Widener University receives record $10 million gift for nursing school
The gift comes from Jack Dwyer, a banking executive who has worked extensively with the healthcare industry and who received an accounting degree from Widener in 1978, and his wife Nancy.
Widener University has received a $10 million gift — the largest in its history — from an alumnus and his wife to support the school of nursing, the university announced Wednesday.
The gift comes from Jack Dwyer, a banking executive and certified public accountant who has worked extensively with the healthcare industry and who received an accounting degree from Widener in 1978, and his wife, Nancy. The school will be named for the couple in recognition of the gift, the university said. Widener plans to hold a ceremony Oct. 1 in front of Founders Hall, where the nursing school is based.
“With this commitment, Widener will deepen its investment in our nursing program and broaden our impact at the local, state, and national levels,” Widener president Stacey Robertson said in a statement.
The university, based in Chester, enrolls nearly 850 graduate and undergraduate nursing students, and nursing students make up about a quarter of the university’s traditional undergraduate population.
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Dwyer is founder and CEO of CFG Bank, the largest bank headquartered in Baltimore and among the nation’s largest healthcare lenders for bridge and Department of Housing and Urban Development loans. He also is CEO of Capital Funding Group, which he founded in 1993. That group also works with the national healthcare industry. Dwyer has helped to finance more than $7.6 billion in Federal Housing Administration-insured healthcare mortgages, according to the Capital Funding website.
During his career, he has focused on problems confronting the healthcare industry, including staff shortages and professional burnout, Widener said in a news release. In 2021, the Dwyers, along with their daughters Emily Dwyer Dillon and Kelsey Dwyer Baker, started the Baltimore-based Dwyer Workforce Development, a nonprofit aimed at providing nursing training, job placement, and better career paths for “under-resourced people” who could benefit from financial support and other opportunities.
“Through our mission, our nonprofit also helps to alleviate the severe healthcare workforce shortage and improve the lives of patients in assisted living, skilled nursing facilities, and hospitals in the communities we serve,” the nonprofit says on its website.
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The organization has trained more than 10,000 people since 2022, with the goal of 100,000 by 2030, Widener said in a news release.
“Very early in my career, as I was growing the company, I felt that it was appropriate and important to use my influence and success to help others grow and reach their goals,” Dwyer said in a 2021 interview with the Daily Record in Maryland. “I feel so fortunate to be able to pay it forward and help improve the lives of others and in the Baltimore community.”
Dwyer said in a statement that Widener “left an indelible mark” on his life and career and that “it is an honor to give back” to the school.
“With Widener’s continued growth and innovative approach to student success, Nancy and I saw tremendous opportunity to extend our efforts toward eliminating barriers in the healthcare industry, particularly those involving the nursing shortage and professional burnout,” he said. “We are confident that with this support, Widener’s powerhouse nursing program will prepare nurse leaders to meet today’s healthcare challenges and improve community health through compassionate, expert care.”