Dillard University College of Nursing will be honored for 75 years of instructing and producing some of the nation’s first African-American nurses, with an open celebration scholarship gala in the Marriott New Orleans Downtown Convention Center.
Dillard University College of Nursing students at a graduation ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Dillard University)The event will take place on Friday, Oct. 18 at 7:00 p.m.
“We are proud to be at this moment,” Dr. Sharon W. Hutchinson, dean of the College of Nursing said. “Our legacy of producing stellar nurses continues today. We look at the gala as a time for our city to celebrate another historic accomplishment.”
In the 1940’s, Dillard’s nursing program was the only one available to African-Americans in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi, according to university officials.
Dillard nursing students were able to learn and train at Flint-Goodridge Hospital, which was previously owned by the university.
The gala will include a keynote address by alumna Dr. Danielle Perkins Manning, who is the first African-American to graduate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s doctoral nursing program in 2013.
Tickets purchased to attend the gala will be used to fund the institution’s nursing scholarship fund.
Currently, the College of Nursing has produced around 1,200 BSN graduates working in education, politics, healthcare and private industry fields.
