Mount Sinai Board of Trustees member Susan R. Cullman, left, announced the appointment of Carol Porter, RN, CNO and senior vice president for nursing at Mount Sinai Medical Center, as the first Edgar M. Cullman Sr. Chair of the Department of Nursing, Mount Sinai Medical School.
(Photo courtesy of Mount Sinai)
Carol Porter, RN, DNP, CNO and senior vice president for nursing at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, N.Y., has been appointed the inaugural chair of the Edgar M. Cullman Sr. Chair of the Department of Nursing at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Representing the Cullman family, Susan R. Cullman, a long-time member of the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees, presented the endowment May 1 at the 31st annual Board of Trustees’ Awards for Excellence in Nursing Practice at Mount Sinai.
The chair is named in honor of Susan R. Cullman’s father, Edgar M. Cullman Sr., who had a long-standing and deep admiration for nurses, and a keen understanding of the dynamics of patient care.
"This is a wonderful honor and making the announcement during National Nurses Week is particularly meaningful," Porter said. "Edgar Cullman loved Mount Sinai’s nursing staff and was one of our department’s biggest supporters. The entire Cullman family, in fact, has passionately advocated for nursing, patient care and for Mount Sinai. This endowment embodies the Cullman family’s strong connection with the nurses at Mount Sinai."
The idea for the chair role was part of Edgar Cullman’s wishes, Porter said. "He was an integral part of nursing," she said. "He was very involved, from participating in ceremonies and committees to passing out awards during National Nurses Week. He loved and respected nurses and it’s very special that the chairship honors his name."
The post always will be held by the CNO of Mount Sinai Medical Center, cementing the bridge between nursing at the medical center and the School of Medicine. As the inaugural chair, Porter has the unique opportunity of setting precedent for the role, which she said she still is defining.
"It’s a work in progress," she said. "However, we have a huge global health nursing program that is part of our Center for Nursing Research and Education at the School of Medicine and part of the job will be to increase its presence."
Porter also plans to tap the expertise of advanced practice nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center. "We have about 250 advanced practice nurses here," she said. "Because they have unique needs, I want to work with them to dedicate a portion of the center to them."
Edgar Cullman first became involved at Mount Sinai in 1950, when he joined his father, Joseph Cullman Jr., on the Board of Trustees of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. In 1957, while under consideration for election to The Mount Sinai Board of Trustees, he told members of the board that he had "an abiding interest in the problems of nursing, to which I would like to dedicate myself." That year, he accepted an invitation to join the Mount Sinai Board, of which he remained a member until his death in 2011.
Cullman family members have been part of the Boards of Trustees since Mount Sinai’s founding in 1852. The chairship is the first endowed chair of the Department of Nursing in the institution’s 160-year history.
For information, visit www.MountSinai.org.
Representing the Cullman family, Susan R. Cullman, a long-time member of the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees, presented the endowment May 1 at the 31st annual Board of Trustees’ Awards for Excellence in Nursing Practice at Mount Sinai.
The chair is named in honor of Susan R. Cullman’s father, Edgar M. Cullman Sr., who had a long-standing and deep admiration for nurses, and a keen understanding of the dynamics of patient care.
"This is a wonderful honor and making the announcement during National Nurses Week is particularly meaningful," Porter said. "Edgar Cullman loved Mount Sinai’s nursing staff and was one of our department’s biggest supporters. The entire Cullman family, in fact, has passionately advocated for nursing, patient care and for Mount Sinai. This endowment embodies the Cullman family’s strong connection with the nurses at Mount Sinai."
The idea for the chair role was part of Edgar Cullman’s wishes, Porter said. "He was an integral part of nursing," she said. "He was very involved, from participating in ceremonies and committees to passing out awards during National Nurses Week. He loved and respected nurses and it’s very special that the chairship honors his name."
The post always will be held by the CNO of Mount Sinai Medical Center, cementing the bridge between nursing at the medical center and the School of Medicine. As the inaugural chair, Porter has the unique opportunity of setting precedent for the role, which she said she still is defining.
"It’s a work in progress," she said. "However, we have a huge global health nursing program that is part of our Center for Nursing Research and Education at the School of Medicine and part of the job will be to increase its presence."
Porter also plans to tap the expertise of advanced practice nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center. "We have about 250 advanced practice nurses here," she said. "Because they have unique needs, I want to work with them to dedicate a portion of the center to them."
Edgar Cullman first became involved at Mount Sinai in 1950, when he joined his father, Joseph Cullman Jr., on the Board of Trustees of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. In 1957, while under consideration for election to The Mount Sinai Board of Trustees, he told members of the board that he had "an abiding interest in the problems of nursing, to which I would like to dedicate myself." That year, he accepted an invitation to join the Mount Sinai Board, of which he remained a member until his death in 2011.
Cullman family members have been part of the Boards of Trustees since Mount Sinai’s founding in 1852. The chairship is the first endowed chair of the Department of Nursing in the institution’s 160-year history.
For information, visit www.MountSinai.org.
Regional reporter Tracey Boyd contributed to this story. Send letters to editorNY@nurse.com or post a comment below.
