In 2024, The Endowment made a three-year investment of $22.3 million in the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership comprising of New Hanover County Schools, the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), Cape Fear Community College (CFCC) and the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and aligning educators and employers around shared strategies for strengthening nursing pathways.
The need was clear. North Carolina was projected to face a shortage of 17,500 nurses by 2033. In New Hanover County, by 2030, nursing jobs in New Hanover County alone are projected to grow 21%.
The Endowment’s investment helped answer a call to action, and since then the partnership has taken a long-term approach to building the region’s nursing workforce, reaching students as early as fifth grade, supporting nursing students through graduation, and creating opportunities for graduates to stay and work in the region.
On September 22, the partners gathered at UNCW’s Lumina Theater for a public forum to share results to date, lessons learned and where the work is headed. Community members heard directly from partner leaders and brought their own questions.
“Today, and together, we are learning what works,” said Sophie Dagenais, President and CEO of The Endowment. “And that’s a role that The Endowment can play: to foster learning, to share what we learn, and to discover together and help demonstrate solutions to problems we all share.”
The stakes are personal, Dagenais shared. “We and all the people we love in New Hanover County are patients, consumers of health care. We all need nurses, so, this nursing shortage truly impacts everyone in New Hanover County.”
Dr. Umar Bowers, Co-founder and Medical Director of Dawson Med, moderated the forum. As a local physician, he has seen both the workforce challenges and the partnership, and the difference student support can make.
“I personally have seen it in my clinic, my practice manager’s daughter. Her name is Alyssa. She actually accomplished her dreams and goals of becoming a nurse at Cape Fear through some of these wraparound services that The Endowment provided. So, personally, I’ve seen this happen.”
At the forum, Laurie Whalin, President of Novant Health’s Coastal Region, described a nursing shortage that began before the pandemic and grew more pressing as the workforce aged and demand for care increased. She said Novant Health has hired 1,200 registered nurses since the partnership began, including a record 200 new graduates last year. Travel nurses, who made up about 40% of their nursing workforce at the pandemic peak, account for only 4% today.
“We are in a much different place today and a much stronger position, but that didn’t happen by accident,” Whalin said, pointing to investments in nurses, workforce development, and long-term partnerships.
Steven Hill, Vice President of Talent Development for the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, shared how regional growth adds, and will continue to add, to the needs for a robust pipeline of healthcare workers. New Hanover, Pender, and Brunswick counties added about 70,000 residents between 2020 and 2025, he said, with roughly 126,000 more residents projected by 2030 and nearly a quarter-million by 2040.
Connecting Education to Careers
At the forum, Mandy Mills, Director of Career & Technical Education for New Hanover County Schools, shared how students are introduced early to healthcare careers. The district offers more than 30 career and technical education pathways, and its Nursing Fundamentals program has expanded from one high school with 10 students in 2023 to all four traditional high schools, with capacity for 50 students in the 2025–26 school year.
Susannah McDobens, a 10th grader, first explored healthcare through the Career Leadership Development Academy in seventh grade. Now in the Health Sciences Academy, she continues to explore healthcare careers while working toward certifications in CNA I, CNA II, Medical Assisting and Phlebotomy.
“I’ve learned that there’s not one career you have to choose,” she said. She now hopes to become a physician assistant.
Mills said, “We want students to not only be aware of the opportunities but actually be able to see themselves in those opportunities.”
Jack C. Watson II, Dean of UNCW’s College of Health and Human Services, said the partnership is connecting programs that once operated independently. “One of the great things that this collaborative has allowed us to do is to track some of the students that are entering these pathway programs.” That information helps partners identify and connect students to more opportunities as they move from school career programs into college training. This year, 1,278 K–12 students are participating in pathway programs across the district, CFCC and UNCW.
Watson also shared results from UNCW’s new 15-month accelerated nursing program: All 11 students in its first cohort graduated and passed their licensing exams on the first attempt. The second cohort has 24 students, and UNCW is expanding its traditional nursing program.
At CFCC, Mary Ellen Naylor, Dean, Health & Human Services, described efforts to help nursing students complete their programs. Wrap around services include housing stipends, tuition assistance, exam assistance, emergency assistance, and drop-in childcare. In 2026, 94% of students receiving wraparound support are continuing in their programs or have graduated.
The Endowment’s funding has also helped expand training capacity at CFCC through a new nurse aide lab, four simulation hospital rooms, a debriefing room and virtual-reality training. UNCW is expanding its simulation facilities and staffing, and partners track outcomes as students move from training to healthcare careers.
Roberto Ramirez, BSN, RN, a member of The Endowment’s Community Advisory Council and Director of Behavioral Health Urgent Care at Coastal Horizons, shared how his career has taken him through several stages of the local healthcare pathway. After earning his nursing degree at CFCC, he began working in Novant Health’s emergency department and completed UNCW’s RN-to-BSN program. He also participated in the Coastal Community Healthcare Fellowship, which provides nursing students with mentoring, leadership development, and other resources to help them build lasting careers in the local healthcare system. That support continues for two years after graduation.
“Through that program, it … challenged me into thinking, who do I want to be, not only as a person, but also as a nursing professional, as a mentor, a leader, and a member of this community?” said Ramirez.
Building on the remarks of the other panelists, Natalie English, President & CEO of the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, spoke about the Chamber’s Career and Leadership Development Academy, which connects local students with employers and careers close to home. More than 3,000 students have taken part, and nearly 1,000 have identified healthcare as an area of interest.
English described the work as “systems change,” extending beyond individual programs to connect middle and high schools, community colleges, universities, and employers. Partners share a data collection system, funded by the grants, and meet regularly to identify opportunities, address gaps, and continually improve the talent pipeline. She credited The Endowment’s support with helping accelerate that work and turn ideas into action. “We are doing it better than anybody,” she said. “We probably wouldn’t be doing it as rapidly if we hadn’t had The Endowment as our partner, because the funding allowed us to jumpstart a lot of the things we’ve been creating.”
What Comes Next
During the audience discussion, one attendee asked whether the model could address shortages across healthcare beyond nursing, including respiratory therapy, physicians, and other disciplines. Dagenais said the infrastructure being built has the potential to support multiple healthcare professions and eventually other industries. The first step, she explained, is learning what works, so the partners know what’s ready to scale.
“The possibility is that this model may be a model that we can expand and scale across multiple disciplines within a sector, and possibly even across various sectors,” Dagenais said.
Another audience member asked how the region could better connect military and veteran talent with healthcare careers, noting that many service members bring healthcare experience as hospital corpsmen, combat medics, and other medical professionals.
Andrea Weaver, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at UNCW, encouraged veterans to explore the university’s Office of Military Affairs, admissions, and transfer programs, which offer opportunities to receive credit for military service and prior experience. Dean Naylor pointed to CFCC’s Veterans Center and its ongoing work to recognize more of the skills and experience veterans bring to the classroom.
English noted that the relationships built through the partnership also create opportunities to identify barriers and advocate for solutions at the state level. Laurie Whalin highlighted Novant Health’s partnership with Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune on a civilian-military psychiatry residency program, with its first class of psychiatrists expected to graduate next year.
Visit The Endowment’s HCP webpage to learn more about the forum and the partnership, including slides, videos, photos, transcript, and highlights. You can also visit the New Hanover Healthcare Career Partnership website to learn more about the partnership’s work.