HSC is here for our alumni during the COVID-19 pandemic – and every day

May 13, 2020

By Betsy Friauf

Each day, the Alumni Relations team at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth works to strengthen alumni bonds of fellowship by developing relationships, establishing lifelong learning connections and cultivating alumni as leaders, volunteers, advocates and donors for HSC.

Rising to a new challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic, Alumni Relations launched a far-reaching campaign to telephone our graduates and reiterate our abiding concern for their wellbeing.

Over five weeks, our team of 40 staff and student volunteers spoke with some 1,787 alumni.

Many of those alumni expressed appreciation for our outreach. Several voiced concern for students’ wellbeing and offered to assist remotely as preceptors or in other capacities.

In the course of their conversations with alumni, our Alumni Relations team heard many similarly inspiring stories.

Here is a sampling:

• Alumnus of Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine contracts COVID-19 while doing volunteer work: Richard Loew was volunteering at a medical clinic in the Bahamas in late March when someone handed him a phone. “I pulled down my mask to answer it,”’ he said. “In that moment, I was exposed.” Five days later, the 1986 TCOM alumnus tested positive for COVID-19. Read more
• TCOM’S first class president still going strong after 46 years: David A. Ray, the class president of TCOM’s first graduating class in 1974, remembers vividly the first days of TCOM in October of 1970, but also the effort it took to bring the school to fruition. He’s been practicing family medicine for 46 years, delivered over 1,000 babies and worked in his hometown for 44 years. He’s practically a member of the family to everyone in Bridgeport, Texas. Read more

HSC Alumni Relations Director Jennifer Nanni said, “In this uncertain time, one thing that has not changed is our support and pride in our alumni.”

Connect with the HSC Alumni Relations Office.