Mildred (Loughlin) Kahane ’49 to Receive Ruth S. Harley Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award

Mildred (Loughlin) Kahane ’49

Mildred (Loughlin) Kahane ’49 will receive the Ruth S. Harley Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Adelphi University during its 119^th Commencement on Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. in the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, NY.

After completing her nursing degree at Adelphi University, Mildred (Loughlin) Kahane ’49 spent eight years working at Meadowbrook Hospital. From 1957 to 1960 (the year she married her husband, Al), she worked in Brooklyn at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital as an in-service educator and supervisor and at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital as director of nursing.

The Kahanes then moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where Al was assigned as a physician in the Air Force. Alaska had just become a state in 1959 and because of Mildred’s education and experience, she was one of the first school nurses in Anchorage, then the first executive officer of the newly created Alaska Board of Nursing, and the first director of nursing in the new Alaska Presbyterian Hospital.

After their Air Force tour, the Kahanes settled in California. In 1965 Mildred earned her master’s degree and a certificate in public health nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. That same year, she was named an assistant professor of nursing at Sacramento State College.

She was appointed in 1968 to the California Board of Registered Nursing by then Governor Ronald Reagan. She served two 4-year terms, including one year as president. During her tenure on the board, legislation was passed that mandated guidelines for advance practice nursing and regulations for continuing education for nurses. She was integral to the development of the hospice movement in Sacramento, and worked with Congressman Robert Matsui to ensure that Medicare would cover hospice care for patients. In 1970 she established a nurse practitioner program at Kaiser Permanente, which eventually became a collaborative effort with the University of California, Davis. In 1985 she joined the Kaiser Permanente regional office in Oakland, California, as a consultant in the department of accreditation and regulations. She served as a liaison to the hospital nursing administrators as well as to the hospice and home health agencies.

After more than 20 years in nursing administration in two major health systems, she retired in 1995. Throughout her career and since, she has always been involved in nursing and healthcare organizations on state and local levels.

At Adelphi, she has served as a member of the Nursing Advisory Board—the alumni consulting body to the dean—providing her valuable expertise, guidance and support to the University. A recipient of the Peggy Ann Burleigh Scholarship her senior year at Adelphi, Mildred credits this financial assistance with allowing her to complete her bachelor’s degree. Through the years, the Kahanes—members of the Ruth S. Harley Planned Giving Society—have been loyal supporters of the Burleigh Scholarship and the University, and have also established the Mildred LoughlinKahane ’49 Scholarship.

For more information and the full day’s program, please contact Adelphi’s Commencement Office at 516.8774695 or visit commencement.adelphi.edu.