Gloria McNeal, GNU’75 GR’98
"We formed a crisis management team composed of healthcare and non-healthcare professionals who are tasked to develop and implement the COVID-19 guidelines for faculty, students, and staff, based on the directives of the CDC and the CA Department of Public Health. "
“A significant portion of my academic work is to engage in community service activities, bringing cost effective healthcare services to the under-resourced communities in South Los Angeles County, California,” says Gloria McNeal, GNU’75 GR’98, associate vice president, community affairs in health at National University. “It is these communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, many living below the poverty level and without access to primary care. My university has been delivering online education since its inception fifty years ago, so it was an easy transition for us to convert our few in-person classes to online; we already had the needed infrastructure. We formed a crisis management team composed of healthcare and non-healthcare professionals who are tasked to develop and implement the COVID-19 guidelines for faculty, students, and staff, based on the directives of the CDC and the CA Department of Public Health. To date, LA County leads the nation in the number of cases and deaths due to the virus. As a nurse academician I am fortunate to serve as the principal investigator for several multimillion-dollar-grant-funded initiatives that afford me the opportunity to be on the front lines making a difference. In using a nurse-led clinic model sponsored by my university, we bring healthcare directly to those most in need.”