Alumna Makes Gift to Transform Health Care in Israel
Dr. Evelyn Gruss Lipper ’67, ’00HD has a special, personal interest in improving health care in Israel. When Simmons announced its online nursing program, she says she “saw it as an opportunity to strengthen the nursing profession in Israel, and immediately thought of Simmons as a vehicle for advancing my philanthropic goals.” A major gift from Evelyn Gruss Lipper through the EGL Charitable Foundation will allow Simmons to educate 20 Israeli nurses in the online Nursing@Simmons Family Nurse Practitioner Master of Science in Nursing program. The goal of the pilot program is to enroll students from all three faith traditions in Israel (Jewish, Muslim, Christian). President Helen Drinan says that Dr. Lipper’s “visionary, transformative philanthropy” aligns with Simmons’s strategic efforts to give more students access to its outstanding nursing program, thereby helping to expand the availability of high-quality health care in the United States and abroad. 12
Courtesy of Meuhedet Health Services
In July 2015, School of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean Judy Beal (left) and Dr. Evelyn Gruss Lipper ’67, ’00HD (center) met in Tel Aviv with Meuhedet Health Services representatives including Chief Nurse Dorit Goldman (right) and candidates for the Evelyn Gruss Lipper Scholars Program.
The Evelyn Gruss Lipper Scholars Program will have a direct impact on the lives of nurses in Israel and on the health of those they serve. It will also “increase hope in the hearts of all us who want to promote health, as well as cooperation and peace, in diverse communities everywhere, including Israel,” says President Drinan. Simmons is partnering with Meuhedet Health Services, the third-largest health care provider in Israel. Dr. Lipper is associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she has served on the faculty since 1982. She received her B.S. at Simmons and her medical degree (M.D.) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.