Fostering community engagement and innovation

By Melody Eaton

Vida Huber, unit head 1988-1999

In her own words, Vida Huber, JMU’s second Nursing Program leader, summed up her legacy: “I am a very creative person and when I can put my talents toward a project that will help people in the area and put my field of health and medicine into action, I find it very exhilarating. We really see the whole community as a setting in which to offer experience.” Huber, an extraordinary leader and visionary, developed numerous programs and educated both nurses and health professionals who engaged in community service.

Professor Linda Hulton recalled, “Vida was my mentor and department head when I was hired in ‘98 as a brand-new faculty member. I had never taught before and had no idea about curriculum planning, etc. The first faculty meeting was held in a small conference room in Harrison Annex. The focus of the meeting was preparation for a nursing accreditation visit. Vida had stayed up all night and slept in her office so she could complete the self-study accreditation report on time. This was only the beginning of the many ways that I saw Vida go above and beyond in her servant leadership style. In that same meeting, the concept of the Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services was born. She seemed to do her best dreaming on very little sleep!” Huber was an authentic leader who believed in a greater purpose. Anyone who worked with her would say: “You just can’t say no to Vida.” She possessed the ability to motivate, mentor and empower others to achieve great initiatives, especially for vulnerable populations. A child of parents who owned and operated a nursing home, Huber learned the value of service early. She received her BSN from Eastern Mennonite University and her MA and EdD from Columbia University. Prior to coming to JMU in 1989, she was the Chair of the Nursing Program at Eastern Mennonite University. Huber was involved in the formation of a state nurses association and served in many leadership roles. Once at JMU, Huber expanded opportunities for community engagement, and her reach and oversight touched outreach programs such as the Free Clinic, Valley Aids Network and the Blue Ridge AHEC. She also founded JMU’s Institute for Innovation and Health and Human Services, which helped facilitate interprofessional/interdisciplinary opportunities bringing different disciplines such as nursing, social work, psychology and medicine together on projects to build community health infrastructure.

School of Nursing Associate Professor Erika Sawin reflected, “I worked with Vida Huber while a new professor in the early 2000s. I was lucky to catch a glimpse of her vision for JMU community engagement through working with a community agency in the institute that she created: The Institute for Innovation for Health and Human Services. Her creativity was inspiring, her personal philosophy of service was inspirational, and her energy level and drive was relentless. As a nurse, I especially value her vision of what the nursing profession is capable of. If I am able to serve and impact my community through my work at JMU for even a fraction of what Vida did, I will be successful and will feel fulfilled.”

I can humbly state, as the fifth School of Nursing Leader at JMU, that Dr. Vida Huber is one of the reasons that I decided to move into nursing education as a career and the reason I was hired as a nursing faculty member at JMU in 1998. When you went to her with an idea, she would always say, “Now, let’s talk through how we can make this idea successful.”

Vida Huber was a force of nature. She inspired innovation and community engagement. “Service is at the heart of my philosophy of life, and I believe that it is through service to others that we ourselves become more whole.”— Vida Huber, from her remarks upon receiving the James Madison Citizenship Award, March 15, 2002.

Vida Huber presents the Merck Scholar Award to Art Strunk (‘92)