As part of its 100th Anniversary Celebration, Indiana University School of Nursing announced the first recipients of the Alumni Legacy Leaders award. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of 100 of our more than 19,000 living alumni from the core campuses (Bloomington, Indianapolis; and at the time, Columbus).
The awardees demonstrate exceptional contributions to nursing through education, clinical practice, leadership, and/or research. The breadth and depth of their contributions were considered in conjunction with the types and years that their degrees were awarded. A competitive submission and review process was used to select 100 extraordinary alumni for this award.
Meet the top 100 Alumni Legacy Leaders
Class of 1924
A founder of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Dorothy Garrigus Adams was born on September 23, 1902, in Brazil, IN. She attended the local Brazil High School and graduated from Indiana University School of Nursing in 1924. After graduation, she was a staff nurse at James Whitcomb Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, IN; St. Louis Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, MO; and Edwards Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Adams served as the pediatric supervisor at City Hospital in Indianapolis, IN, and as administrator and director of nursing at Methodist Hospital in Princeton, IN. It became the smallest hospital in the U.S. to receive full accreditation by the Joint Commission.
During the war years, Adams was administrator and director of nursing at Broward General Hospital, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and worked for many years at Gibson General Hospital. She was married to Kenneth Adams, formerly from New York. Adams was a member of the American College of Hospital Administrators and served as president of the Indiana Hospital Association in 1954. After retiring, she moved to Boynton Beach, FL. Dorothy Garrigus Adams died on March 2, 1969.
Mildred P. Adams received the Distinguished Alumni Award of 1974 from Indiana University School of Nursing. She served on the Indiana University faculty for 24 years, making major international contributions to the field of health care. After leaving the Bloomington campus with a BS and MS in Nursing Education and a doctorate of Education, she moved to the School of Nursing on the IUPUI campus.
Adams served as IU’s nursing ambassador abroad, recruiting and educating students who added ethnic and cultural diversity to the nursing profession, and fostering good will and understanding between nations. From 1959–1961, Dr. Adams was chief of party on an Agency for International Development contract with Indiana University to assist nurses in Korea. She was also named a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization in 1967–1968. Dr. Adams served as president of the Indiana State Board of Nursing Education for a decade, was elected to education and nursing honoraries, and was a member of several major nursing professional organizations. Throughout her career, Dr. Adams visited IU nursing alumni throughout the world and volunteered her services to the School of Nursing and the Alumni Association.
After 20 years in the healthcare field, Carol Applegate returned to law school and received her juris doctorate from Thomas Cooley Law School. She has been able to provide her clients with a more holistic and thorough approach to the resolution of their legal and personal challenges. Applegate has dedicated her much of her practice to care of the elderly. This population not only continues to increase at unprecedented rates but faces challenges that our society has never before encountered. The combination of her nursing and legal education gave Dr. Applegate insights into these challenges, specifically in providing a more holistic approach when dealing with families in crisis and planning for the future, especially at the end of life.
Dr. Applegate’s involvement in the community also allowed her to study future planning for healthcare needs at a national as well as the state and local level. Being involved in policy development for our elderly population will be critical for our future healthcare needs and Applegate said that she has been so fortunate to bring her expertise to the table with other community leaders to address these issues.
Dr. Applegate’s practice areas include estate planning, healthcare benefits, long-term care preparation, public benefits, guardianships, probate and post-death issues, trust administration, and elder abuse and neglect.
Dr. Applegate earned her BSN, MSN Ed, and EdD from Indiana University and a certificate in healthcare ethics from the University of Washington. She was a clinical nurse at Riley Children’s Hospital and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital before beginning her teaching career at Marion County General Hospital where she taught pediatrics, emergency nursing, and ICU nursing for five years. She returned to IU School of Nursing in 1966 to teach pediatrics in the BSN program. In 1968, she joined the associate degree in nursing faculty and ultimately became the associate dean.
