Band of America names Nazareth as its Rochester 2025 Neighborhood Builder

 Bank of America has named Nazareth University as its 2025 Neighborhood Builder® for its work expanding access to education and building career pathways. Bank of America’s signature Neighborhood Builders program continues to be one of the nation’s largest philanthropic investments into nonprofit leadership development, while providing unique multiyear flexible grant funding annually to high-impact nonprofits in communities nationwide. 

As a Neighborhood Builder, Nazareth University is awarded a $50,000 grant over two years, leadership training for the executive director and an emerging leader and the opportunity to connect with nonprofits in a peer network. This grant will directly support the university’s SURPASS (Supporting Underserved Rural communities through Physician Assistant Student Success) pilot program launching in January 2026.

“For more than a century, Nazareth University has provided students in our region with vital access to education and resources and fostering generations of leaders in our communities,” said Colleen Matteson, president, Bank of America Rochester. “Through flexible funding and comprehensive leadership training, the Neighborhood Builders program will help support the inaugural class of Nazareth University’s SURPASS pilot program, which will make learning and programming for physician assistant students from rural areas more accessible.”

Nazareth University focuses on preparing and empowering students to succeed in the classroom and in the workforce after graduation. Neighborhood Builders funding will support the SURPASS pilot program’s mission to make physician assistant training accessible to rural students through hybrid learning that combines online and on-campus instruction. Remote and short-term in-person immersive education occurs in the first year, followed in year two by full-time, in-person supervised clinical practice at sites in Rochester and beyond. After graduation, Nazareth University physician assistants will help expand primary care access in rural regions.

“Our SURPASS grant will allow us to recruit and support students from rural communities, who are statistically more likely to return home to practice after graduation," said Heather Grotke, director of Nazareth University's physician assistant master's program. "By investing in their education and clinical training, we’re helping to address the critical shortage of healthcare providers in rural areas and ensuring that patients in these communities receive the care they deserve.”

Neighborhood Builders is part of the bank’s longstanding efforts to build thriving communities by addressing issues fundamental to economic opportunity. Since 2004, Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders program has invested more than $346 million in communities across the U.S. and trained more than 4,000 leaders at nearly 2,000 U.S. nonprofits. 

Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving nearly 70 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 3,600 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs (automated teller machines) and award-winning digital banking with approximately 59 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Nazareth University is an inclusive community of inspired learners, educators, and changemakers who for 100 years have been driven by a bold commitment to action, empathy, equity, and leading innovation for the common good. Impact experiences are at the heart of a Nazareth education, preparing each student to discover within themselves the potential to cultivate positive change in their life's work, in any career field, and in a world that is constantly evolving and infinitely interconnected.

Our broad academic offerings present a range of study options typical of larger universities, yet achieved in our supportive campus culture. Nearly 2,100 undergrad and 600 graduate students enroll in degree and certificate programs and engage in collaborative, transformative learning experiences, preparing for the professions and society of today and tomorrow. In a learning community that purposefully integrates liberal arts and professional programs, Nazareth University graduates are able to launch a lifetime of impactful leadership in communities and workplaces near and far.

• published: 2025 December
• more news:
• Academics
• Health and Human Services