Schraff Visits University Park As Alumni Fellow

4-4-96
University Park, Pa. -- Sylvia Schraff, president and CEO of the Home Nursing Agency, Altoona, has been chosen as an Alumni Fellow of Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. She was honored at University Park April 2.

Schraff, who holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree in nursing from Penn State, has been in charge of the Home Nursing Agency since 1971. Under her direction HNA has grown to become one of the largest and most diversified home health organizations in the country, employing nearly 1,000 and serving 17,000 people each year. HNA has 25 locations in 10 counties and has developed a number of model programs, including the nation's first hospice program.

Schraff is regarded as a national leader in her profession. She has served on the board of directors for the National League for Nursing and has been a member of the Congress of Nursing Practice for the American Nurses' Association, among other national-level responsibilities. She is a member of the board of the Visiting Nurse Association of America, past president of the Visiting Nurse Association of Pennsylvania, and vice president of the Pennsylvania Association of Home Health Agencies.

She and Penn State have had a long-standing relationship: She has been a member of the advisory board for the Altoona Campus since 1988, and Health and Human Development faculty frequently work with her on their research projects. She has served on the Penn State Alumni Council and in 1992 received an Alumni Recognition Award from the College of Health and Human Development.

More recently the HNA and the School of Nursing formed a partnership to establish rural nursing centers in Mount Union and in Port Matilda. The centers bring nursing and health care to under-served areas of rural central Pennsylvania, while providing opportunities for students in the School of Nursing to gain supervised clinical experience.

In addition to her work with the Home Nursing Agency, Schraff and her husband, John, are owners of Oak Sping Winery, located near the Pinecroft exit of route 220/I99 north of Altoona.

The Alumni Fellow program, sponsored by the Penn State Alumni Association and the academic colleges, is designed to link prominent graduates and current students, faculty, and administrators.

**tmh**

Contacts:
Tina M. Hay
Health & Human Development, Penn State
Tina Hay tmh1@psu.edu

Alan Janesch
(814) 865-7517 (office)
(814 867-3621 (home)
axj12@psu.edu