Conway Family Provides Additional $20 Million to Catholic University -

By Angela Hickey

The Conway family is very well-known around the university community for its many charitable donations towards the university nursing program. Following their original $20 million donation to the Conway School of Nursing in June 2019, Bill and Joanne Conway have decided to provide another $20 million to the Catholic University of America for the construction of the new nursing school building, as announced in March 2020.

The Conway family is Catholic University’slargest benefactor to date, constantly contributing millions of dollars to the schools nursing program, providing a majority of their funds towards their various nursing program scholarships. These various donations have contributed to approximately 70 students achieving their nursing degrees. Bill Conway, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, as well as co-founder and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group, an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation. Conway and his family have contributed multiple donations to the school’s nursing program since 2013.

The new nursing building, named after the Conway family, will allow Catholic University to double the amount of nursing students that can be accepted to the university program. Conway hopes this will assist them in achieving his and his wife’s goal of educating 20,000 nurses to answer a range of health care needs and the persistent shortage of nurses in the United States.

“The quality of the nursing students at Catholic University is outstanding. We have been so pleased to support and get to know dozens of them, and are thrilled with the impact the graduates are having in health settings here in Washington and all over the country,” said Conway according to a Catholic University news release. “We thought it was important to do whatever we can to help train more great Catholic University nurses. We are gratified that this new building will enable the University to achieve this goal.”

The Conway School of Nursing will be outfitted with multi-functional learning spaces, new laboratories and classrooms for anatomy, physiology, and microbiology, as well as an auditorium available for students and faculty. There is a construction plan put in place in order to make sure the building achieves Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Gold certification.

University President John Garvey, has expressed his appreciation numerous times for the Conway family’s “record setting philanthropy.” With this new school, Garvey hopes to be able to accept an additional 700 students to the nursing program once the construction of the school has been completed.

Several students involved with the nursing program at Catholic University have expressed their admiration for the impressive and generous donations by the Conway family.

“As a future nurse myself, the dedication and support that the Conway family is putting into the education of future nurses at Catholic University is truly incredible,” said junior nursing major Gabriella Sibilia. “I know that I may not be around at Catholic to see the direct effects, but regardless, it is an exceptional act of kindness and support for the nursing community.”

Although there is no set date for the nursing school to be completed, CUA plans to meet with multiple construction firms throughout April and plans to make a final decision by the end of the month.