College of Nursing Hosts Annual Compassion Lecture

Fifth annual dialogue focuses on the importance of compassion in a global context

Sacred Heart University’s fifth annual “Dialogue on Compassion” will feature keynote speakers Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author and political commentator, and Sara Horton-Deutsch, director of the University of San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Partnership and co-director of the Watson Institute Caritas Leadership Program.

The Dr. Susan L. Davis, R.N., & Richard J. Henley College of Nursing (DHCON) dialogue, which explores a different aspect of compassion each year, will focus on the need for compassion worldwide. The event will take place April 26, at 1:30 p.m., in the Dr. Michelle C. Loris ’70 Forum in the Frank and Marisa Martire Center for the Liberal Arts.

Audience members will hear Kristof’s take on the subject via Zoom, while Horton-Deutsch will present her thoughts in person. After each keynote presentation, Susan Goncalves, a DHCON associate professor, will moderate a panel discussion including Colin Petramale, coordinator of community partnerships, faith and justice; Amanda Davis, a nursing student; and Donna Bowers, associate dean of faculty affairs and new initiatives in the College of Health Professions. The panelists will then answer questions from the audience. The event will be livestreamed.

Kristof has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism, one of which he shared with his wife Sheryl WuDunn for international reporting. He writes a weekly column for The New York Times. Horton-Deutsch has been a practicing psychiatric and mental health nurse for 35 years, as well as a professor, consultant and program director. She also was named caring science endowed chair at the University of Colorado.

Karen Bauce, a DHCON clinical assistant professor who co-organizes the event each year with Goncalves, said the annual dialogue was a dream of Mary Alice Donius, former DHCON dean. Students, staff and faculty praise the yearly discussion, and Goncalves especially appreciates its connection to the nursing field. “Compassion is the crux of nursing: nurses are driven by it,” she said.

Goncalves and Bauce emphasize, however, that the topic is important to faculty and students in all fields. “This is an interdisciplinary event. All majors will benefit from the dialogue because being compassionate is part of SHU’s mission,” Bauce said. “We’re educating our students to be holistic in mind, body and spirit. They can make a difference through compassion.”

Bauce believes compassion takes caring to the next level because it incorporates action. “Compassion without action doesn’t lead to change,” she said. The upcoming dialogue will highlight ways people can spread compassion worldwide, and Bauce said even small gestures make a difference.

To watch the livestream, visit the YouTube page.

Pictured: Sara Horton-Deutsch and Nicholas Kristof