Covista and the Covista Foundation Commit $10 Million and 50,000 Volunteer Hours to Build and Sustain the Healthcare Workforce

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New grants and partnerships target the full career continuum—from students exploring healthcare to clinicians at risk of leaving it

Covista Foundation launches innovative emergency grants program to help students during moments of crisis

Foundation expands its Board of Directors to accelerate impact across communities

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Covista (NYSE: CVSA), America's largest healthcare educator, today announced the first major milestone in Covista Open Doors—its multi-year impact commitment to build and sustain the healthcare workforce. Through complementary investments by Covista and the Covista Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) public charity, the organizations will direct $10 million and 50,000 volunteer hours over the next five years. The investments advance a structured, three-part strategy focused on: inspiring the next generation of healthcare professionals through career exploration programs and community partnerships; removing barriers for students through scholarships and emergency grants; supporting the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare workers through evidence-based programs that address burnout and promote career longevity.

America's healthcare workforce shortage has become a patient care crisis. The U.S. faces a projected shortage of more than 100,000¹ registered nurses and 140,000 physicians² by 2038, nearly 100,000 mental health counselors and psychologists by 2030³ and the mental health burden on clinicians is accelerating the timeline. According to the Covista Care Capacity Monitor, fielded by Gallup, 61% of clinicians say lowering workplace stress and improving mental health and wellbeing should be a top employer priority, second only to adequate staffing. Even clinicians satisfied with their employers are leaving; 17% of primary care physicians and 14% of registered nurses say they are at least somewhat likely to leave the profession within the next 12 months.

"The healthcare workforce shortage is one of the most urgent challenges facing this country, and as America's largest healthcare educator, we have both the scale and the responsibility to help tackle it," said Steve Beard, chairman and CEO. "Solving this requires investment across the full continuum, from the student who hasn’t yet chosen healthcare to the clinicians already on the front lines who are burning out and walking away, taking decades of expertise with them."

Inspiring the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals

Young people are not choosing healthcare careers at the rate America needs them to and Covista is working to change that. Through a new partnership with NAF, a national leader in career-connected education that expands access to real-world learning opportunities for high school students, Covista will initially support four NAF Academies of Health Sciences over three years in Washington, D.C., Dallas, TX, Raleigh, NC, and Los Angeles, CA. Covista colleagues will serve as industry advisors and activate work-based learning opportunities that connect students directly to healthcare professionals and real-world career experiences building the awareness and aspiration that set young people on a path to healthcare careers.

Removing Barriers for Healthcare Students

For the working parents, first-generation students and career changers who make up so much of America's future healthcare workforce, one unexpected crisis can end a healthcare career before it begins. A sudden illness, a housing crisis, a natural disaster—these aren't hypotheticals. They are the moments that force students out of their studies, often just credits away from graduation. The Covista Foundation is launching a Student Emergency Care Fund (the “Fund”), an innovative emergency grant program providing non-tuition relief to students across Covista's five institutions facing unexpected hardship. Available now, the Fund is designed to meet students at exactly that moment of crisis, ensuring that a single setback doesn't become a permanent detour from a healthcare career.

Supporting the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Healthcare Workers

The evidence is clear: targeted interventions to support healthcare worker mental health are already driving a 37% reduction in burnout and a 50% reduction in mental health conditions among healthcare workers⁴. Through Covista Open Doors, the company is investing in organizations building on that proof, including:

• The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation: The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation is recruiting 10 hospital systems to join a national Caring for Caregivers cohort—a structured learning community that helps healthcare organizations improve workplace policies and practices to reduce burnout, normalize help-seeking and strengthen professional wellbeing. Rather than placing the burden on individual workers, the cohort will focus on operational-level change guided by evidence-based strategies.
• The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare: Covista and the Schwartz Center are selecting five health systems to implement the Schwartz Rounds® program—facilitated sessions where clinical and nonclinical staff gather to discuss the emotional realities of their work, building connection and strengthening compassion. Two additional systems will receive Schwartz Stress First Aid training, an evidence-informed peer support framework that equips healthcare workers to recognize stress in themselves and colleagues and respond with timely, meaningful support.
• ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare: Covista has joined this national coalition—alongside 35+ interprofessional, cross-sector national organizations—which work together to cultivate supportive workplace environments, ensure mental health care access, and champion the wellbeing of all health workers.

Launching ‘Community Rounds’ to Leverage the Skills and Talent to Support Programs and Communities

Alongside these commitments, Covista is activating its most powerful resource: its people. Community Rounds, a new year-round volunteer program, puts the clinical expertise and teaching experience of Covista's 10,000 faculty and colleagues directly to work in the communities that need them most—from mentoring high school students exploring healthcare careers to supporting professionals on the front lines of the shortage. The program launches today with a goal of 50,000 volunteer hours—representing nearly $1.8 million in donated service based on the Independent Sector's national valuation.