When the ADN programs were discontinued, Dr. Applegate taught ethics across programs in the School of Nursing and served as the assistant dean for evaluation for the Core. She taught administration of higher education in the doctoral program and developed a three-course ethics concentration for that program.
Dr. Applegate served on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Board of Review, the Helene Fuld Outcome Project, and as vice president of the National League for Nursing. She was a member of the Education Work Group and Steering Committee for the National Commission of Nursing Implementation Project as well as on the Nursing Education Advisory Council for the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She was a member of the IUPUI team for the AAHE National Peer Review Project. Applegate is published in nursing education, evaluation, and ethics as well as in research related to nursing education and ethics.
Dr. Sarah Archer worked as a professor in public health nursing at multiple universities around the globe. She became the first nurse to serve as chair of the executive board for the American Public Health Association. Dr. Archer has coauthored three editions of Community Health Nursing as well as Nurses: A Political Force and Implementing Change in Communities. She served as a rural public health nurse in mobile clinics for Near East Christian Council Committee for Refugee Work, West Bank Hebron to Beersheba, Jordan. She served as senior nurse educator for the World Health Organization, training nursing trainers and paramedical personnel for work throughout Bangladesh.
Dr. Archer was a training methodology advisor for the German Government Technical Assistance Agency where she trained village family planning workers throughout Bangladesh. She served as principal investigator, Effects of the Angolan Civil War on Displaced Women and Children, U.S. Agency for International Development and UNICEF, Angola and country director and medical coordinator for the International Medical Corps, Rwanda. Archer was the principal investigator, Assessment of Health Needs of Displaced Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo and Montenegro, for planning purposes by International Medical Corps, Serbia.
Dr. Archer currently serves as the humanitarian assistance and public health contract trainer for the U.S. Departments of Defense and State, training U.S., NATO, South Korean, and African nations’ militaries in professional education institutions and field training settings. The goal is to help these troops to better understand civilian international, intergovernmental, interagency, and non-government organizations’ functions in humanitarian emergencies and how to prevent and mitigate the effects on civilians, especially women, children, handicapped, and elderly.
Joan K. Austin is a nurse scientist who is internationally regarded as an expert on childhood epilepsy related to child mental health and family adjustment. Her research changed practice in pediatric epilepsy nationally and internationally. Prior to her research, behavior problems were considered a consequence of the diagnosis or treatment. Her work demonstrated that behavior problems in children exist prior to epilepsy onset. Her research, which was funded for over 20 years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), received many awards, including a MERIT award from the NIH, the Clinical Investigator Award from the American Epilepsy Society/Milken Foundation, the Social Accomplishment Award from the International Bureau for Epilepsy/International League Against Epilepsy, and the Distinguished Contribution to Nursing Science Award from the American Nurses Foundation.
Dr. Austin was president of the American Epilepsy Society in 2005. She served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Nursing Research and four terms on the Professional Advisory Board of the National Epilepsy Foundation. Dr. Austin was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (then the Institute of Medicine) in 2000 and served as a member of the Committee on the Public Health Dimensions of the Epilepsies in 2012. She is a consultant to the National Institute of Nursing Research.
Prior to retirement Dr. Austin held the Sally Reahard Chair, was the director of the Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness, and was the director of doctoral and postdoctoral training in health behavior research at the School of Nursing.
Dr. Belcher began her career at IUSON providing clinical supervision in pediatric nursing for undergraduate students, and transitioned to the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program where she collaborated with faculty to develop the PNP courses for the MSN program track. Following completion of the PhD, Belcher began teaching graduate courses in the community health nursing track and worked to revitalize the CNS in community health nursing using a problem-based learning format. She also served in a 50% appointment as the director of Faculty Affairs.
Dr. Belcher's academic interests included community collaboration, school health, immunizations, service learning, and improved health outcomes for populations at risk. She used community-based participatory action research, asset-based community assessment, and community development/empowerment strategies in her research. She has been both a principle investigator and co-investigator on CDC, HUD, and Department of Education grants.
