The College of Health Sciences celebrated Boise State’s extensive partnership with Saint Alphonsus at a reception on Thursday, Sept. 24 in the Stueckle Sky Center at Albertsons Stadium.
In addition to providing student clinical experiences for most programs in the College of Health Sciences, Saint Alphonsus also participates on multiple boards and committees across the university and has a long history of partnership with Boise State. Saint Alphonsus, through its parent company Trinity Health, has provided significant financial support to Boise State as well through this long partnership. Financial support ranges from student scholarships to buildings, equipment, faculty development and joint appointments with nursing faculty and more. Most importantly, Saint Alphonsus hires 50-100 Boise State graduates per year, proving the value of our degree programs.
Kirsten Coughlin was also honored for her 25 years of dedicated support to both Boise State and Saint Alphonsus. Coughlin’s comments included how she “loved being a nurse,” how she was “recruited to volunteer through the Friends of Nursing” by an extremely voracious nurse educator by the name of Joanna “Jody” DeMeyer, then chair of the nursing department, how much she enjoyed her many years of service to both Boise State and to Saint Alphonsus, and how “if she can do it, anyone can do it.”
In addition to Coughlin, speakers included Tim Dunngan, dean of Boise State’s College of Health Sciences; Rodney Reider, president and CEO of Saint Alphonsus; and Jill Aldape, director of Saint Alphonsus Foundation.