Posted: 4/25/2003
The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Charitable Foundation has committed $2 million to The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing to establish an endowed professorship in mental health and psychiatric nursing.
The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing will be a nurse scholar, researcher, educator, and clinician, who will hold a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Medicine.
“The Stulman Professorship will bring together two of Hopkins most pre-eminent institutions the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine, and will build upon the strengths of each to forge creative solutions for research, care, and education in mental illness,” says Walter D. Pinkard, Jr., a trustee of the Stulman Foundation, a trustee of The Johns Hopkins University, and chairman of the National Advisory Council for Johns Hopkins Nursing.
“We are thrilled by this gift – the first endowed professorship in the School of Nursing that incorporates a joint appointment in the School of Medicine,” says Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN, dean of the School of Nursing. “By developing clinical experiences for nursing students, in in-patient and community settings, the Stulman Professor will enhance their understanding of debilitating mental illnesses and expose them to the rewards of a career in mental health. This professor will play an active role in attracting students to mental health nursing as a destination career.”
J. Raymond DePaulo, MD, Henry Phipps Professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Medicine, says nurses play a paramount role in the detection and treatment of mental illnesses – particularly those often overlooked or misdiagnosed, such as bipolar or affective disorders, and the critical shortage of specialized nurses will acutely affect the future of mental health care.
“Johns Hopkins nursing students may present one of the greatest resources of future mental health nurses,” he says. “In addition, having a nurse scientist in this professorship will allow Johns Hopkins to expand the scope of its research in mental illness.”
The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Foundation was established by Leonard Stulman, a Baltimore businessman and philanthropist and Johns Hopkins alumnus, who died in 2000. In addition to Walter D. Pinkard, Jr., the other trustees of the Foundation are Shale D. Stiller and Frank T. Gray. The Foundation earlier provided funding to establish the Leonard and Helen Stulman Jewish Studies Program at Hopkins.
During his lifetime, Stulman and his wife, Helen, made generous gifts to the Jewish community, the arts, music, theater, and to Johns Hopkins, where they endowed the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professorship in History, a lecture series in history, and fellowships in the humanities.
“Ultimately, this endowment from the Stulman Foundation will play a pivotal role in preparing the next generation of mental health nurses and bolstering the ranks of mental health nurses dedicated to helping patients and families with serious mental illness,” adds Hill.
A national search will be conducted to choose the first Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing.
With the pledge from the Stulman Foundation, commitments to the Johns Hopkins Knowledge for the World campaign total more than $968 million, 48% of the $2 billion goal. Priorities of the fund-raising campaign, which benefits both The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, include building and upgrading facilities on all campuses; strengthening endowment for student aid and faculty support; and advancing research, academic, and clinical initiatives. The campaign began in July 2000 and is scheduled to end in 2007.
For more information about community health nursing at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, visit http://nursing.jhu.edu/life_at_hopkins/index.html. For more information about affective disorder research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, visit http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bipolar.
For media inquiries, contact Ming Tai at [email protected] or 410-614-5317.