Belcher worked with several interdisciplinary funded projects at IUPUI that fostered civic engagement and service learning. Outcomes from the work included development of the first inter-disciplinary professional practice course offered as part of the School of Education’s certificate program in Urban Education. For many years, the School of Nursing partnered with the IUPUI School of Physical Education and Tourism Management to develop the PARCS program at George Washington Community School. Dr. Belcher coordinated the IUSON component of the program, “Reducing the Risk.” She is a past-president of the IUSON Alumni Association, recipient of the IU Thomas Ehrlich Award for Service Learning, and the Tony and Mary Hulman Achievement Award for Preventive Medicine and Public Health.
Class of 1925
One of the founders of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Elizabeth Russell Belford was born on December 23, 1902, in Jeffersonville, IN, where she graduated from the public school. She attended Indiana University School of Nursing from 1920–1923 and then from 1923–1925. She married Dr. William W. Belford, pediatrician, on October 8, 1925. Belford’s family included two daughters, Mary and Martha. She served as head nurse of the medical ward and night supervisor at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO.
After moving to California, Belford was a director on the boards of the San Diego Neighborhood House, the Francis W. Parker School, Children’s Home, and Dodson Home for the Aged. She was also involved with San Diego’s St. Paul Episcopal Church, the University of California Hospitals Auxiliary, Society for Crippled Children, and Mercy Hospital Auxiliary.
Hattie Bessent is known nationally and internationally for her work in leadership development, with a particular emphasis on the preparation of minority nurses as researchers and faculty members. She moved over time from being named ‘Boss of the Year’ by the American Business Women’s Association to becoming the first African American admitted into the Royal College of Nursing in London, England.
In 2008, Dr. Bessent was inducted into the ANA’s Hall of Fame, and in 2013 she was declared a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing. From 1977 through 1991, she served as deputy executive director of the American Nurses Association (ANA)’s Ethnic and Racial Minority Fellowship Programs where she assisted more than 225 nurses from Asian, Black, Native American, and Hispanic backgrounds to receive doctoral training in the behavioral sciences and in psychiatric nursing programs. She successfully obtained millions of dollars from the National Institute of Mental Health and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation for training purposes. Not only did these monies encourage collaboration between historically Black colleges and majority nursing schools, but she designed Project Leadership Advancement and Development (Project LEAD) to strengthen the leadership capacity of minority nurses who have already assumed positions as executives in schools of nursing.
Marjorie Beyers was the recipient of the 1986 Distinguished Alumni Award from IU School of Nursing. As a highly-recognized author and nursing consultant, Dr. Beyers was the first holder of the James R. Dougherty, Jr., Centennial Professorship in Nursing Service and Administration at the University of Texas at Austin. She was honored as the first lecturer of the Jean E. Schweer Distinguished Nurse Lectureship in Continuing Education at IU School of Nursing in 1987. Dr. Beyers served as director of the National Commission on Nursing, as well as the director of the Evanston Hospital School of Nursing. She received the Ray Woodham Visiting Fellowship Award in 1988.
Dr. Beyers is recognized as an outstanding continuing education instructor in nursing administration. She held a variety of teaching positions, presented numerous workshops, and has written many publications, textbooks, and articles that have enhanced the nursing community.
Anne Stanley Black won the Distinguished Alumni Award for IU School of Nursing in 1982. She also received the Emily Holmquist Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award after her retirement. She was vice president for nursing at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston, MA. Black was also associate professor, Division of Nursing, Curry College in Milton, MA; associate professor, School of Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts; associate professor at Boston University. She is the former director of nursing for IU Hospital and was chairman of nursing services at James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children.
In 1972, Black became a Fellow, American Public Health Association. She was an active member of Sigma Theta Tau and Pi Lambda Theta. She held membership, both elected and appointed, in many professional organizations, boards, commissions, and consortia. She was also president of the IU School of Nursing Alumni Association from 1972–1973. Other memberships include American Hospital Association Council of Nursing and White House Council of Nursing.
