Nurse educator retiring after 42 years with Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences

QUINCY — Karen Mayville, administrative coordinator for accreditation at Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences, will retire on Dec. 31 after 42 years of service.

Mayville’s nursing career began 12 years before joining the Blessing-Rieman faculty as a member of the United States Army Nurse Corps. The Corps is the nursing service of the U.S. Army. Mayville served in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central America.

As fate would have it, she served alongside graduates of the Blessing Hospital School of Nursing. As her active military career ended, Mayville decided to pursue opportunities in nursing education. As a result of her experience with Blessing nursing graduates, the Milwaukee, Wisc., native applied to Blessing-Rieman and was hired.

Continuing as a U.S. Army Nurse Corps reservist for another 18 years, Mayville also served the college in a variety of capacities including faculty member, skills lab coordinator, master’s program coordinator and the position from which she will retire, administrative coordinator-accreditation.

Mayville earned a doctoral degree in education from Capella University, a master of science in nursing degree from Marquette University in Wisconsin and a bachelor of science in nursing degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She also holds a midwifery certificate from the University of Utah.

During her educational career, Mayville received the Nightengale Award from the Illinois Nurses Association and the Excellence in Research Award from the Pi Pi Chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

An active community volunteer, Mayville received the Honor Pin from the Girls Scouts Two Rivers Council, was named a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International a number of times, and Rotarian of the Year by the Rotary Club of Quincy in 2017.

Mayville says the defining moment of her career occurred in the classroom.

In a press release, she said, “I had a student who really struggled and required a lot of tutoring and mentoring. She graduated and moved out of town. About a year later, I heard from her and she said, ‘Because of you, I could become a nurse.’ She had passed her national board exam and got her first job. Today she is the chief nursing officer of a Florida hospital.

“That was the best thing that ever happened to me, just to have someone say that I made a difference in their life, that I had an impact.”