Go ahead and ask Cathy Bernosky de Flores how it feels to be a white faculty member at the historically black Dillard University in New Orleans? It’s OK, she actually loves the question. It’s just another opportunity for her to explain why “Dillard feels just like home.”
On April 16, de Flores, who is studying for her doctorate at UNMC’s College of Nursing, attended the community breakfast that preceded the signing ceremony between UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., and Dillard University President Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D.
De Flores’ plans to earn a doctorate at UNMC were set long before the new affiliation agreement was developed. She came here because the UNMC College of Nursing offers one of the best doctorate programs in the world. But, de Flores’ has a unique perspective on the history and culture of the 130-year Dillard University.
“Let me tell you about my first Dillard nursing school graduation,” de Flores said. “I expected the traditional pinning, recitation of Florence Nightingale’s pledge and capping ceremony. But the first thing you realize is that a Dillard nurse distinguishes the student’s entire family. From the smallest children honoring their new role model to aging aunts and grandmas in wheel chairs, the entire family turned out for the ceremony.
“Then a member of the world famous singing group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, gave the keynote address. She has a doctorate in nursing. After her speech, I was floored when she joined the graduates in several rousing gospel numbers. The students did jazz dance numbers, sang more songs, read poetry and gave incredibly moving testimonials to parents, mentors and faculty members that helped them succeed. And this entire program was just for the graduating nurses, not the entire school.”
Diverse experiences
De Flores’ discovery of the black community’s high elevation of Dillard nurses was one of a long line of diversity experiences in her career. She grew up in Bristol, Conn., enlisted in the U.S. Navy right out of high school and was assigned to medical services. Her inspiration to become a nurse was forged in the crucible of caring for U.S. Marines wounded in the Vietnam War, especially while assisting the serious casualties flown to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Mich., during the war’s bloody Tet Offensive.
After three years, she left the Navy and entered the University of Connecticut School of Nursing. Enjoying life and in no particular hurry to finish, de Flores finally earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1983. In 1984, she attended the national convention of the American Nursing Association in New Orleans. Recruiters were everywhere at the convention, and she casually interviewed for several positions.
To her amazement, Ochsner Medical Foundation of New Orleans offered her a position that tripled her Connecticut salary and she soon began a new career in the South. She worked for Ochsner for more than seven years, primarily as a medical-surgical nurse and junior administrator. She earned a master’s degree in nursing at Louisiana State University. At LSU, de Flores studied culture-based nursing, and two African-American faculty members led her thesis committee, which addressed the culture values of Cajuns in Southern Louisiana. Both of these black women were Dillard graduates and soon initiated de Flores into the world of nursing — Dillard style.
“The era of segregation had an ironic twist of good fortune for Dillard nurses,” de Flores said. “For years, the nursing schools in New Orleans, like Charity Hospital and Touro Infirmary, did not accept blacks as students. In the 1950s, Dillard created its own nursing school and used the black-owned Goodwin Hospital as its training hospital. As a result, the only nurses in Louisiana that held bachelor’s degrees were Dillard nurses.
“Many white nurses have told me that their only professional role models in the 1960s were Dillard graduates. Over the years, Dillard graduates slowly dominated positions as directors and head administrators for public school and public health programs in New Orleans because they were the only nurses with advanced degrees.”
The Dillard family
De Flores’ black nursing mentors urged her to join Dillard in 1996 as a clinical instructor in public health and community health nursing. She now holds a faculty position as an assistant professor of nursing. As a Dillard faculty member, she soon found out that, with just a phone call, she could get her students experiences in virtually every public health and medical facility and program in New Orleans.
“I teach community nursing and my Dillard connections allow me to get my students opportunities that other nursing programs can only envy,” de Flores said. “There is a unbreakable social rule among Dillard alumni. When someone from Dillard is on the phone, you always take the call. You always respond. Dillard alumni bend over backward to provide clinic time and patient interactions for my students. Whereas a request from LSU may get a half-day in an STD/AIDS clinic, maternal care facility or shadowing a mid-wife, my Dillard students will get two full days. I love it.
“All of these Dillard alumni remember the tough, exacting standards they had to uphold while students at Dillard and they want my students held accountable to the same standards. They don’t just open the door, they make time to really talk with my students, mentor to them and really impress upon them how Dillard paved the way to their present success.”
The heart of diversity
Today, Dillard continues to develop students, but now those students may just as easily be from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean Islands. They are just as easily Caucasian as African-American. And the African-American students are not just local Southerners, but hail from New York City to Los Angeles, Seattle to Detroit.
“The students who will be coming to UNMC in fulfillment of the new affiliation program will be highly motivated individuals,” de Flores said. “They are going to find Omaha an enlightening experience. At the breakfast gathering, Dr. Lomax thanked members of Omaha’s black community for supporting UNMC’s efforts in this program. And he challenged the community to embrace these students when they come up here — take them to church, into their homes and give them a feeling of community and belonging.
“Today, Dillard is a great learning environment for all students, but its heritage, of course, has been in nurturing and developing promising minority students. The Dillard students are going to make a lot of local people consider the advantages of attending an historically black university.
“I can’t think of a better arrangement between two outstanding institutions than this new affiliation. The best of both worlds are coming together. And isn’t that the very heart of diversity?”