$52M nursing gift Caring for the future
Hunter College’s nursing school has netted a $52 million donation — the largest in the college’s history — at a time when an ongoing nursing shortage has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.
The Manhattan college will use the generous windfall — from billionaire Estée Lauder heir Leonard A. Lauder — to enhance its graduate-level program for nurse practitioners.
And the gift couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, according to Hunter President Jennifer Raab.
“We all know there’s not enough doctors, and the care that they provide gets supplemented by nurse practitioners,” Raab told The Post Thursday.
“So training more nurse practitioners and working with [NYC] Health + Hospitals is truly a gift not just to Hunter, but also to the health of our great city,” Raab said.
Thanks to a “natural partnership,” according to Raab, more CUNY nurses are employed through NYC Health + Hospitals than any other health system in the Big Apple.
Honoring wife
The donation comes from Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder companies, in memory of his late wife Evelyn Lauder.
As a Hunter College High School and Hunter College alumna, Evelyn lived by the college’s motto of “mihi cura futuri” — the care of the future is mine, Raab said.
The donation is not only the largest that Hunter has ever received, but the largest philanthropic gift given to any single CUNY school.
Lauder’s donation will help pay for a new community care nurse practitioner program, named for Evelyn Lauder. It will provide $30,000 stipends to 25 students each year.