Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, Iowa, is undertaking the biggest fundraising campaign in its history — the $15 million Legacy of Faith Campaign — to generate capital to erect a new facility for its nursing school.
Since 2018 the nursing school has been housed in Mercy College of Health Sciences' Academic Center for Excellence. Constructing the two-story, 24,300-square-foot Joyce E. Lillis School of Nursing will enable the nursing school to have its own dedicated space with skills labs; simulation spaces; and classrooms with high-fidelity manikins and advanced technology and equipment, according to a press release.
Mercy College of Health Sciences President Dr. Adreain Henry said in the release that building the new nursing school facility will "enable us to urgently respond to the dire nursing workforce shortage that is facing our state." The release said Iowa has more than 3,500 job openings for nurses. This is the top need for skilled labor in Iowa, the release noted.
According to a 2019 report titled "The Impact of Campus Facilities on the Recruitment of Students in Higher Education" from Western Kentucky University, "about 40% of students place significant importance on the quality of facilities in their decision to attend an institution." College leadership expects the count of nursing students to rise once the new facility is open. Currently the school has about 600 pre-licensure nursing students at any given time. The college noted that as enrollment increases, it intends to hire more nursing school faculty. The college recently launched a master of science in nursing education degree to increase the faculty pipeline.
The Legacy of Faith Campaign already has raised $7.8 million during a quiet phase and now is entering the public fundraising phase. During the quiet phase, more than three dozen individuals and companies donated gifts of $25,000 or more. Among the top donors to date are Terry and Joyce Lillis, who gave $2.5 million, and the Ruan Family Foundation, which gave $1.5 million.
Joyce Lillis, the namesake for the to-be-developed facility, is a nurse who retired in 2016 after 47 years in health care. For nearly 40 years of her career, she worked at MercyOne in Des Moines. This included roles in direct and indirect patient care, education and as a director of MercyOne's Home Care unit. Currently she chairs Mercy College's board of directors. Her husband, Terry Lillis, is a retired chief financial officer of Principal, a financial services company. He said that their family has three main priorities — health, education and faith — and making the lead donation toward a new health care facility at Mercy College advances all three.
Construction is to start next year.
Mercy College of Health Sciences is affiliated with MercyOne and Trinity Health.