The importance of this balancing act is not lost on Board of Trustees member David Keiser, the former president, chief operating officer and director of Alexion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, Connecticut. Citing his “very high appreciation of the role that nurses play within our healthcare system,” Keiser funded the creation of the School of Nursing community engagement program.

Now in its third year, the comprehensive injury prevention and public outreach initiative has helped over 3,000 community members and has been integrated into the curricula of the nursing school, the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine and the School of Health Sciences.

Pina Violano, the program’s director and a clinical associate professor of nursing, praised Keiser for making such a critical investment in the future of healthcare.

“The generous funding from the Keiser Foundation has helped Quinnipiac and the School of Nursing develop a comprehensive, robust, community engagement program that enables us to generate a pipeline of community-engaged healthcare workers who will care for the health and well-being of our communities in need — including our most vulnerable communities who historically are deprived of access to healthcare,” Violano said.

The community engagement program partners with Quinnipiac EMS to bring life-saving education to students across disciplines through an agreement with the American Heart Association. Topics include community CPR and automatic external defibrillator (AED) training, cardiovascular health, firearm safety, bicycle safety, Narcan and EpiPen administration and Stop the Bleed (STP) hemorrhage control.

“The plan is to continuously offer courses for years to come,” said nursing student and Quinnipiac EMS captain Alex Bayer ’25. “Quinnipiac EMS and the School of Nursing community engagement program are committed to keep this program alive and affirm our belief in the ideals of inclusive excellence as a way to continue nurturing Quinnipiac as a university full of people who care deeply about each other and the communities around us.”

Additionally, nursing students and alumni can obtain a community engagement distinction micro-credential by completing a hybrid, 70-hour program centered around the Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce population health course and attending four community safety training courses.

“It’s been so gratifying to watch the breadth of the program grow over the past three years and see the impact it’s had — not just in North Haven, but also the broader New Haven communities,” Keiser said. “It’s providing students with experiential learning opportunities, but it also demonstrates the value Quinnipiac University brings within the communities in which it resides.”