If the values of the USF nursing program could be distilled into a living person, it would be Mary Herron Willis. As the seventh of ten children, Willis spent her career caring for others.


She worked countless hours in hospitals across the nation and later worked in women’s primary  healthcare in Guatemala during their civil war.


I’m the woman I am today because of USF. I had a wonderful career as a nurse, able to live in many states, practice nursing as an educator, as a nurse in intensive care.


My best friends in the world that I still see speak to all the time are from USF.


When we were student nurses, the practicing nurses always said they liked the USF nursing students because they liked the emotional care that the USF nurses brought.


They took care of the patient the way we were taking care of as students—the whole person.


Willis also served on the USF alumni board and established the Gregory and Margaret Heron Scholarship Fund at USF.


And then you also saw the University taking care of the faculty because it was the faculty that took care of us. And it’s just a whole, uh, circle, you know, a circle of care.


USF prepares a student so well for their career and for life that’s changing the world from here.


For her humanitarian service to USF and across nations, we honor Mary Willis with the Alessandria Service Award.