No other wealthy donor has dedicated as much money to such a wide range of nursing programs as Bill Conway, the 75-year-old co-founder of the private equity giant the Carlyle Group, and his late wife, Joanne Barkett Conway, who died in January, 2024.

Nurses around the U.S. are getting burned out by the COVID-19 crisis and quitting, yet applications to nursing schools are rising, driven by what educators say are young people who see the global emergency as an opportunity and a challenge.