Guest Speaker Shari McDonald, RN, MSN
V.P. of Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo
The GCC Nursing Alumni Committee held their 2nd annual Nursing Gala at the Richards C. Call Arena on Friday night to help raise funds to assist nursing students with non academic purposes. The theme this year was “Luau”
The goal of the GCC Nursing Alumni Scholarship is to help future nursing program students navigate the financial obstacles that life may throw in the way of student success.
Guest Speaker Shari McDonald, RN. MSN, a GCC Alumni, is the V.P. of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo. has been recognized for her work with several awards throughout her career and has been serving the Catholic Health System for the last 3 years.
Before serving at Mercy Hospital, McDonald practiced for 20 years in Rochester at Strong Hospital where she served as the Senior Administrative Director of Emergency Services and Acute Services at Rochester General Hospital.
McDonald told the crowd of students and alumni that GCC believed in her and she felt like she was part of a family when she attended college here.
Claire B. Gardner, of Warsaw, will be graduating from the GCC Nursing Program next week and will be continuing on at SUNY Brockport in their RN to BSN program. Rochester General Hospital hired her in April and she will begin working in their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in July.
Gardener shared her reasons for coming to GCC and enrolling in the Nursing Program.
Jennifer Wakefield, the Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs, says after Friday night’s fundraising efforts, they hope to make this an endowment scholarship and continue on into the future with being able to offer the scholarship to Nursing students.
“We are getting pretty close, we are hoping that through tonight’s event we will raise a total of $10,000 for the scholarship,” says Wakefield.
Next fall, the Nursing Program at GCC will celebrate their 50th Anniversary.