VUSN Dean Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D., greets Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell at last week’s ceremony.
Photo by Susan Urmy
Nursing School debuts newly renovated Godchaux Hall
On hand at the unveiling were, from left, Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D.; Brenda Wynn; Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D.; Patricia Grady; Mary Godchaux Wieck; Theresa Payne Godchaux; Frank Godchaux; Ed Nelson; Leslie Godchaux; and Harry Jacobson, M.D.
Photo by Susan Urmy
The deans: Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D., and Steven Gabbe, M.D.
Photo by Susan Urmy
After more than two years of construction, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) unveiled its newly renovated Godchaux Hall to more than 200 members of the Middle Tennessee community during a special ceremony last Friday.
“We are very excited about our 'new' home,” said Colleen Conway-Welch, Ph.D., Nancy and Hilliard Travis Professor of Nursing and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. “This space allows us to have fully equipped research space with dry labs and offices to further expand our research efforts and a 10-patient intervention lab to better prepare our more than 600 students pursuing their advanced practice nursing degrees.”
Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, Patricia Grady, Ph.D., director of the National Institute for Nursing Research, members of the Godchaux family and VUMC leaders were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“The health of the public, the health of the city, the health of the people, and our individual health is dependent on quality nursing services being available in the city,” said Purcell. “And for that you have the thanks of a mayor and a whole city.”
This is the first major interior renovation in more than 30 years to the building, erected in 1925 as a dormitory for 100 nursing students, along with a library and faculty offices. The building was renamed Mary Ragland Godchaux Hall in 1971 when the dorm rooms were replaced with faculty offices.
“It was been a privilege for my family to be involved with the school of nursing these last three decades because the profession of nursing is so important,” said Frank K. Godchaux. “There's not a person who won't be touched by a nurse in some way during the course of their lifetime.”
Fifty percent of the more than $3 million project was funded by a National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources. Additional funding was provided by key financial supporters including the Godchaux family.