“I’m excited, ready for the challenge. Every facet has prepared me to be in a position to give the best advice from the experiences I have had.”
Julia Carney, dean, BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health
(Butler, PA) A Zelienople woman inspired to work in health care as a 15-year-old witnessing the comfort given by a home hospice nurse to her cancer-stricken grandfather has been promoted to dean of a growing Butler County Community College division that in 2024 set graduation records in two high-priority-occupation programs.
Julia Carney earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing, worked 12 years at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the next dozen advancing from within what is now BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health.
The Ingram native will supervise a division whose enrollment has increased 86 percent since 2018 and that graduated 98 registered nursing students in May and 11 in a re-established practical nursing program in December.
A granddaughter of the late William Cuff, Crafton, who was “really funny, worked all the time and loved the Steelers,” Carney said, will also manage higher-education and workforce partnerships, and direct 32 full- or part-time faculty members who this spring are teaching 530 – or just short of 1 in 3 – credential-seeking students.
“I’m excited, ready for the challenge,” said Carney, hired by BC3 in 2013 as a part-time clinical instructor and selected in 2020 as the Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health’s assistant dean of nursing.
“Every facet has prepared me to be in a position to give the best advice from the experiences I have had. When someone will come in and say, ‘Hey Julia, x, y and z,’ I can say, ‘I know what you are talking about. Here’s what I’ve done in the past.’”
She succeeds Dr. Patty Annear, who in October was named director and chair of Grove City College’s nursing program.
“(Carney) has a solid vision for working with the college in advancing the efforts of the allied health programs overall.”
Dr. Belinda Richardson, BC3 provost and vice president for academic affairs

Carney was instrumental in the design of nursing skills and simulation labs within the high-tech Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building that opened in August 2023 on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township, Dr. Belinda Richardson said.
“If members of the public were to go into many of the classrooms, they would think they went into a hospital,” said Richardson, BC3’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Julia used her years of clinical experience to support the dean and the design team in developing rooms that really mimic the experience that a student will have in a real hospital.”
Carney has also overseen students’ clinical rotations at health care facilities, developed curriculum and directs the college’s practical nursing program, Richardson said.
“As deep as her history, passion and commitment is for the field of nursing, she has a solid vision for working with the college in advancing the efforts of the allied health programs overall,” Richardson said.

Division offers 7 job-ready programs
Students in BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation.
In addition to registered nursing, the school offers associate-degree career programs in health care science – with 259 students this spring BC3’s most-populated program – and in physical therapist assistant and in technical trades-massage therapy management option.
In addition to practical nursing, the school offers a certificate program in medical coding and billing specialist. It also has a workplace certificate in massage therapy.
High-priority occupations are job categories that are in demand by employers, have higher skill needs and are likely to provide family-sustaining wages, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry. BC3’s physical therapist assistant and medical coding and billing specialist programs join registered and practical nursing in leading to current high-priority occupations in the region.
Carney will also direct the Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health’s registered nursing program at BC3 @ Brockway in Brockway, established in 2018 to address what the six-county North Central Workforce Development area identified as its highest-priority occupational need.
BC3 @ Brockway’s registered nursing program has graduated 72 students since 2020, including a record 24 in 2024, and enrolls 65 this spring. BC3’s main campus registered nursing program enrolls 145 this spring.

“Aging people tend to have more health care needs”
BC3 serves students in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, Lawrence and Mercer counties.
At least 1 in 5 residents of those counties is age 65 or older, according to a 2023 report by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, an agency that assists the state Legislature. There are more senior citizens in Armstrong, Clearfield, Elk, Lawrence and Mercer counties than there are residents under age 20, the report stated.
“Aging people tend to have more health care needs,” Carney said.
Health care and social assistance employed the most workers as of December in all of those counties except Elk and Jefferson, where those industries employed the second-most, according to the state Department of Labor & Industry.
“So being in the health care field, no matter where you are, is great for students interested in these careers,” Carney said. “We need health care workers in general, and we are able to provide health care workers across the board, not just in nursing, but also from billing to rehab facilities.”
Partnerships: Jobs “where the students want to work”
Carney will also manage a higher-education partnership with Grove City College and workforce partnerships with Concordia Lutheran Ministries, Cabot; and Penn Highlands Healthcare, DuBois.
Sophomores and juniors seeking a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Grove City College pursue 41 credits in nine technical and clinical courses through BC3 while also taking courses at the Mercer County private institution.
Concordia and Penn Highlands sponsor tuition for select nursing students who agree to work for the health care providers after graduation. Concordia’s program is available to nursing students on BC3’s main campus and Penn Highlands’ program, to students in BC3 @ Brockway’s service area of Clarion, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties.
“These partnerships have been great,” said Carney, who earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing from Carlow University, Pittsburgh, and studied to become a registered nurse at UPMC Shadyside School of Nursing.
“They eliminate the stress students may feel in a job search and lead to positions where the students want to work.”