Trinity Washington University will present honorary doctors of letters to William and Joanne Conway at Winter Graduation on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, in recognition of their commitment to increasing the number of well-qualified nurses in the Washington area and for their generous philanthropy in nursing. Mr. Conway will give the graduation address at the Winter Graduation ceremony, which will be held in the Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports. Linda Talley, a member of Trinity’s Board of Trustees and Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer at Children’s National Hospital, will present the honorary degrees.
“Through their Bedford Falls Foundation, the Conways have donated millions of dollars to support nursing students at Trinity as well as other area universities,” said President Patricia McGuire. “Their devotion to expanding the number of talented, well-trained nurses in the Washington region is legendary. We currently enroll 90 Conway Nursing Scholars each year.”
The couple, through their foundation, established the Joanne and William Conway Scholarship Program at Trinity in 2013 for high-achieving, low-income students to study nursing. The Conway Nursing Scholars are from the District of Columbia, Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties.
“The Trinity community is deeply grateful to Joanne and William Conway, who generously support aspiring nurses in the District of Columbia and close-in Maryland communities,” said President McGuire. “The Conways keenly understand that for low-income students in this area, nursing is a path to both economic stability and a rewarding career in the growing health care field. Their extraordinary commitment to improving the economic status of low-income families through higher education is exemplary. The Conway Scholarship Program has been transformational for Trinity because it gives us the opportunity to provide high-achieving, low-income young women with the financial support they need, combined with the academic structure of a cohort group, to ensure the successful completion of their nursing degrees.”
William Conway is a co-founder and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. In 2011, he announced that he wanted to focus his philanthropy on creating jobs in the Washington region. Over the next year, he recognized the importance of preparing people for jobs was essential to providing opportunities for low-income families to secure economic security. He and his wife, grateful for the compassionate and professional care of nurses for their family, decided to focus on establishing nursing scholarships at universities in the Washington region. Trinity was among the first universities they selected when they announced their philanthropic goals in 2012. In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr. Conway credited his wife, Joanne, for influencing the focus on nursing: “My wife had a lot to do with this. She just thought, nurses. She thought people who had nursing degrees could get jobs. It’s that simple,” He added that they were looking for lasting solutions and that the demand for nurses is so high that anyone with a degree will be able to obtain employment.
Conway Nursing Scholars who have graduated from Trinity and those who are currently enrolled will be attending the Winter Graduation.
William Conway with Conway Nursing Scholars in Fall 2018, in the Payden Academic Center.