Carrie Conway, senior program officer for the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, visited Shenandoah University on Thursday, April 11, to meet with university administrators and several students in the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation has supported Shenandoah nursing students since 1973.
Founded in 1946 by Conkey Pate Whitehead in honor of his mother, the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation supports the education of female students and the care of senior women in nine southeastern states. The foundation devotes most of its resources to its scholarship program, which provides scholarship grants for female students with financial needs, and has awarded more than $767 million in grants since its inception.
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation is the single largest annual donor to Shenandoah University. Since 2001, the foundation has contributed over $5.6 million to SU, benefitting over 850 students.
“The Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing is incredibly grateful to the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation for supporting student scholarships. Its generosity and commitment to our students’ success has significantly impacted our students’ ability to achieve their dreams of becoming a nurse and caring for their communities,” said Lisa Levinson, Ph.D., dean of the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing.
Conway’s visit to Shenandoah’s main campus in Winchester, Virginia, included meetings with university President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., Provost Karen Abraham, Ph.D., and Director of Student Financial Services Karen Bucher, Ph.D., as well as a lunch visit with Dr. Levinson and Lettie Pate Whitehead scholars Kylie Danella ’26, Kajal Malhotra ’24, and Jessica Watson ’24.
Assistant Professor of Nursing Beth Ballenger, Ph.D. also gave Conway a tour of the Cecil Pruitt, Jr. Health and Life Sciences Building, a 62,000-square-foot, four-story building that houses learning space for students in Shenandoah’s School of Nursing, Division of Athletic Training and College of Arts and Sciences.
To learn more about the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, visit lpwhitehead.org.
