At the end of 2023, the New Hanover Community Endowment (now The Endowment) issued what was then its largest and most ambitious grant project: a three-year, $22.3 million to support a nursing pipeline, addressing a crippling shortage that had pushed New Hanover Regional Medical Center to the brink of disaster.
The grant funded four collaborative partners: $10.2 million for UNC-Wilmington, $10.1 million for Cape Fear Community College, $1.7 million for New Hanover County Schools, and $250,000 for the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. Novant Health also promised to invest $10 million in the pipeline.
Checking up on the grant
This spring, WHQR set out to find out how the grant project was doing. With the grant period set to expire at the end of the year, we wanted to learn how the money was spent, where the project had succeeded, and what challenges remain.
WHQR filed public records requests for reports from the school district, CFCC, and UNCW. Notably, as private nonprofits, The Endowment, Novant, and the Chamber aren’t covered by public records law the way public entities are, so their responses to WHQR questions were voluntary.
While Novant Health reports that The Endowment’s three-year, $22.3 million investment in the nursing pipeline is paying dividends by training more nurses and fostering interest in health care careers in New Hanover County, the collaborative partners have declined several opportunities to be interviewed about the grant thus far. While UNCW is increasing the number of nursing graduates, it is behind on the construction of a roughly $8-million nursing simulation lab, a major part of its grant project.
It’s been over three months since requests for interviews were sent to the Health Career Partnership collaborators at UNCW, CFCC, NHCS, and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce regarding the multi-million-dollar investment.
WHQR received documents from each of the institutions; however, they didn’t present a full itemized accounting of the over $20 million.
Endowment spokesperson Amber Rogerson wrote in an email, “Endowment doesn’t require grantees to submit itemized receipts. Our grant agreements require regular progress reports and final reports that include budget-to-actual comparisons, expense summaries by category, and updates on project milestones and outcomes.”
However, the documents from the four entities reviewed by WHQR did not all include the items Rogerson noted. That’s left some unanswered questions that could have been addressed in discussions, like: have goalposts moved since the grant’s inception, how nursing simulation technology has improved instruction, confirming specific allocations from the grant, and real-life stories of successes that might be more illustrative than numbers on a page (notably, CFCC’s reports did include student testimonials, but UNCW and NHCS reports did not).
But so far, the grant recipients have declined requests to discuss the pipeline project further.
Rogerson also said they weren’t organizing interviews for their first big investment. While the partners did hold a public roundtable discussion on the grant's successes in the summer of 2025, they’ve been unwilling to discuss improvements since then.
While the collaborative partners’ final reports were due this week on July 15, the partners hope to present what they’ve accomplished with the money at a roundtable in September, where WHQR has been invited to hear what two partners, UNCW and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, have to say then. Rogerson also encouraged WHQR to get information there.
Rogerson added, “From our end, we're striving to be transparent. We will be producing reports. We are guiding this public meeting [in September] so that we can inform the community and our partners. It's a little bit premature to talk about [results].”
The scope of the problem, and signs of the grant’s success
At the outset of the Endowment application, the collaborative partners cited a statistic from NC Nursecast that, for the 2021-2022 academic year, UNCW and CFCC collectively graduated 174 students, which “does not meet the current needs and future demands.”
In the application for the collaborative, one of the earlier goals was for UNCW/CFCC to collectively increase the number of nurses graduating from 190 to 400 by the end of the grant’s life. Initial reports from CFCC and UNCW also said they both wanted to see a 5% annual increase in the number of nursing graduates who accept positions in New Hanover County and in nursing graduates in general. CFCC also wanted a 5% increase in the retention rate of first-year nursing students.
The project leads for the grant at UNCW are Jack Watson, the dean of Health and Human Services, and Brooke Nigro, the director of the Health Career Partnership. They did not respond to questions about the grant, and UNCW later said they would not be available for the foreseeable future. The university did send responses regarding grant spending through its communications office.
According to UNCW spokesperson Sydney Bouchelle, the number of nursing graduates accepting positions in New Hanover County has increased. According to UNCW, in May 2026, they increased these numbers by 43%. They graduated about 123 nursing students last year. The previous year, 178 nurses graduated.
CFCC didn’t send any updated information on graduation and retention rates; however, according to a 2025 report the college sent to The Endowment, it graduated 40 practical nursing students last July and 55 associate degree nursing students last December, with 10 ADN graduates “scheduled to join in January 2026.” CFCC typically accepts upwards of 80 students each semester.
