging,” he notes proudly.
Prior to attending HWS, Carmack took part in the University of Kentucky’s six-week summer course, Professional Education Preparation Program. He attended seminars, took college-level biology and chemistry classes, and performed volunteer services in health-care settings.
Carmack met Parrinello in March, when both were on campus to interview for the Blackwell Scholars Program. They and two other finalists rotated through a series of four interviews with faculty from SUNY Upstate Medical and Hobart and William Smith. Carmack was particularly impressed by the grilling he got from the HWS folks. “That was definitely the best interview. They asked the more important questions,” he recalls.
Both students say they are thrilled to have been accepted into the program and look forward to studying at the Colleges. Carmack expects to major in biology, whereas Parrinello is torn between that and chemistry. “I am also interested in the possibility of a major in psychology,” she says.
Being able to make such choices is part and parcel of attending a liberal arts school such as HWS, Parrinello says. “I’ll study the sciences necessary for med school, but I also look forward to the opportunity to take a variety of new courses and explore many different things.”
Carmack , too, appreciates the chance to attend Hobart and William Smith. “I was going to go to a liberal arts college even if I had to go into debt to do it,” he says.
Thanks to the Blackwell Scholars Program, that won’t be necessary.
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Fall 2003
Colleges open, honor, proclaim and dedicate at Convocation 2003
by Susan Murad
 On a sparkling late summer afternoon, students, faculty and staff, alumni and alumnae, trustees and friends of Hobart and William Smith gathered for the opening ceremonies and Convocation of the 2003-2004 academic year. The spirit and location of this year’s event evoked the old 60s lyric “The times, they are a-changin” – as it was the first such ceremony to be held at a new campus location, the lawn at Stern Hall.
The times, indeed, are changing on campus, and the September 9 ceremonies reflected and celebrated several of those changes: opening a new academic year; presentation of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award; the installation of the Colleges’ first trustee chair emeritus, William F. Scandling ’49 LL.D. ’67; and dedication of a new academic building.
As Dean of the Faculty and Provost Patricia Stranahan noted in her opening address, “On the surface, it may appear that we are gathering today to mark four unrelated events but, on closer inspection, it is clear that the Blackwell Award, the dedication of Stern Hall, the honoring of William Scandling and our opening convocation are closely interrelated because they all celebrate the Colleges’ educational philosophy.” Stranahan referred to the interdisciplinary nature of a Hobart and William Smith education, and challenged all in attendance to embrace the concept of an inclusive education that happens in all settings on campus, not only while students are in classrooms.
“Find your Must”
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Dr. Loretta C. Ford is presented
the Elizabeth Blackwell Award by
President Mark D. Gearan and
Board of Trustees Vice Chair
Maureen Collins Zupan ’72.
| Maureen Collins Zupan ’72, vice chair of the Board of Trustees, provided those assembled with a biographical sketch of the 33rd recipient of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, Dr. Loretta C. Ford. The founder of the nurse practitioner movement in the United States, Ford has been heralded nationally and internationally as a trailblazer who has transformed the nursing profession and enriched the lives of nurses and those for whom they care.
Receiving the Elizabeth Blackwell Award was, for Ford, “awesome.” In her address at the ceremonies, she spoke of Elizabeth Blackwell and Florence Nightingale, two English citizens and “Victorian ladies who defied the conventions of their time, thought ‘outside the box’ of Victorian feminine boundaries and, beyond thinking, moved into action. They challenged the rigid, prejudicial and inflexible systems that limited the use of their intellectual prowess and personal values.” Ford went on to compare some of Blackwell’s and Nightingale’s struggles with gender biases and “resistances to change in restrictive social and cultural environments” with modern times. In her research of Elizabeth Blackwell, Ford discovered that while Blackwell and Nightingale had differing approaches to nursing and medical education, they shared a friendship and mutual respect. She challenged students, faculty and all gathered to, in the words of Nightingale, “find your must – that which compels you to act and drives you toward an accomplishment.”
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Dr. Loretta C. Ford stands with the Elizabeth
Blackwell statue.
| In a touching response to Ford’s address, William Smith senior and pre-med student Julia James presented the newest member of the Blackwell sorority with a glass pine tree to symbolize resilience, service and hope. “You are an inspiration to the women of William Smith and to me, personally, as an aspiring physician,” James said. “I look to your accomplishments as an example of the way one person can change the face of medicine.”
