LATROBE, PA – Construction of Rhodora and John Donahue Hall, a state-of-the-art facility that will house Saint Vincent College’s Department of Nursing, kicked off in early fall on campus. The site is located adjacent to the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion on the west side of campus.
“Momentum is rapidly building around these already advanced undergraduate and graduate nursing programs at Saint Vincent College,” said Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B., C’87, S’91, PhD, president of Saint Vincent College. To bolster that strength, the Dunlap Family has made a significant gift to establish the Dunlap Family Institute for Teaching and Learning, which will occupy the entire top level of the new three-story nursing building.
The Institute seeks to provide a model environment to deliver Saint Vincent’s forward-thinking nursing curriculum, facilitate the use of innovative pedagogical approaches, and promote faculty excellence in teaching and research. That environment includes two cutting-edge classrooms, two study pods, a conference room, a learning lab, and a commuter lounge equipped with a kitchenette and seating areas. The Institute will also house five Dunlap Family Faculty Fellows.
“These Faculty Fellows will enhance their teaching and student engagement with a research agenda funded from the Institute,” Father Paul added.
The endowment as part of the Dunlap Family Institute for Teaching and Learning will be used to support the Fellows on an annual basis. The fellowships will be open to tenured, tenure-track or visiting faculty from any discipline proposing a healthcare-related project, including research, scholarly publications and new teaching strategy implementation.
The Dunlap Family Institute for Teaching and Learning joins the David Scaife Family Center for Excellence and Innovation in Nursing as another named space within the new facility. The Center, housed on the first floor, will be dedicated to simulation technology and virtual reality laboratories. The ground floor of the new facility will provide flexible space to accommodate growth and expansion of the nursing programs.
Donahue Hall underscores the College’s commitment to enhancing the quality of education and healthcare in the southwestern Pennsylvania region and beyond through its nursing programs housed within the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing: the pre-licensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program; the Direct Entry – Master of Science in Nursing (DE-MSN) program; and the graduate-level Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) program. The BSN program admitted its first students in fall 2024, and during the summer, the first DE-MSN cohort embarked on its 24-month accelerated program.
According to the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey cited in the “Journal of Nursing Regulation,” Pennsylvania is expected to need more than 160,000 new registered nurses by 2030—fifth most in the country. With roughly five million licensed nurses working in the United States, industry leaders note the figure simply isn’t enough, partly because of a wide range of career opportunities including those in ambulatory settings, hospitals, primary care offices, informatics and others.
The College hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Donahue Hall on June 13. The project is scheduled to reach completion by mid-November 2026 and will be ready for students and faculty by January 2027.
The project’s anticipated cost is $19 million. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has authorized a $3 million grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP). In addition to the Dunlap Family, funding has been provided by a host of alumni, friends and foundations, including Ann and J. Christopher Donahue (honoring his parents), the David Scaife Family Charitable Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