Expanding the Covista Foundation's Board to Accelerate Impact

To advance the ambition of building and sustaining the healthcare workforce, the Covista Foundation is expanding its Board of Directors, bringing in new expertise in healthcare operations, financial leadership and strategy to accelerate partnerships, strengthen fundraising and drive the Foundation's mission forward with greater speed and scale. Effective July 10, Megan Noel, chief corporate affairs officer, Covista, became the Chair of the Board. Noel will lead a board that now includes new members alongside continuing directors.

New board members include:

• Donna Hrinak, Member, Board of Directors, Covista
• Michael Fisher, Managing Director, Winding Way Advisors and Investors, and Former CEO Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
• Krishanu Evans, Chief Strategy Officer, Covista
• Bob Phelan, Chief Financial Officer, Covista

Continuing board members include:

• Robert Gilbert, Dean, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine
• Scott Liles, President, Medical and Veterinary, Covista
• Leah Meizoso, VP, Deputy General Counsel, Covista
• Sue Subocz, Associate President and Provost, Walden University

Grants Supporting Healthcare Students and Practitioners

The Covista Foundation announced its inaugural grant cycle awarding funding to 10 nonprofit organizations across three priority areas: healthcare career exploration for underserved youth and adults, access to education and degree completion, and evidence-based mental health and wellbeing programs for practicing healthcare workers with a focus on rural and underserved urban communities facing the greatest workforce shortages. Grantees and projects supported include:

• After School Matters: Hands-on after-school and summer programming for 180+ Chicago teens interested in exploring healthcare careers and building bright futures.
• Remote Area Medical: Hands-on clinical experience alongside licensed providers in rural communities for 200+ students.
• National 4-H Council: Healthcare career exploration programming for 2,000+ youth from rural and underserved communities.
• A Better Chicago: Funding distributed across 20+ organizations delivering education, skills, and career pathways to underserved Chicago youth.
• The Emotional PPE Project: Development of a free, nationally accessible peer support training platform to address healthcare worker mental health, featuring AI-driven simulation and competency-gated certification.
• American Nurses Foundation: Building Peer and Leadership Support programming at eight rural healthcare sites, reaching 2,000+ nurses.
• Not One More Vet: A student peer support program addressing mental health among veterinary students at five to ten accredited U.S. schools, reaching 300–500 students.
• Pet Partners: 25 certified therapy animal visits coordinated specifically for healthcare workers, alongside support for two hospitals in establishing ongoing therapy animal programs, directly impacting an estimated 1,715 healthcare professionals.
• Pleion Foundation: A new healthcare career development program for two high schools in Barbados, reaching an estimated 400 students.
• St. Kitts Mental Health Association: Two workshops for approximately 60 local healthcare workers to reduce burnout and improve wellbeing.

"The Covista Foundation was established to direct meaningful resources toward organizations already advancing healthcare workforce development in the communities that need it most," said Megan Noel, Board Chair, the Covista Foundation. "Our inaugural grants reflect that commitment: partners selected for their proven impact, reaching more than 6,000 students, clinicians and community members. Our role is to help them reach further and do more. Today marks the beginning of that work."

To learn more about the Covista Foundation and the impact it is driving, visit covista.com.

About Covista

Covista (NYSE: CVSA) is America's largest healthcare educator, serving more than 100,000 students and supported by a community of 400,000 alumni across five accredited institutions. Through personalized, tech-enabled education powered by 10,000 faculty and colleagues, Covista expands access to healthcare careers and addresses the U.S. healthcare workforce shortage at scale. Covista is the parent company of American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, Chamberlain University, Ross University School of Medicine, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and Walden University. For more information, visit covista.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

About the Covista Foundation

The Covista Foundation, based in Chicago, IL, is an independent 501(c)(3) public charity that supports charitable initiatives in healthcare education and workforce development. For more information, visit www.covista.com/foundation.

1	HRSA, "Nurse Workforce Projections, 2023-2038." https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/nursing-projections-factsheet.pdf
2	HRSA, "Physician Workforce: Projections, 2023-2038." https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/physicians-projections-factsheet.pdf
3	HRSA, "State of the Behavioral Health Workforce, 2025." https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/Behavioral-Health-Workforce-Brief-2025.pdf
4	The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, May 2026. https://drlornabreen.org/about-the-legislation/

 

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Media Contact
Nick Lucido
Nick.Lucido@covista.com

Source: Covista Inc.