What We Are Doing

WIRED Grant to Help U of E Respond to National Nursing Shortage

WIRED has awarded a two-year, $180,000 grant to UE’s Department of Nursing. The purpose of the grant is to enhance nursing education - through additional simulation experiences, through increased nursing class size, and through the recruitment of nursing students from underrepresented groups.

Funding from the WIRED grant will help support a nurse to coordinate the nursing simulation laboratory and increase public awareness of nursing as a career. Initiatives will target prospective nursing students from underrepresented groups including men, cultural/racial minorities, and students from the southwest Indiana region. The laboratory, located in the nursing department in Graves Hall, allows students to practice their clinical skills on Sim-Man or other patient simulators - sophisticated computerized manekins who can be programmed to exhibit any illness or injury. Sim-Man is the most recent addition to the UE lab’s Sim-family of training simulators, which already have been available to UE nursing students. The new simulation laboratory coordinator lab is expected to be on staff this fall.

“Nationally, we are facing a critical shortage of new nurses entering the workforce,” Lynn Penland, dean of UE’s College of Education and Health Sciences said. “We want to do everything we can to prepare baccalaureate nurses to deliver health care and to assume positions of leadership in health care. We know that the quality of patient care is dependent upon having a nursing workforce that is well-educated as well as adequate in size. We would like to thank WIRED for their generous support, and for their willingness to be a community partner for the improved health of the population.”

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Take a look at the slides from our recent Seminar Highlighting Women Entrepreneurs.

Christine L. Prior Joins Wired as Program Director

Christine Prior is the new program developer of the nine-county Southwest Indiana WIRED, which is based in Evansville.

The organization is built around collaborative efforts by community leaders in finance, technology, manufacturing, economic and workforce development, business and education.

Prior's main responsibilities will focus on research, development and overseeing networking relationships.

She is a graduate of the University of Southern Indiana with a bachelor's degree in accounting.

Prior has much experience as both the writer of grant proposals and the recipient of grants for areas in which she worked over the years.

She is accustomed to directing both a staff and volunteers and administering budgets of up to $5 million and a variety of community-based projects.

Prior received professional training from the Indiana Grant Makers Alliance and is certified by the Indiana Department of Commerce.

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WIRED Welcomes Our New Director

Joe A. Dedman has been named executive director of Southwest Indiana WIRED

As executive director, Dedman will focus on expanding the regional network of WIRED members, partners and allies and will work with this group to successfully implement the strategies in the WIRED Implementation Plan.

Dedman has recently served as President and CEO of German American Insurance after seven years as President and CEO of the affiliated Citizens State Bank. He was employed at Kimball International for 22 years in a variety of key management positions in information technology, operations management and business development.

He has long been involved in area community affairs and presently serves as chairman of Hoosier Voices for I-69, a trustee of the University of Evansville, and a director of the Pike County Growth Council, the Gibson County Economic Development Corporation, and the Mid-Continent Highway Coalition.

He will continue to live in Petersburg, Indiana, and will divide his time between the WIRED office in Evansville, the WIRED office in Petersburg that includes conference space for meetings in the northern part of the region, and visits around the region to advance the WIRED objectives.

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Past News Stories

Midwest Business coverage of Entrepreneur Week - PDF of article