Betty Reichard Sullivan RN

is honored with a Brick from the WSU School of Nursing, Kay Bachus, Mary Lynn Burnett, Alicia A. Huckstadt, Duane Jaeger, Jean M. Koch, Janice M. Riordan, Lois M. Short, Elaine E. Steink, Naomi J. Werne, and Donna Wolfe.

Betty Sullivan's foremost aim in her personal and professional life has been educating and caring for others. Her educational career has been marked by the desire to make education for students user friendly and nursing practice one of excellence. In nursing practice she has fostered individual development and maturation along with recovery.

Following are excerpts from friends, colleagues and graduates as they have experienced Betty:

You created, developed and maintained our psychiatric-mental health nursing major in the graduate program. Your program (and it is yours) is the finest in Kansas and one of the finest in the country. You accomplished this excellence at the same time you were leading the undergraduate program. Your graduates are leaders in clinical, political, educational and administrative arenas throughout the state and beyond. Your students demonstrate daily the excellence of your teaching and your service to Wichita State University and to our profession.

Thank you for choosing psychiatric/mental health nursing as your specialty, Your expertise as a teacher has helped many nurses develop into effective practitioners, We know from personal experience with our son.

Thank you for exemplifying in practice and action what an advanced practice nurse should be. I have often looked to your example of what I could and could not accomplish or attempt. You forged a path that we could follow.

I wish to thank you personally for the listening ear when I was trying to sort out the pros and cons of postoperative treatment following the cancer surgery. That was invaluable for that critical moment.

Not only did I receive solid theoretical instruction, but your graciousness and good humor made class and supervision a time to look forward to. I am grateful for your example of integrating one's faith with nursing and mental health concepts.

You've made really valuable contributions to the School of Nursing in many ways. As Undergraduate Director you have been a role model and a friend to many faculty.

One of the things I remember about my interactions with you is that you always seem to greet those with whom you come in contact with a bright, warm smile... and your cheerful laugh is contagious.

Using the words of Florence Nightingale, one graduate indicated, "It is a blessed life when we can live it for others, and in doing so, glorify the name of the Lord."

PERSONAL HISTORY

Betty Ann Reichard Sullivan, PhD, ARNP, CS (MEd 1970, MSN1983) was born in Minneapolis, KS on August 1, 1936 of parents of German descent, Edna Maria Stelter (school teacher) and Wayne Edward Reichard (dairy farmer). She is the oldest of six children. Betty attributes her interest in nursing to caring for her mother during periods of illness.

Betty began her nursing career at the age of 16 as a nurse's aide at Ransom Memorial Hospital, Ottawa, KS. She completed a BSN at the University of Kansas, two Master's degrees, one in Counseling and one later in Nursing from WSU. Her PhD in Nursing was completed in 1988 at the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught Nursing 21 years, served eight years as an administrator in the WSU School of Nursing, and practiced 23 years. In later years the focus was on women sexually abused in childhood. Her daughter, Lynda Schlender, graduated from WSU with a BSN in 1978.

September 18, 1998