With a commitment to service and a passion for teaching, Dr. Matthew Hottle has stepped into the director role at WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus, located at WVU Potomac State College. The board-appointed chairperson and assistant professor of nursing at the College, Hottle looks forward to building on the success of the program and the future nurses it graduates.
“My goals or objectives are to build upon the great foundation we already have in the nursing program,” Hottle said. “I want to expand on what’s already here and created. And of course, our goal as a department is continuing to produce quality nurses.”
The traditional BSN program offered here for the past eight years continues to thrive. Capped at 24 students, the program for Fall 2026 is already full.
“I think there are many advantages to attending Potomac State College for nursing,” Hottle said. “You get the WVU education at a smaller campus. In Morgantown, they have classes with 80 students. Here, we have 24, and we limit the program to 24 new students a year. You have instructors here who get to know you personally. We know our students so well here that I can tell when one of them is having a bad day and needs some extra attention. We take notice of those details here, and we can take a student aside for some one-on-one conversations.”
Since its inaugural semester in the fall of 2018, the School of Nursing at Potomac State College has been wildly successful, constantly building upon its enrollment and use of technology.
Recently the department launched its “LPN to BSN” program, in which licensed practical nurses can return to college to obtain their Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Hottle said he is not only “inheriting” a facility and its equipment, but also directing a staff that for him has become a second family.
“We have an absolutely amazing faculty here,” he said. “I am surrounded by very talented people who have backgrounds in many different areas. I have all the support I need here to continue to move this program forward, and more importantly, the students have all the support they need to be successful.”
Hottle said he has “big shoes to fill,” following the retirement of the program’s founder, Dr. April Shapiro. Shapiro founded the BSN program eight years ago and hired Hottle soon after.
“I came in about a year after the program started. You cannot even mention the Potomac State College School of Nursing without referencing April. She is all over this building, from the studs up,” he said. “They were adding faculty as the program was growing. I was working at Garrett Hospital at the time, and one of the nursing instructors there gave April my name and April sent me an email asking if I was interested in applying for a position that had become open.”
Hottle said he toured the facility with Shapiro and other members of her teaching team and was immediately awestruck by the organization and equipment. He was also struck by the enthusiasm and dedication of the staff.
“I was very impressed with all of it,” he said. “And it was a chance to work in the WVU system.”
Hottle first earned his degree in nursing from Fairmont State. He then began his vocation at with the Garrett Medical Surgical team and then spent nine years as an emergency room nurse. During those nine years, Allegany College of Maryland in Cumberland opened a satellite campus in Oakland. Students studying nursing from that department then began completing their clinical hours at Garrett Hospital, now part of the WVU Hospital system. During that time, Hottle said he found himself drawn to instruction as part of his job description evolved into mentoring and guiding student nurses at the hospital. It was then he discovered he also had a passion for teaching.
“Working in the emergency room, we had students then come to work in the ER. I really liked working with the students. So, then I got my master’s degree so I could teach, and I switched a little bit. I was teaching full time and working in the ER as needed.”
“Having those students in the ER inspired me to want to teach,” Hottle said. “It’s so rewarding to be working with a student and see that lightbulb click. And to see a student then go on in his or her life and be successful. It’s been very rewarding to be teaching.”
Hottle and his wife, Aimee, are parents to four sons, aged three to 11. His wife is also a nurse. He said both having careers in the medical profession has helped as he has progressed from full-time nursing to full-time teaching.
“It’s very helpful because my wife understands the nature of this business and the hours, I need to put in sometimes and the work that it takes,” he said. “It’s nice to come home at the end of the day and have a wife who know what I have been doing and we can speak the same language about work.”
After starting at Potomac State College, Hottle obtained his PhD at Shapiro’s suggestion. When Shapiro announced to her staff that she was seeking retirement, Hottle was named as an early front runner as her successor.
“I had a whole year for April to mentor me,” he said. “She really did set me up for success.”
For her part, Shapiro did not leave her position without a few words of gratitude and praise for the man who moved into her office.
“Matthew will do a wonderful job,” she said. “I have no doubt the program is in excellent hands. I feel better about retiring knowing Matthew is stepping into this role. He will do great things. He has a passion for teaching and a passion for learning that the students respond to.”