Endowed Chair Established by Alumna’s Visionary Gift
For Linda Gorman, MN ’77, getting a master’s degree from UCLA in what was then called Psychiatric Community Mental Health Nursing was a transformative experience that opened doors to advanced practice nursing roles Gorman says she wouldn’t have been able to pursue otherwise. Now, at the end of a rewarding career, Gorman is paying it forward.
With one of the largest single gifts ever given by a UCLA Nursing alum, Gorman has established the Linda Gorman Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Endowed Chair to support a faculty member in the UCLA Joe C. Wen School of Nursing with expertise in psychiatric/mental health nursing. Gorman and her late husband Stanley had previously endowed the school with two scholarship funds to support UCLA Nursing students: The Gorman Family Centennial Undergraduate Scholarship for undergraduate nursing students, and The Gorman Family Centennial Fellowship in Nursing for students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program.
“We are so grateful to have visionary alumni who are not only using their UCLA Nursing education to make a difference in clinical, research, and community settings, but who also give back to the school to ensure that the next generation of nursing students benefit just as they did,” says Dr. Lin Zhan, dean of the UCLA Joe C. Wen School of Nursing. “Linda Gorman’s generous support will make a tremendous difference by supporting our faculty in an area of nursing where there is a substantial need.”
Gorman says her goal in establishing the endowed chair was twofold: to help strengthen UCLA Nursing’s psychiatric/mental health nursing education by sup-porting a faculty expert, and to provide opportunities for students to have the same rich professional experience she had. “UCLA changed the course of my career and led to things I wouldn’t have experienced otherwise,” Gorman explains.
Attending a university “was always a dream,” she says, but when she started her career, nursing education took place in hospitals, so she began her career working as a staff nurse at psychiatric hospitals in her native Chicago. When Gorman moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s, she set her sights on UCLA, enroll-ing in the master’s program after earning her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Los Angeles.
The UCLA Nursing education was eye-opening, Gorman recalls. “It showed me that for an advanced practice nurse in psychiatric/mental health, you didn’t have to work in a hospital setting — I learned there were many other ways to bring that mental health experience and knowledge to patient care.”
After earning her MN, Gorman served as a mental health expert resource in a variety of acute care settings — positions in which she ran support groups and did short-term counseling for cancer patients and others whose mental health struggles presented challenges for nursing staff. She served on ethics committees and became a bioethics consultant. Eventually, she landed what she calls her “dream job,” as a clinical nurse specialist for palliative care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Along the way, Gorman lectured on psychosocial, palliative, and end-of-life care as well as publishing several books. In 2009, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists named her Clinical Nurse Specialist of the Year.
As the U.S. grapples with what many have called a mental health crisis, there is a considerable need for advanced practice nurses with mental health expertise regardless of the setting in which they practice, Gorman says. “It’s such a high priority in the country now, and schools such as UCLA have a critical role to play in educating more advanced-level practitioners to increase access to mental health services,” she notes. “I hope this endowment will help with that.”
Dr. Stacey Green, an assist ant teaching professor at the UCLA Joe C. Wen School of Nursing and the campus lead for the UC Post-Master’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program, notes that in 2025, the Office of Health Care Access and Information reported that every county in California is facing a shortage of mental health care providers, including nurses at all levels of preparation. “Linda Gorman’s generous gift to establish the Linda Gorman Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Endowed Chair will not only provide the necessary resources for teaching, service, and research at the highest levels, but also enable UCLA Nursing to address this profound shortage, especially in Los Angeles County and its surrounding areas,” Green says.
“This funding will enhance existing prelicensure mental health education and establish a PMHNP track within the BS to DNP program, which is crucial for training providers who can meet the diverse mental health needs of California’s population, particularly the most vulnerable among us. The endowed chair will improve the quality of education for future practitioners and promote innovative mental health care approaches that tackle the specific challenges faced by underserved communities. I envision UCLA Nursing strengthening its connection with the community in line with the strategic goals of the university and the school, fostering specialized research and clinical expertise. Ultimately, this gift will empower UCLA Nursing to lead initiatives that enhance clinical practice and improve access to mental health services, creating a more equitable and supportive environment for providers and those seeking psychiatric and mental health care.”
