Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, has announced a gift of $4.1 million from the estate of Hilma Speights to expand its offerings in the area of nursing education.

The gift, made through the Clark College Foundation, will enable the school to enhance existing programs with partners such as Legacy Health System, Southwest Washington Medical Center, and the Vancouver V.A. Medical Center, as well as add new ones. An advisory panel made up of professional nurses and nursing administrators, nursing educators, and other healthcare professionals will suggest additional uses for the gift. The college will also contact regional healthcare providers to determine how the gift can help the school meet their critical needs for nurses, said Clark president Dr. R. Wayne Branch.

"We are all indebted to Hilma Speights for her extraordinary generosity and her commitment to our community," said Branch. "Mrs. Speights felt passionately about the need for enhanced healthcare training for Southwest Washington. We are passionately committed to ensuring that her wishes are honored."

Speights, who died in 2004, spent most of her career at Alcoa, but she took several classes at Clark and was a volunteer in its Mature Learning Program.