The purpose of the professorship is to advance nursing knowledge and to join the scientific effort of Marquette University nursing faculty with the patient care endeavors at St. Joseph’s Hospital, a member of the Covenant Health Care System. The endowment was initiated by St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Harry Heeb Foundation will extend College of Nursing research opportunities.

"It is significant when Wisconsin’s largest Catholic university and largest Catholic health care system (Covenant) partner to advance the health of women in our community and beyond," said Madeline Wake, dean of the College of Nursing.

"Covenant and St. Joseph’s have been committed for more than a century to providing this community with the latest technology in the hands of experts who care," said Paul J. Dell Uomo, president and CEO of Covenant. "One of Covenant’s champions in our ongoing commitment to improving women’s health is the person after whom this professorship is named: Sister Rosalie Klein, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Wheaton, Ill., which is Covenant’s sponsoring organization. I am very pleased and proud that we are partners in the creation of this endowment."

To launch the professorship, the College of Nursing at Marquette will sponsor a women’s health lecture series with the inaugural event at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at St. Joseph’s Hospital Auditorium, 5500 W. Chambers. The event is free and open to the public.

The first speaker in the Klein lecture series will be Nancy Reame R.N., a professor of nursing at the University of Michigan.

Reame, a nationally recognized researcher in reproductive endocrinology, menstrual cycle, menopause and infertility, will deliver the keynote address, "Controversies in Perimenopausal Health."

Reame is the Rhetaugh Dumas Professor of Nursing and Health Care Systems at the University of Michigan. She has participated on prestigious councils, including serving as president of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, serving on the Department of Defense Task Force on Women’s Health Research and the Women’s Health Initiative Program Advisory Committee to the director of the National Institute of Health. She has conducted research on the menstrual cycle, premenstrual syndrome and menopause and has received more than $8 million for research from NIH. Publication of her research findings has resulted in health practice changes and innovations in caring for women throughout their life cycles.

The professorship is named in honor of St. Joseph’s Hospital, for the hospital’s continual commitment to improving women’s health, and for Sister Rosalie Klein, dean of Marquette’s College of Nursing from 1970 to 1989. Sister Klein earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Marquette University and a doctorate in public health from Tulane University. She was named outstanding alumna for 1985 by Tulane.

Sister Klein taught at Marquette from 1959 to 1989 and served as nurse executive at St. Michael Hospital from 1954 to 1959. Her professional service included leadership in the National League for Nursing and on the board of trustees of St. Joseph’s Hospital. She currently serves as a "sister visitor" at Elmbrook Hospital.

For information on the lecture series, call the Marquette University College of Nursing at (414) 288-3802.

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