additional philanthropy being welcomed<\/a> from other alumni and supporters, including through naming opportunities.<\/p>\n\u201cElisabeth DeLuca is an exceptional alumna with a grand vision for both UConn and the School of Nursing. Her bold entrepreneurial spirit drives her to reimagine the nursing school and attract more students to the University of Connecticut,\u201d President Radenka Maric says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer gift lies in her ability to transform the university landscape, which is vital in bridging the gap between technology and humanity in nursing,\u201d Maric adds. \u201cThis transformation is crucial for enhancing patient care by boosting efficiency, improving accuracy, and fostering better communication, all while nurturing empathy and a deeper understanding of patient needs. I am deeply appreciative of Liz for her remarkable gift, which has the potential to positively influence the lives of countless nurses and the patients they serve for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
About $20 million of DeLuca\u2019s gift will help fund the new building\u2019s construction, along with about $5 million supporting its equipment needs. The other $25 million will support student scholarships and programming for patient-centered practice, interdisciplinary research, and technology-based innovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cElisabeth DeLuca\u2019s generosity will leave a lasting mark on the nursing profession,\u201d says UConn School of Nursing Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson. \u201cNaming the School of Nursing in her honor reflects her vision, compassion, and unwavering belief in the power of nurses to transform health care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspired by her mother\u2019s guidance, DeLuca graduated with her nursing degree from UConn in 1969 and worked for many years in the field.<\/p>\n
As her husband\u2019s business grew over the next several years, she joined him in running what would ultimately become a global restaurant chain. Today, she serves as President of the Elisabeth C. DeLuca Foundation and the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, which are focused on access to education and health.<\/p>\n
Her nursing experience instilled in her a lifelong appreciation for both the professionalism and compassion that nurses provide.<\/p>\n
That lasting affection for the field is evident in her support of the School of Nursing \u2013 as is the importance of her mother\u2019s early influence, which will be reflected in the naming of the new building\u2019s first-floor lecture hall as Adomat Hall in her mother\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n
The Elisabeth DeLuca School of Nursing would become the second UConn academic unit to honor an alum in its name. The first was the Neag School of Education, designated as such in 1999 based on a generous gift from Raymond Neag \u201956 (CLAS) and Carole Neag.<\/p>\n
UConn became the state\u2019s first public institution to offer a nursing degree program when the School of Nursing opened in 1942, and it now has about 900 students annually. It is among the most high-demand programs at UConn, reflecting students\u2019 growing interest in nursing careers amid an increasing demand for skilled health care professionals nationwide.<\/p>\n
UConn received almost 3,900 applications in 2024 for its 225 first-year spots in the school, and the number jumped again this year: More than 4,700, about double the number of applications it received as recently as 2021.<\/p>\n
UConn nursing students also tend to have consistently strong post-graduation career outcomes, with some of the highest starting salaries of all majors in the first six months after graduation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The School\u2019s new academic home, currently being built with her generous support, also would bear her name<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":235189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1727,1877,2472,2235,2225,2227,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1932],"class_list":["post-235159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-construction","category-nur","category-gifts-donors","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 10:20:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235159"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235194,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235159\/revisions\/235194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/235189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235159"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=235159"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}