Sherman gift will endow nursing professorship
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College of Nursing alumna Jane Ehlinger Sherman, PhD, MS ’75, accepted a faculty position at UIC just after her husband, Richard Sherman, MD, was diagnosed with cancer.
“UIC was such a supportive place for me in terms of my husband being sick and us not really knowing what the future would hold,” Sherman says. “They didn’t just support my professional aspirations as a nurse practitioner, they supported me personally too.”
This experience is at the heart of why she made a $1 million gift, which will endow a professorship in the College of Nursing. Sherman also designated $300,000 for the Clifford Pilz Educational Fund in the College of Medicine to honor the relationship her husband had with Pilz, a UIC physician and teacher.
“The Sherman Professorship will be a top tool for recognizing excellence in science and recruiting and retaining emerging faculty leaders,” says Dean Terri E. Weaver. “And Jane well knows about leadership. When she became a nurse practitioner, the field was still new and dogged by detractors. She joined a cadre of NPs who, through their expertise, professionalism and persistence, validated the NP role. “This professorship will inspire us for generations to keep pushing for the elevation of the nursing practice in healthcare,” Weaver adds.
UIC has had a transformational effect on Sherman’s personal and professional life.
“My experience at the UIC College of Nursing was built out of collegial relationships between students and faculty and I want to see that tradition continue,” she says. “The way students and faculty worked together when I was there as a student and then a faculty member made a lasting impression on me. This was the best way for me to give back and ensure that legacy continues for future students.”