The Wayne Memorial Hospital Foundation and the University of Mount Olive continue to strengthen their strategic partnership that helps qualifying registered nurses earn their bachelor of science in nursing degree.

The Foundation, which supports Wayne UNC Health Care, has donated $50,000 into a tuition gap scholarship program at the university.

The money will be used to supplement the educational costs of Wayne UNC employees seeking BSN degrees through the University of Mount Olive.

The hospital made its initial $50,000 investment into the Preferred Employer Tuition Gap Scholarship program in February 2017.

"One of the main funding priorities of the Foundation is to support the educational needs of Wayne County's health care providers and to attract and retain skilled nurses in our community," said Susan McCall, chair of the Foundation's board of directors.

"Providing access to education will help strengthen our workforce and enhance the quality of care that is available in our community." [... Continue reading on the News Argus website HERE.]

For the bulk of the past year, Jack Kannan has been working to launch a first-time foundation at Wayne Memorial Hospital in the only way he knew how -- through relationship-building.

It's a skill he brought to the role he held for years as executive director of the Wayne Community College Foundation.

He was first hired at WCC as a counselor in the early 1970s, after which he spent a few years in the private sector.

He became a trustee at the college, right around the time the institution began exploring forming a foundation to generate funds for student scholarships.

That in turn led to him heading up the WCC Foundation. [... Continue to read on News Argus Website HERE.]

Jack Kannan has been named interim executive director of the new Wayne Memorial Hospital Foundation that will serve as the fundraising arm of the hospital.

His hiring was announced by Wayne Health Corp. board member Susan McCall during the board's Wednesday afternoon meeting.

"He is going to help us get our feet on the ground and get going," Ms. McCall told the News-Argus. "He is in a part-time position with us right now for our startup and probably will be with us for two or three years as we move to a more permanent director to take over after that."

He was hired Tuesday.

"He will help us develop the vision, the mission of the foundation," she said. "We need to start building a board of directors. He will keep us focused because right now we have so many ideas of things that we would like to do in the community and we are sort of scattered.

"So he is going to make us more cohesive and pull us all together so that we can get more done."

The foundation will focus on community health issues, she said. [... Continue to read on News Argus Website HERE.]