Two Union College academic programs received a boost in January with a fifth $1 million gift from AdventHealth in January, following a fourth $1 million in 2019.
The 2019 gift completed a second endowment for a fully-funded chair in Union’s business program that was partially funded with a previous $1 million gift from AdventHealth in 2018. The 2020 gift will partially fund an endowed chair in the Division of Nursing.
In 2015, AdventistHealth funded the first AdventHealth Endowed Chair of Business Administration with a $2 million gift—a position held by Lisa Forbes, chair of the Division of Business and Computer Science. Union plans to name the second AdventHealth Endowed Chair of Business Administration at the end of the school year.
“We have appreciated a strong partnership with AdventHealth over many years,” said Dr. Vinita Sauder, president of Union College. “These funds allow us to continually improve our programs that supply top-quality business leaders and nurses to AdventHealth and many other health care facilities around the country.”
AdventHealth—the second-largest private health care provider in the United States—is a Florida-based system that operates 45 hospitals and many more urgent care facilities and physician networks in 10 states including Colorado and Kansas. It is one of five health care systems operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, the same organization that runs Union College and 12 other higher education institutions throughout North America.
Educating health care leaders
Gina Creek, a Union College graduate, oversees leadership development for AdventHealth. She designs numerous internship and residency programs that help college students and recent graduates develop into leaders throughout the system.
“Students from Union graduate with a dive-in-and-get-it-done attitude,” she said. “That’s part of the experience of being at Union. The faculty don’t tell you what to do; they come alongside you, remove the barriers, and empower you.”
More than 60 Union College graduates serve as C-suite executives for hospitals and health care systems around the country—including Carl Dupper. Dupper graduated from Union College in 2014 and immediately joined a management residency program with AdventHealth in Orlando while completing an MBA.
Six years later Dupper is the CEO of AdventHealth Winter Garden, a hospital in the Orlando area.
“I attribute so much of where I am to my professors in the Union College business program,” he said. “Just this week, we were trying to solve a problem and I thought back to one of the lessons I learned in class. I’m continually using what they taught me.”
For more information about Union’s business program, visit uau.edu/business