The Mennonite College of Nursing expands to Southern Illinois

NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State University Board of Trustees and Memorial Health hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new Mennonite College of Nursing Springfield location. The new location helps address a critical need for more nurses, helps increase the college’s capacity and expands nursing education to central Illinois.

“We were able to showcase the lovely space that Memorial Health built out for us at this new location in Springfield. A lot of important friends from the college and Memorial Health were able to celebrate with us [Mennonite College of Nursing],” Dean of the Mennonite College of Nursing (MCN) Judy Neubrander said. “We gave tours of the new building and all aspects of it. The latest and greatest of what is happening in healthcare is in that building.” 

The Springfield location is specific to transfer students and offers many benefits to those who decide to travel to the facility. Neubrander mentions that prospective students can approach the college with a desire to attend the MCN and be provisionally admitted to the junior class. 

Neubrander is a nursing professor with over 25 years of academic experience. She is leading the college through this time of expansion. The Springfield facility has great importance her, the university and its current and future attendees.

“It helps expand our footprint to the south for the whole university. The college of nursing is the leading college in that, and I think there is more to come,” Neubrander said. “It gives us another way to showcase the great things that Illinois State is doing and how we’re engaging in our community.”  

The MCN Simulation Center will receive a 16,000-square-foot expansion along with the new Springfield location. The addition is expected to be finished by Fall 2024.

Neubrander said, “The Illinois State Board of Trustees in 2021 approved an $18 million dollar expansion to our Nursing Simulation Lab. We relocated the old building and are going to be building around the current one.” 

Neubrander expressed excitement at the latest expansions the university has made in the nursing program and in the local communities it effects.

“We are so excited to be there in Springfield and be a part of the wonderful healthcare that is going on there. We want to be a part of educating great nurses that are going to go out into the community,” she said.