GW Nursing Magazine 2014

PHILANTHROPY UPDATE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51
his daughter, Alexis, is an occupational
therapist at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Mr. Cohn has worked in the health
care industry for more than 30 years, but
it wasn’t a career path he had anticipated
for himself. After he graduated from GW’s
Elliott School of International Affairs in 1977,
he enrolled in night classes at the University
of Baltimore School of Law. During the day,
he worked at the US Department of Health
and Human Services’ Health Care Finance
Administration (now called the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services), which
administers the Medicare and Medicaid
programs. His responsibilities included
writing administrative review decisions,
a process that opened his eyes to the
business possibilities in the health care
industry.
But Mr. Cohn’s decision to enroll at the
George Washington University was not as
circuitous. He had visited other schools in
the area, but when he stepped on GW’s
Foggy Bottom Campus he immediately felt
comfortable.
“I liked the university’s philosophy and
the student body I saw, and the whole
atmosphere felt right,” he says. “It’s a
feeling—I couldn’t put my finger on it at the
time, but it felt right to be in the District.”
At GW, Mr. Cohn was challenged both
academically and socially. During his
freshman year, he joined the GW Program
Board—then the university’s de facto student
government—and eventually became its
chairman. He met people who became
lifelong friends, including his old roommate
US Sen. Mark Warner, BA ’77. Mr. Cohn also
took advantage of GW’s proximity to the
federal government as an intern for former
California Sen. John Tunney.
“There were all types of activities
available at GW, and they were wonderful,”
he says. “I became close with a group of 15
guys, and we still get together once a year
in DC to play basketball and hang out. It’s
wonderful—those are relationships I really
value. It’s one of the greatest legacies of GW
for me.”
He gives back to GW every year to
support innovative health care programs, and
so that others are afforded the same positive
experiences he had while on campus. His
gifts to SON’s efforts in Haiti and to student
scholarships align with both his personal
interests and the school’s priorities.
Alan Cohn, BA
‘77, and daughter
Madison, BSN ‘11, on
her wedding day.
“The initial life experiences I had at
GW were so wonderful for me,” he says.
“My education provided me such a great
foundation to move into business and to
look at health care from a public policy
perspective. GW is a great institution and
the little bit I’ve been able to give back is
the right thing to do—and it makes me feel
good!”
Serving GW
and the DC
Community
It was a trip to East Africa that made Betsy
Linsert, NP ’98, recognize that she was in
the wrong profession. Living as a young
professional in the Washington, DC, area
and as a regular “Girl Friday” on Capitol Hill,
Ms. Linsert was so moved by her travels that
she made up her mind to change her career
path and become a nurse.
“I decided I wanted to do something
I could love all the time,” she says. She
went on to earn a master’s degree from
the Graduate School of Nursing in New
York, but it wasn’t until she completed her
coursework in the GW Nurse Practitioner
(NP) program many years later that she felt
she had the skills she needed to best serve
the needs of her patients. “What I loved
most about going through GW’s program
is that it expanded my knowledge of what it
means to be a professional nurse.”
Her favorite course of study was
pathophysiology. She was fascinated by the
conditions required for a diseased state to
develop within the body.
According to Ms. Linsert, she chose the
GW nursing program when a reference to
the opportunity showed up in a newspaper.
“GW was in the neighborhood and exactly
what I wanted. It kind of fell into my lap and
I said to myself ‘I should not ignore this.”
Her time spent in the NP program turned
out to be one of the best years of her life.
Her children were in college, and her only
responsibility was to do well in school. “All
I had to do was go to class and study. I love
to study, and I loved the topic.”
Ms. Linsert’s dedication to GW and
serving the community did not end when
she got her degree. She currently works
part time at the GW Student Health Service.
She also volunteers at Bread for the City, an
organization that provides food, clothing,
medical care, and legal and social services
to the more vulnerable residents of the
nation’s capital.
“I find myself working with patients
at both ends of the spectrum,” says
Ms. Linsert. “At Student Health Service,
most of the people I work with are young
and in reasonably good health. At Bread
for the City, they tend to be more mature
individuals, suffering from a variety of
serious health problems.”
Over the years, Ms. Linsert has
generously contributed to SON. “In the GW
School of Nursing, they teach you to listen
to the patient and that physical ailments
are only part of the picture. They instilled in
us that if a patient was suffering physically,
he or she was suffering emotionally as
well.” These are values that Ms. Linsert
would like to see more of throughout the
nursing community, which is why she is
such a strong advocate of the GW School of
Nursing.
52 2014