SMU Alum, NURSE Corps Recipient, Now Works in Berkeley Clinic

As an undergraduate nursing student at Samuel Merritt University (SMU), Rory Caygill-Walsh had a passion for providing healthcare to underserved communities.

She’d received a highly competitive NURSE Corps scholarship that helped pay for tuition and provided a living stipend to help her pursue this dream.

Now, seven years after graduating from SMU and later receiving a graduate degree from UC San Francisco, Caygill-Walsh works as a family nurse practitioner (FNP) at Lifelong Medical Care, a community health center in West Berkeley where she received care in her twenties.

 “I feel like the luckiest person to work at a place that I feel so connected and committed to,” Caygill-Walsh said. “We serve a huge number of patients, and what I love most about working in primary care is focusing on preventive healthcare, and being able to educate people on how to stay healthy long-term and out of the ER.”

Caygill-Walsh said that her desire to work in communities that lacked access to healthcare services was strongly supported by faculty at SMU, who challenged students to one day help reduce health disparities.

“Dr. Karen Wolf, Dr. Margaret Early, and Dr. Patricia Brennan all took time to nurture my development and let me know that what I wanted to do -- which was work with underserved communities -- was both possible and important,” Caygill-Walsh said. “I really wanted to be part of the solution to the primary care crisis in we have in this nation.”

Caygill-Walsh’s passion for preventive healthcare stems from her family history. She grew up in Illinois, the fifth of six children. When she was four years old, her mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, too late for life-saving treatment.

Then, in her early 20s, after Caygill-Walsh had moved to California, her 25-year-old sister was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She moved to Michigan to become her sister’s main support and health advocate, but after several remissions, her sister passed away.

“Both my mom’s and sister’s conditions could have been prevented with better access to healthcare,” Caygill-Walsh said. “This is why I am so passionate about working in underserved communities. I want to help the people who need it the most.”

Caygill-Walsh said her career in nursing could not have been possible if it were not for the NURSE Corps scholarship she received while studying at SMU.

NURSE Corps is a federal government program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The program’s goal is to build healthier communities in urban, rural and frontier areas by supporting nurses and nursing students committed to working in communities with inadequate access to care through scholarships and loan repayment. Caygill-Walsh is 1 of 2,200 nurses currently serving in the NURSE Corps nationwide.

“It made a huge difference,” Caygill-Walsh said. “I was able to come out of nursing school without a huge debt and that overwhelming feeling that it needs to be paid back.”

The NURSE Corps funding allowed her to focus on her studies, as well as the ideals that led her into the nursing profession.

“I believe that healthcare is a human right and that everyone deserves access to high quality and affordable care,” Caygill-Walsh said.