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College of Nursing Awarded $350,000 Continuation Grant for Leadership 2.0

headshot of Katie Pence By Katie Pence 513-558-4561
3 minute read September 15, 2016

The University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Nursing has been awarded a $350,000 continuation grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The grant will fund the Leadership 2.0 initiative for an additional 12 months.

Leadership 2.0 is a nursing workforce diversity (NWD) initiative that supports underrepresented students applying to the college's bachelor of science in nursing program. The two-year program provides holistic support through a student's sophomore year. HRSA initially funded this program with a grant of $1,028,056 over three years in July of 2013. 

The continuation grant will fund the program for another twelve months with the following five goals:
  • Increase career exposure and readiness by expanding Leadership 2.0 from a two-year to a four-year program
  • Refinement of the original Leadership 2.0 goals (increase recruitment, retention and grade point averages of under-represented racial/ethnic students)
  • Develop a learning collaborative with the partner high schools to build capacity
  • Increase sustainability of Leadership 2.0 through development of an iBook guide on how to implement the interventions
  • Develop a learning collaborative with other NWD awardees
The project is led by Greer Glazer, PhD, dean, UC College of Nursing and Karen Bankston, PhD, associate dean of clinical practice, partnership and community engagement in the College of Nursing. Kim McGinnis is the Leadership 2.0 program director.

"Expanding the program is going to help us help those students, and it also shows and builds upon the college's and institution's commitment to diversity and inclusion, which meets HRSA's goals of getting a more diverse nursing workforce to meet the nation's changing demographics," says Bankston. "So far we have been able to show that students in the Leadership 2.0 program have a higher retention rate, the have more students going on to graduate school and they have a high ongoing grade point average in the course of the program." 

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