[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE OF DR. NANCY MacDONALD CLARK

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JIM COSTA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 6, 2015

  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Nancy 
MacDonald Clark, a champion of nursing education in the San Joaquin 
Valley. Dr. Clark's efforts in improving the lives of Valley residents, 
as well as expanding the California State University Stanislaus 
Department of Nursing, makes her extraordinarily deserving of having 
the university's Community Health Simulation Lab named in her honor.
  Nancy Joan MacDonald Clark was born July 13, 1946 in San Francisco to 
Joseph MacDonald, a pharmacist, and Edith Bakke MacDonald, a registered 
nurse. She passed away on December 29, 2014 after a lengthy battle with 
cancer.
  Nancy's family moved from the bay area to Atwater, California in 1951 
to open a drug store. Nancy learned the value of service from her 
parents' involvement in the community. Her father served as Mayor of 
Atwater for two terms, and her mother hosted Atwater Chamber of 
Commerce coffee meetings for the newly arrived airmen at Castle Air 
Force Base. Nancy graduated from Atwater High School in 1964 and became 
an active member of the Atwater Women's Club.
  Nancy graduated from then Fresno State College with a Bachelor's of 
Science degree in Nursing in 1968. She then went on to earn a Master's 
of Science in Nursing from California State University Fresno in 1983. 
She completed a Master's in Public Administration from Golden Gate 
University in San Francisco in 1985, and earned her Doctorate in 
Education from University of California, Davis/California State 
University Fresno's Joint Doctoral Program in 2004.
  Dr. Clark worked in acute care in San Francisco, Texas and Florida 
for two years before relocating to the Central Valley, where she worked 
in Migrant Health. She then worked as a nurse in the Merced County 
Health Department for six years. After raising two young children for a 
number of years, she accepted an appointment at California State 
University, Stanislaus as a visiting lecturer. Nancy eventually 
progressed through the ranks to become a full professor in the nursing 
program, an RN to BSN Second Degree Program.
  Dr. Clark was appointed Chair of the Nursing Department at CSU 
Stanislaus in 1999 and implemented a partnership with Sonoma State 
University to bring an MSN-FNP Program to campus. As Chair of the 
program, Nancy was most proud of founding the Pre-licensure Bachelor of 
Science in Nursing Program in 2002, the first generic nursing program 
to open in California in ten years. Before leaving the department, she 
had completed a needs assessment and proposal for an MSN program which 
opened in spring 2009.
  After earning her doctorate in 2004, Dr. Clark was appointed Interim 
Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences at CSU 
Stanislaus. Following two years of leave and twenty-eight years in 
academia, Nancy retired in the summer of 2008 to focus on her health 
and family.
  Mr. Speaker it is with reverence that I recognize the memory of Dr. 
Nancy Joan MacDonald Clark. Nancy dedicated many years of her life 
educating nurses of the future, and enabling those students to not only 
improve the lives of California residents but the lives of people 
throughout our nation. May her years of service to the California State 
University, Stanislaus never be forgotten.

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