South Philly Review

If you think nursing is hard, try stand-up comedy.

“The truth is, [stand-up comedy] is too much work. You have to write all the material and you have to memorize it and then deliver it as if you never wrote it,” Gloria Donnelly, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professionals at Drexel University, said.

Donnelly, who has her doctorate in human development, balances overseeing 3,200 students, 155 full-time faculty, 70 staff members and a large nurse-run health center. On top of this long list of “to-do”s Donnelly added another interesting item to the mix.

The 68-year-old took to the stage at Drexel’s Center City campus May 6 and delivered an hour-and-45-minute comedy routine that touched on everything from escaping the summer heat in the President Movie Theater, formerly at 2308 Snyder Ave., to Esther Williams’ movies.

“I thought it will attract a lot of attention. Actually, it did go pretty viral and people would call me and say, ‘What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?” Donnelly said about the night that was to raise money for the Dean’s Emergency Fund. “We met our goal. Actually our goal was $50,000, we raised $65,000.”

The dean that hails from 21st Street and West Passyunk Avenue put pride on the shelf and put herself out there in front of Drexel staff and friends, but made sure the joke was always on her.

“I have strict rules for myself with comedy,” Donnelly, who has performed stand-up at conventions twice before her May event, said. “I don’t make fun of other people. I make fun of myself and my family.

“I grew up in South Philadelphia and I’m Italian and I have a lot of cousins and relatives and I have a lot of material because of where I grew up and how and who.”

With tickets coming in at $250 a piece and heavy-hitting sponsors from around the area driving up the funds raised, Donnelly’s hard work more than paid off.

“The endowment, the Dean’s Emergency Fund, it’s for students who have short-term financial problems, like ‘I cant pay the rent this month,’” Donnelly said.

Though the cause was serious the mood and material was light.

“I talk about my own personal struggles and all the stupid things we do. Like the first time I joined Weight Watchers and the lecturer looked at me and said, ‘You’ll never be thin in your whole life,’ so I quit in three weeks,” Donnelly said. “The material I do, people can relate to. They are kind of stupid, fun things that we all can relate to.”

Donnelly grew up in the West Passyunk neighborhood and attended St. Edmond’s, formerly at 23rd and Mifflin streets, and then St. Maria Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St.

Donnelly had a strong role model in an aunt, who inspired her to a future career path.

“I guess I was 3, my mother’s sister was an army nurse in the Second World War and I think she was a big influence on me,” Donnelly said. “She was a nurse off the coast of South Africa. Then in the Korean War. We were very close and she traveled a lot and I thought that was neat.”

Remaining in South Philadelphia, Donnelly went to great lengths — and lots of modes of transportation — to start her desired vocation.

“I commuted from South Philly to Villanova — took the bus and the subway and the train — and I got a nurses degree at Villanova,” Donnelly, who received her bachelor’s degree in 1963, said. “I moved out of South Philly, I guess I was 23. My mother wanted my new husband and I to live in South Philly and she even offered to air condition the bedroom.”

Working in psychiatric nursing, Donnelly was encouraged by a mentor to pursue a master’s, which she completed at the University of Pennsylvania in ’65, and went on to get a PhD from Bryn Mawr College in ’85. Working at a variety of places, Donnelly found herself at MCP Hahnemann University in ’96 and played an integral role with the merger when they were taken over and became Drexel by 2003.

“Oh, I love [teaching], it’s my favorite thing to do,” Donnelly, who teaches online, guest lectures and holds four student forums a year, said. “Well, I love to see students finally have those ‘A-ha!’ moments, when they really master something, when they kind of get as enthusiastic about the things I’m teaching as the things they are learning.