Hub Huddle Showcases Partnership, Community Engagement and Improvement

Hub Huddle Showcases Partnership, Community Engagement and Improvement

At an event called The Hub Huddle, D’Youville President Lorrie Clemo, PhD, brought together integral partnerships with Catholic Health, CannonDesign, and the campus community to build excitement for The Health Professions Hub, or “The Hub” for short. Set to open in the fall of 2020, The Hub will represent a new chapter, not only for D’Youville, but of Buffalo’s west side regarding growing the city’s overall economy, education and wellness.

The event, called the “Hub Huddle,” was held in D’Youville’s Academic Center sixth floor, a newly renovated mixed-use conference and community meeting space with panoramic views of the Buffalo skyline, the city’s Buffalo-Niagara medical campus, Lake Erie and Buffalo’s Harbor, and the city of Niagara Falls including the rising mist from the falls itself to the north.

“We’re excited about our collaboration with Catholic Health,” said President Clemo on stage with Mark Sullivan, Catholic Health CEO and President. “This partnership extends an already great relationship with the potential to set a course for the wellbeing of those in some of Buffalo’s poorest communities. It will also help in the region’s educational goals, taking high school students from the city of Buffalo and giving them certification, training, to college early start programs, allowing families economic opportunities previously hard to reach for many. The Hub, and our overall plan for the school is about creating an economic, health, and wellness upward spiral, the momentum we start here and now at D’Youville will help build upon Buffalo's continued renaissance and future.”

“Here’s a healthcare provider that wants to lead the transformation of healthcare to those in need. And here’s D’Youville with a very similar mission,” said Sullivan of Catholic Health. “Catholic Health will be providing the services, the experiences for the students and running the clinic on the first floor of The Hub. We’re 100 percent committed and we’re looking forward to getting started.”

“This partnership makes a lot of sense for many reasons. The Hub is really important to the community. The Hub is a game changer for not only you as students, not only for you as faculty, but for the community as a whole.”

Sullivan also emphasized that with all of the technological advances that healthcare is seeing, there is still the need for a personal touch to be put back into healthcare delivery. “Both D’Youville and Catholic Health were founded on giving compassion for everyone, for every individual. We need to get back to the core of having a vocation of caring. This is a great opportunity for Catholic Health and D’Youville to change healthcare and be the fire-starter of what healthcare will be in the future.”

“The Health Professions Hub is an exciting moment for D’Youville and those it serves. We’re thrilled to be part of it,” said Michael Tunkey, Principal at CannonDesign. “The values of this project echo those of D’Youville’s surrounding community, and it’s not surprising today’s event reflects that community focus and commitment. Bringing this dynamic project vision to life is a true team effort, and we’re proud to start.”

Speakers Sullivan and Tunkey were followed by leaders of D’Youville Hub teams, giving presentations bordering on performances in the spirit of collaboration, using a stage to present ideas on moving The Hub forward. The campus community was encouraged to join the leadership teams, highlighting areas that include fundraising, community outreach, high school early college start programs, and neighborhood partnerships.

“The idea behind the Hub Huddle is to enlist the entire campus in helping in the creation of The Hub, from fundraising to awareness, to community support and events. College employees and students will join teams to make The Hub a reality as a campus-wide effort. D’Youville isn’t a bunch of buildings, old, new, and soon to be built, but rather it’s a connection of people, those on campus, those we education, those we teach, and those we help – people are at the heart of D’Youville,” said President Clemo. “A huddle is to gather in a close-knit group, to consult, to strategize, which is why we’re coming together today as a campus, for the Hub and beyond.”

The Hub Huddle’s lighthearted competition among the school team leaders giving performances netted them awards, as judged by members of D’Youville’s board of trustees, John Amershadian, president and CEO of Hodgson Russ LLP, and Robert Bennett, chancellor emeritus of New York State Education Department. The award for Most Flamboyant went to Christine Verni EdD, dean of the School of Nursing and Mike MacEvoy, director of experiential learning in the School of Pharmacy; and the award for Most Riveting went to Allison Newman, director of freshman admissions, and Leah MacVie, director of teaching innovations, whose presentation was a video of Newman’s children saying what they’d like The Hub to look like. Verni and MacEvoy also took home the coveted Audience Choice award.

A D’Youville’s core focus in building the Health Professions Hub is opening the community clinic, a first of its kind on Buffalo’s West Side and first of its kind for a private college in New York State. The Hub, from an educational standpoint, will be offering interprofessional teaching and collaboration, training and reeducating those in the health career field in real-world environments where treatments will be approached in a team environment, aimed at treating the whole patient. This type of team approach has been shown to improve outcomes and, most importantly, save lives.

“This is an exciting time to be associated with D’Youville, an entire campus unified to help the community at large, something this college has been doing since its founding in 1908,” said Clemo. “Helping others, the less fortunate or those who need a hand, lifting people up and giving them opportunities that they never thought possible is at the core of our mission.”

The D’Youville Academic Center’s sixth floor, the backdrop to the Hubble Huddle, is being discussed as a destination on campus as a collaborative mixed-use space with potential for partnerships, events for the college, and outside functions.

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