USI College of Nursing and Health Professions receives $6M gift
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Evansville business leader Wayne Kinney and his family are making a $6 million donation to the University of Southern Indiana’s College of Nursing and Health Professions.
To recognize the gift, the university said Wednesday that the college will be named the Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions.
Kinney is also a USI alumnus and serves on the USI Board of Trustees and USI Foundation Board of Directors.
The university said the money will be used to address the greatest needs of the college. Planned uses include student scholarships, equipment and technology purchases and upgrades, faculty development opportunities and innovative health initiatives.
“We are excited to be making this gift and to be part of USI’s ongoing story of success,” Kinney said in a news release. “We look forward to the many ways this investment will enhance the College of Nursing and Health Professions, its students and faculty and, ultimately, our community.”
Kinney founded Evansville-based Innovative Consulting Group, which specialized in health care IT services at hospitals across the country. He and his wife, Beth, sold the company in 2023.
Wednesday’s announcement is the latest investment in health education at USI. It follows a $1.49 million federal funding award for the Southwest Indiana Area Health Education Center.
That money will be distributed over the next three years to continue the Indiana SANE Training Project.
The SANE Training Project provides advanced nursing education to increase the number of trained forensic nurses, or sexual assault nurse examiners, or SANEs, in rural and medically underserved communities.
In June, the CNHP was awarded $5 million to continue its Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program for an additional five years. It’s the largest federal grant in the college’s history.
USI said it will continue to partner with Evansville-based Deaconess Health and its family medicine residency and geriatric fellowship programs to focus on integrating geriatrics in primary care.
The additional funding, the university said, will also allow the program to work more closely with the Southwestern Indiana Area Health Education Center to create employment pipelines for Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Occupational Therapy, and Occupational Therapy Assistant students in rural and medically underserved areas.