Tamryn Gray and Jessica McGreehan are the inaugural recipients of the Gertrude T. Hodges Scholarship Fund established by the Black Student Nurses Association with the Office of Student Affairs.
Hodges, a pioneering nurse leader, was the first African-American graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, known in her day (Class of 1959) as the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses. Hodges went on to earn a master’s degree at Columbia Teacher’s College and spent most of her career as nursing faculty of the Community College of Baltimore. Through her decades of providing healthcare, teaching, and mentoring, Hodges inspired generations of Baltimore nurses, many of them from underprivileged communities.
For her relentless pursuit of excellence in healthcare education, Hodges owns a Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumna Award. In her honor, and in hopes of building more nurses to follow in her footsteps, the scholarship was established to each year help “two current students who demonstrate a commitment to health equity and narrowing health disparities” purchase textbooks.
Gray and McGreehan were honored with Hodges at a reception at the Hopkins School of Nursing. Maryland State Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam marked the occasion with a proclamation in Hodges’ honor.
***
Located in Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is a globally-recognized leader in nursing education, research and practice and ranks #2 nationally among graduate schools of nursing and #6 for online programs, according to U.S. News & World Report. In addition, the school was named the “Most Innovative Nursing Graduate Program in the U.S.” by Best Master of Science in Nursing Degrees, and ranks #1 among nursing schools for Federal Research Grants and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. For more information, visit www.nursing.jhu.edu.
Media Inquiries
Danielle Kress
410-955-2840