Be it resolved
Board of Trustees Chair Charles H. Salisbury Jr., ’63 P’94, read a resolution proclaiming William F. Scandling ’49, LL.D. ’67 as the Colleges’ first Trustee Chair Emeritus. Citing Scandling’s long history of dedication to Hobart and William Smith, his time on campus as a student and co-founder of Saga Food Service Corporation, his invaluable leadership on the Board of Trustees, the creation of the Scandling Center and establishment of scholarships, and the great affection
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William F. Scandling '49
LL.D. '67. | and high personal regard that is felt by all those who know him, Salisbury stated, “Bill, you have been a friend to these Colleges and to me for many years. We are fortunate indeed to have you as one of our own.”
Scandling, who was unable to attend the event, was cheered by the crowd, who later provided individual greetings and congratulations to him via video tape. Earlier in the day, Ford, who has known Scandling for many years through his affiliation with the University of Rochester, spoke with the new Trustee Chair Emeritus via telephone and shared mutual congratulations on their special recognitions.
Coming full circle
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Standing proudly in front of the
building that bears his name is
lead donor Herbert J. Stern ’58,
LL.D. ’74, P’03.
| The dedication of Stern Hall was more than a simple ribbon cutting – it was a homecoming for those who were educated at Hobart and William Smith and then contributed to the funding, design and construction of its newest academic facility. Members of the Board of Trustees, alumni and alumnae who became donors, led by the Honorable Herbert J. Stern ’58, LL.D. ’74, P’03, were recognized by President Gearan, who, in quoting Shakespeare noted “Action is eloquence,” and stated, “Our donors have all shown their eloquence beautifully by their dedication to Hobart and William Smith and to this building.” In addition to those who funded the new home to the social sciences, two alums played significant roles – Pamela Lucas Rew ’81 was lead architect and Nate Podkaminer ’69, P’00 was construction manager of the project. In addition to their professional skills, Rew and Podkaminer brought unique perspectives of the campus and student life at the Colleges to the project.
Scott McKinney, the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowed Professor of Economics, spoke on behalf of the faculty and reflected, “Over the 24 years that I have been here, I have observed the Colleges taking great strides forward. Challenging goals have been set, effective policies developed and implemented that, in innumerable ways, have made the Colleges a better place in which to learn, in which to teach. And certainly Stern Hall is a very important one of those innumerable ways.”
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Ready to cut the ribbon marking the official
opening of Stern Hall are donors attending
Convocation (l - r): Trustees Maureen
Collins Zupan ’72 (vice chair), Barbara E.
Tornow ’65, Charles H. Salisbury, Jr. ’63, P’94
(chair), Michael Gantcher ’92, L. Thomas
Melly ’52, L.H.D. ’02, lead donor Herbert J.
Stern ’58, LL.D. ’74, P’03, Roy Dexheimer ’55,
LL.D. ’80, Rod Ross ’52, LL.D. ’79, and John
Marcellus, representing his father,
the late John Marcellus LL.D. ’68.
| Judge Stern then spoke on behalf of the donors and their families, who include: The George I. Alden Trust, Bruce Bensley ’51, Classes of 1952, Classes of 1963, Roy Dexheimer ’55, LL.D. ’80, Janet Brenner Dreyfus ’42*, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Freeman and The Bessette Foundation – in memory of Lauren Bessette ’86*, Michael Gantcher ’92, Ruth Keevil ’29*, John Marsellus LL.D. ’68*, Ella Russ McCann ’35*, Sally and Bill ’45* Moody, Allison Morrow ’76, Peter Resnick ’94, Jane Shepard Ritter ’48, John Ross ’66, LL.D. ’79, Art Stein ’36, Barbara Tornow ’65, Dr. Richard L. ’70 and Tina D. Wasserman, Beth Yingling ’75, and Maureen Collins Zupan ’72, (*deceased). Recognizing the many contributors who brought the building to fruition he stated, “We thus understand that this Hall embodies more than mere bricks and mortar. Most significantly, it represents a common commitment to these Colleges – to those who are here now, to those who were here once, and to those who will come hereafter. We gather to acknowledge that spirit which we can neither see nor touch, but without which there would be nothing to dedicate.” n
For more on Opening Ceremonies, please visit /news/speakers/transcripts/index.asp
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