The superintendent of the University’s eight-year partnership with East High in the Rochester City School District, has been named as the first vice president for community partnerships.

Shaun Nelms ’04W (MS), ’13W (EdD), the superintendent of the East Educational Partnership Organization, will report directly to President Sarah Mangelsdorf in the new role, effective July 1.

Nelms will develop structures for the University’s wide-ranging work with local and national partners. That includes developing an actionable plan for cultivating and stewarding productive collaborations in support of the University’s new strategic plan.

In addition to reporting to Mangelsdorf, Nelms will work with Provost David Figlio for community-based learning opportunities and research, including those at the Center for Urban Education Success. Based in the Warner School of Education and Human Development and developed from the East project, the center aims to support the success of K–12 urban schools in Rochester and beyond.

Nelms will continue to serve as the William and Sheila Konar Director of the center and as a clinical professor of educational leadership at Warner.

Succeeding Nelms at East is longtime city school district teacher and administrator and current East principal Marlene Blocker. Blocker’s appointment is also effective July 1.

In 2021, the New York State Education Department extended the EPO through 2025.

A project to greatly expand, renovate, and modernize the Emergency Department and the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at Strong Memorial Hospital has received $50 million in state funding.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the funding, through the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program, this winter.

Part of an effort to address chronic bed shortages and overcrowding issues that the Rochester community has faced for years—and that were further highlighted during the pandemic—the project will nearly triple the square footage for the department and its programs and add a nine-story inpatient tower.

The project will increase the square footage from 46,000 to 175,000 square feet.

A portion of the original facility, with some sections dating to 1926, were torn down this winter to make way for the tower, which will be built west of the current hospital entrance on Elmwood Avenue.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2027.

The first cohort of nursing students to enroll under an innovative program to provide a tuition-free education is expected to start their studies this fall. Part of a program to combat nursing shortages in the Rochester region, the Medical Center and School of Nursing announced the new program this winter.

The UR Nursing Scholars Program will cover 100 percent of tuition costs for students in the accelerated bachelor’s in nursing program for about 11 students a year. To be eligible, students have to pass a licensure exam for registered nurses and commit to working at participating UR Medicine facilities for three years after graduation.

New York state faces a projected shortage of nearly 40,000 registered nurses by 2030 due to the pandemic, an aging population, and nursing retirements.

University Trustee Evans Lam ’83, ’84S (MBA) has committed $15.7 million in a major show of support for academic and other programs in business and music as well as for emergency resources for undergraduates and for capital projects for River Campus Libraries.

The managing director of wealth management and the senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services, Lam announced the gift this spring.

The new commitment will establish the Lam e.Hub of Undergraduate Business Engagement at the Simon Business School, part of an effort to provide undergraduate business students with greater access to Simon’s resources; establish the Evans Lam Research Professor of Music and Medicine at the Eastman School of Music to bolster research within the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine program, and create the Lam Caring and Agile Resources for Emergencies Fund to support undergraduates across the University who need immediate assistance.

The gift will also ultimately establish endowed funds to support student scholarships at Simon and in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, among other priorities.

Lam's gift is one of several recent commitments from alumni and friends, who are providing support for new faculty positions, named deanships, and scholarships at units across the University.

At Eastman, a gift from Susan Ain ’78E and Aron Ain will establish an endowed violin professorship. The Susan and Aron Ain Professorship for Violin will support, recognize, and honor as well as attract and retain exemplary faculty at the school.

Also at Eastman, Robert (Robin) Lehman, an internationally known Rochester-based glass artist and documentary filmmaker, has established the Marie Rolf Dean of Graduate Studies Endowed Fund.

The gift creates two named positions: the Marie Rolf Dean of Graduate Studies and the Robert O. Lehman Graduate Fellowship. Both honor Eastman’s senior associate dean of graduate studies and professor of music theory, Marie Rolf ’77E (PhD), who is also Lehman’s wife.

At the Warner School of Education and Human Development, former Wegmans Food Markets executive Mary Ellen Burris ’68W (EdM) has committed to making the largest single gift in Warner’s history.

Funded through Burris’s estate, the gift will support academic leaders, faculty research, and student success through the establishment of a deanship, professorship, and scholarship.

Burris retired from Wegmans in 2020.

Members of the University and Rochester community and a key department at the Medical Center were recognized this spring by the University’s Institutional Office for Equity and Inclusion.

Recipients of the 2023 Presidential Stronger as One Diversity Awards were celebrated for their efforts and achievements to reinforce the University’s commitments to being an inclusive and welcoming campus.

The recipients were Astrid Müller, assistant professor of chemical engineering, Advocacy and Action Award; Rohsennase Dalton LaBarge, a first-generation, fourth-year medical student, and Martez D. R. Smith, a PhD candidate at the School of Nursing, Change Maker Award; Information Systems Division of the Medical Center, Inclusive Workforce Award; Shaquana Patrice Divers, a longtime community activist who led the University’s well-being program before joining Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Social Impact Award; Kellie Miller, a transport assistant at the medical center, Bridge to Equity Award; and University Trustee Lizette Pérez-Deisboeck ’87, Empowering Equitable Change Award.