VCU Health Nurses Receiving Career-Building Scholarships

VCU Health team members gathered to celebrate scholarship recipients and donors earlier this year. 

The annual awards ceremony, held during Week of the Nurse in May, allows guests to connect with others who share their passion for professional development and lifelong learning in the nursing field.  

Tina Mammone, Ph.D., R.N., chief nurse executive of the VCU Health System, welcomed the group. She shared her own journey of how training opportunities helped build her responsibility and passion for nursing, and how those opportunities were made possible by donors who supported her efforts at various stages of training.  

Six privately funded scholarships were awarded to a dozen team members who are pursuing professional development opportunities. The scholarship recipients are at varying stages of their nursing careers, including patient care technicians seeking nursing degrees as well as registered nurses pursuing advanced degrees. 

Kelly Smith, BSN, RN, was awarded the Paul Alton Dresser Jr. Palliative Care Nursing Scholarship. She is the nurse manager of the Thomas Palliative Care Unit at VCU Medical Center.  

“The ability to provide quality evidence-based nursing care is a gift,” said Smith, who is working toward a master’s degree in nursing. She plans on attending the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care conference in Denver in February 2025. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to expand and invigorate the care we provide on the unit, and when I return from the interdisciplinary conference, I will lead lunch-and-learn sessions for my colleagues so we can all benefit from the conference’s offerings.” 

The Dresser Scholarship was established in 2017 by Julie Baxter, a former palliative care nurse who saw the impact of professional development throughout her own career. With her philanthropic gift, she wanted to both open that opportunity for others, as well as honor her husband, Paul Dresser. 

Having previously worked in the hospice and palliative care fields, Baxter said she “missed the patients and families and wanted to support the wonderful nurses who had chosen this field that Paul and I knew was so very important and yet still undervalued.”  

She was impressed with Smith’s plans for putting the scholarship to use – not just for herself, but also for others on the palliative care unit.  

“I know it will be a wonderful experience for her to go to the annual conference,” Baxter said. When she herself attended in the past, she would buy DVD recordings and handouts because they were so helpful to share with colleagues back home.  

“The forward-thinking, persistent pioneers of the palliative care movement who created the body of science and certification are aging out and retiring, and I’m excited there are Kelly Smiths coming along!” 

This year’s scholarship recipients are: 

Joyce Johnson Scholarship for Nursing Education 

• Nora Carlucci 
• Ina Chandler 
• Wendy Cornejo  
• Enma Hernandez 
• Nia Walker 

Dr. Kevin Shimp Endowed Scholarship 

• Molly Lehatto 

Paul Alton Dresser Jr. Palliative Care Nursing Education Scholarship 

• Kelly Smith 

Shirley Gibson Lifelong Learning Scholarship 

• Logan Bauserman 

Barbara A. Farley Nursing, MN, RN Graduate Nursing Scholarship Endowment at MCV Hospitals 

• Brittany McDonald 
• Monica Skinner 
• Whitney “Whit” Tran 

Diona Tuggle Nursing Scholarship 

• Courtney Crawford