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| Vol. 25, No. 6 |
| April 1, 2003 |
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Luncheon Honors Registered Nurse Nancy Willerson The PARTNERS Spring Luncheon, benefiting The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston, will feature David A. Snowdon, Ph.D., presenting “Aging With Grace: Findings From the Nun Study,” and honor Nancy Beamer Willerson, a registered nurse whose career has focused on diabetes, renal transplantation and end-stage renal disease. PARTNERS is a community support group for the nursing school. The luncheon will take place April 3 at the Westin Oaks Hotel, 5011 Westheimer Rd. in the Galleria area. Snowdon, the author of “Aging with Grace” (Bantam Books), is a professor in the neurology department in the college of medicine and the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky. He is the director of the “Nun Study,” a longitudinal study on health and aging focusing on 678 American members of the Sisters of Notre Dame religious congregation in Minnesota. The participants, ranging in age from 75 to 104, agreed to provide access to their medical and personal histories and, after death, donate their brain tissue to the project. What distinguishes this study is Snowdon’s decision not to maintain the usual objective distance from his subjects but rather to become emotionally involved with them. Among the project’s findings is a clear correlation between a low rate of Alzheimer’s and high linguistic ability. Snowdon also has found that the consumption of certain antioxidants, an exercise program and an optimistic outlook have a positive impact on aging successfully. “Nun Study” findings have been featured on “Today,” CNN, “Nightline,” and network evening news programs. Articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek and National Geographic, as well as various national and international newspapers. Willerson, who is married to UT-Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., worked at The Methodist Hospital, where she was instrumental in organizing nurses to volunteer at Camp Rainbow, a local, weeklong day camp for children with diabetes, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association. Each nurse was responsible for monitoring patients’ groups that also included the patients’ siblings. “Working with these patients was satisfying because you saw them often and really got to know them and their families,” she said. “Nancy is dedicated to helping people any way she can,” said PARTNERS chair Mary Martha Stinnett. “She epitomizes the concerned nurse as well as the caring wife and mother, and represents everything I would want in a nurse taking care of me in the hospital. This is an opportunity for us to honor this leader, volunteer and caregiver.” Willerson has served as president and board member of the Memorial Hermann Hospital Volunteer Organization, on the George Hermann Society steering committee, and has been a member of the St. John the Divine Altar Guild. She is also a former board member and past president of UT-Houston Medical School’s Faculty Wives and Women Faculty. Her love of art and desire to share that appreciation led her to assist in developing and working with the Art Cart at Hermann Children’s Hospital. In 1994, she was one of the founding members of PARTNERS. Willerson is currently a member of the Museum of Fine Arts Guild as well as the Houston Symphony League, and a board member and co-chair of the Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition. She also serves on the board of the Blaffer Gallery, the University of Houston’s art museum. Luncheon tickets are $100. For more information or to purchase tickets, call Susan Sloan in the UT-Houston School of Nursing at (713) 500-2006.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/04_01_03/page_11.html |