Novant New Hanover Regional Medical Center spokesperson Julian March reported the hospital has seen a 37% reduction in travel nurses over the past year (from May 2025 to 2026). Their retention rate has also been “trending very positively,” with 96% being retained in the hospital’s first quarter.
While there are other factors at play, March wrote, “We have seen significant increases in recruitment of nursing students from UNCW and CFCC, meaning we are keeping these graduates in our community to launch their careers.”
In UNCW’s January 2026 report to the Endowment, they wrote that as of December 2025, a “minimum of 53% secured employment locally. This is an increase of 25 percentage points from the start of this project.”
Rogerson wrote, “[The Endowment is] encouraged by the promising results that are emerging, including reduced reliance on traveling nurses, improved student retention and graduation rates, increased interest in healthcare careers, and emerging job placement data.”
UNCW is behind on the construction of the simulation lab
UNCW received the highest allocation at $10.2 million – and had high hopes of finishing its new nursing simulation lab, which accounts for 43% of the overall funds, by the end of the grant’s term. The $8 million project is behind schedule.
In January 2026, they wrote it was their “biggest challenge” and that “UNCW will likely need a no cost extension due to unspent funds in simulation renovation and simulation staffing.” At the time, they said the lab’s construction wouldn’t start until this summer – and the university “won’t be on-track to spend funds down by December 2026.”
According to Bouchelle, they’re expecting the lab to be finished by September 2027. She wrote, “Because the work is taking place in an occupied academic building, the project requires careful planning to maintain safe operations and minimize disruptions for students, faculty, and staff. Several enabling projects also had to be completed first to provide alternative office, classroom, and lab space during construction.”
While UNCW is spending $8 million on constructing the lab, the grant will cover only $4.3 million. The rest of the money will come out of the university’s institutional funds.
In their January 2026 Endowment report, university officials wrote that they spent only $1.8 million and have $8.4 million remaining.
Bouchelle wrote that $943,000 has been spent on salaries, with an additional $356,000 in benefits, which represents close to a fourth of the funds thus far. As for travel, UNCW spent $37,000 to get to conferences and recruitment events.
About a quarter of the funds, according to Bouchelle, are spent on student support and stipends; another quarter is on staffing. About 5% is on purchases, “not part of the simulation lab,” and the other 4.3% – around $438,600 – is on “miscellaneous.”
In June 2025, in one of three email exchanges that the university sent between Endowment staff and Nigro, with approval from Endowment CEO Sophie Dagenais and Endowment Network Officer Terri Burhans, the university transferred $100,000 to project management, allocating $50,000 to evaluation, $25,000 to research, and $25,000 to conferences.
In an earlier report to The Endowment, UNCW also noted that part of the operational simulation lab has been “understaffed for the entire Fall 2025 semester.” They had few applicants to oversee it.
In this new competitive environment, the 2026 report said they had 244 applicants for this fall and that only 28% “will make the cut.”
For UNCW’s Coastal Community Healthcare Fellowship, the report cited that “all 20 fellows who graduated in May 2025 from UNCW/CFCC are employed in New Hanover County.” UNCW also highlighted the Tri-Teal program, which allows CFCC nursing students to take some free coursework (two RN-to-BSN courses) at UNCW. The grant also provides stipends to nursing mentors for the students.
CFCC is losing top staff to train future nurses
CFCC received $10.1 million. In 2023, CFCC President Jim Morton, in a letter addressed to UNCW Chancellor Dr. Aswani Volety about the proposed collaborative partnership, wrote twice that the nursing shortage was a “wicked” problem.
“Such a wicked issue can’t be solved by one organization and must involve a comprehensive systems-based approach to be effective,” adding that “we know that is a wicked problem and even with a plan will not be easy to solve,” Morton wrote.
To solve that problem, partners like CFCC knew they needed more staff to train additional nursing students.
In June, CFCC’s directory shows that 27 positions were funded through the nursing grant, such as nursing simulation staff and both full- and part-time nursing instructors.
As of July 8, 2026, though, there is a major changing of the guard in training these future nurses, with job postings for the associate degree nursing program director; associate degree nursing level coordinator; department chair, health sciences; program director, practical nursing; and full-time associate degree nursing faculty.
CFCC lead for the grant, Mary Ellen Naylor, the dean of Health and Human Services, along with Sonya Johnson, vice president of marketing and community relations, who is currently handling communications for the college, did not respond to questions about these open positions.
