New Professorship Honors A Life-Long Commitment To Nursing Education
In 2017 Penn Nursing Overseer Ralph Reynolds, W’84, and his wife Gail, a member of Penn’s Rowing Sports Board, generously endowed a new professorship, the Gail and Ralph Reynolds President’s Distinguished Professorship—a first-of-its kind President’s distinguished professorship with a preference for appointments to the School of Nursing.
April 09, 2018Ralph Reynolds understands the importance of nursing and nursing education. As the son of Alabama Nurses Hall of Famer Dr. Hildagarde Reynolds, Ralph has been exposed to nursing academia his entire life. Despite devoting himself to a career in investment banking, Ralph and Gail opted to invest in the critical work of Penn Nursing, first establishing the Dr. Hildagarde Reynolds Term Endowed Professorship at the School of Nursing in 2009 and more recently creating the disntinguished professorship. The new Gail and Ralph Reynolds President’s Distinguished Professorship will solidify Penn Nursing’s deep well of great faculty, ensuring that our reputation as the #1 nursing program in the world remains intact.
With five children, two of whom attend or have attended the University of Pennsylvania, Ralph and Gail have established an incredible legacy at Penn Nursing for their family—and the Reynolds’ gift has long-lasting effects on our school and our students. Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing Antonia M. Villarruel notes that the professorship will “help us recruit the very brightest talent in nursing research and education.”