But even before these openings, in CFCC’s report in 2024 to The Endowment, college officials wrote, “We have faced some challenges in recruiting qualified full-time nursing faculty. We hired one full-time faculty member and additional part-time clinical faculty; however, we have current full-time faculty working overload contracts to have sufficient faculty coverage for all clinical groups until we can hire the remaining faculty."
And the funds weren’t just for faculty but also for other types of financial support for students.
In 2025, the college reported that it spent $1.5 million on wrap-around services for hundreds of students on items such as scholarships, educational supplies, nursing exam assistance, and emergency assistance, which includes things like monthly rent or stipends for public transportation. Housing assistance received the highest allocation, with $759,019.
Tracking engagement
According to a UNCW spokesperson, CFCC and UNCW have been splitting the annual $30,000 cost for the software program Slate engagement, and how students are taking advantage of grant-funded services and events.
UNCW plans to continue paying for the software after the grant period. It was used to track student engagement with the partnership’s programs.
In a 2025 report, CFCC staff wrote, though, “A current barrier is the limited capacity to fully capture and analyze student outcomes in Slate,” adding, “We are still challenged with fully understanding the capabilities of the tool and successfully implementing it. We found user errors with sending exit surveys after events.”
NHCS mainly spends funds on nursing software program for students
NHCS got $1.7 million. A large amount of funds ($977,218) was spent on the health sciences software program, zSpace, and on 30 devices to run it. The program has interactive lessons that train future nurses.
Mandy Mills, the director of Career and Technical Education for New Hanover County Schools, who heads up the grant, sent written responses only through district spokesperson Anita Baggie about what the district accomplished.
The remaining balance they have is $234,080. Baggie didn’t outline how the remaining funds would be used.
In their January 2026 report, the district wrote that finding clinical space for students has “continued to be a challenge.” UNCW and CFCC both wrote that they had similar issues with their students. However, the district did write that “access to clinical sites has improved considerably.”
In the district’s reports to The Endowment, the district also wrote that it has dedicated health science instructors; WHQR asked which sources fund those positions and has yet to hear back. The coordinator’s salary, though, is being paid with Endowment funds through December. After that, their position will be funded from the district’s career technical education budget. WHQR asked what this coordinator’s salary was – and has not received a response.
The district also sent several staff members and over 80 students to the health sciences conferences. They report that the regional conference registration cost was $3,915, and transportation was $765.
From the last Health Collaborative roundtable in 2025, Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said that 36 high school students graduated from the nurse aide program after the 2024-2025 school year.
Wilmington Chamber of Commerce spends funds on ‘several salaries’, gives conflicting information on where it went
In 2025, CEO Natalie English said at the Health Collaborative roundtable, “We’ve been called a grant that nobody understands; that grant those institutions shouldn’t have really gotten.” English was referring to criticisms that The Endowment was pumping money into large, established government entities rather than community non-profits.
The Chamber received a quarter of a million dollars, and accounting of the funds has caused some confusion.
They submitted a report in January 2026 stating that Chamber representatives had spent $100,000 of the funds by January 2025. WHQR asked what they spent the funds on, and Megan Mullins, chief communications officer for the Chamber, asked if the news outlet could clarify further.
Mullins wrote in early June that the $100,000 spent so far “supports convening and leading the Health Talent Alliance, which is a group of 30+ regional healthcare employers that help shape the work from an employer perspective”. When WHQR reached out for another round of questions, Natalie English, the Chamber’s CEO, wrote through a spokesperson in late June, “Nothing has been spent.”
Mullins later wrote that some of the $100,000 was spent on the salary of Dr. Steven Hill, who oversees the healthcare talent work for the Chamber, wrote, “The Chamber isn’t using Endowment funds for conferences, travel, or food.” On April 15, WHQR had originally asked if the funds were spent on Hill’s salary.
What complicates matters further is that the Chamber reported spending down $100,000 in July 2025, but by the January 2026 report, it said it had spent down only $50,000.
Mullins later clarified that $50,000 was spent each year of the grant. It’s not clear what the exact plans are for the remaining $100,000.
She wrote, “The grant partially funds the management and operations of the Health Talent Alliance. Dr. Hill leads that work, but several other chamber staff members contribute. The grant does not fully cover any one person’s salary.”
According to preliminary documents produced by the collaborative partners, the Chamber also had high aspirations to facilitate and create a housing fund for nursing students.
Mullins finally responded after several attempts to ask about this: “The housing research the grant originally scoped for the chamber was completed by other partner organizations. Those funds were not needed on our end. We are currently working with The Endowment to determine how those dollars will be redirected in continued support of the Health Care Pipeline.”