Dr. Blake earned her MSN and EdD from Indiana University and began teaching pediatric nursing as an assistant professor in the BSN program in 1970. She was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982. She published in refereed nursing journals and co-authored a text on immunology.
Dr. Blake was committed to students acquiring the knowledge, skills, and abilities for enhanced practice at the baccalaureate level. She was appointed assistant dean of the IUPUI and Bloomington baccalaureate program in 1985. Dr. Blake assumed the leadership role during a time of major curriculum revision within the baccalaureate program playing a leadership role in the formative stages of the transition to a statewide curriculum that established relationships and continuity among eight disparate baccalaureate programs. The curriculum change enabled students to transfer credit hours across all of the eight IU campuses.
Dr. Blake was willing to go “above and beyond” through a consistent commitment to service within the school, the campus, and the university to shape policy at all levels of the university. She demonstrated that she took seriously the service role of IUPUI’s mission. Her leadership and attention to the broader implications of policy decisions contributed at all levels to the university’s governance structure. Following her retirement in 1995, Blake became a member of the IUPUI Senior Academy to support the goals of IUPUI and served on its board of directors.
Dr. Brooks has moved outside a traditional nursing trajectory to make an impact on patients and healthcare. As system vice president of Quality & Safety for Indiana University Health, she is responsible for aligning quality and patient safety across the hospital system and among healthcare professionals.
As a leader in nursing, Brooks was the first Clinical Nurse Specialist at Methodist Hospital and the first director of Nursing Research. Following her doctorate, she became an NIH postdoctoral Fellow at IU School of Medicine and held positions in both the Schools of Nursing and Medicine. Her area of research is predicting postoperative pneumonias. Brooks is the first and only nurse to be inducted as a fellow in the American College of Chest Physicians and is also a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She has served as a National Baldrige Examiner.
Dr. Brooks' present contributions to nursing and healthcare include serving on the American Nurses Association Advisory Committee for Development of Care Coordination Quality Measures, and she is a member of the National Quality Forum’s All-Causes Admissions and Readmissions Steering Committee. She is past chairperson of the American College of Chest Physicians Quality Improvement Committee. Brooks also serves on the faculty for Jefferson University’s Quality and Safety Leadership Series. She was recently named one of the top 50 graduates from Purdue University School of Nursing at their 50th Anniversary Gala.
Helen F. Callon was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from IU School of Nursing in 1978. Callon was involved with the Wisconsin Association for Perinatal Care (WAPC) and was instrumental in the founding of the Perinatal Foundation to secure and provide resources for healthy outcomes for babies, mothers, and families in the 1980s.
By the end of the year 2000, the foundation’s assets totaled more than $4.5 million and grant distributions surpassed the $1 million mark. As a class member from one of the first few years after the school was founded, Callon’s work is historically relevant and valuable to the history of our school.
Dr. Carwein began her career as a staff and charge nurse in the recovery room/ICU at the Livermore (CA) VA Hospital. In 1972, she began her academic career at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she taught for 23 years and served as the dean of the College of Health Sciences, leading the development of the first MS program in nursing at UNLV and initiating new undergraduate and graduate programs in health physics, healthcare administration, physical therapy, and clinical laboratory sciences.
Carwein’s research and work focused on HIV/AIDS, establishing the first in-patient AIDS unit and AIDS hospice in the state, as well as Department of Health guidelines and policies for testing, reporting, and care of persons infected with HIV. She was recruited to the University of Washington in 1995 to lead the development of UW Tacoma where she grew the campus and its programs and established UW Tacoma as the engine of economic development for the region. In 2004, she became president of Westfield State College in Massachusetts and, two years later, returned to Washington as chancellor of Washington State University Tri-Cities where she significantly expanded the campus, operated—with a national laboratory—a biofuels research laboratory, and established an international wine science center. In 2012, she returned to her home state of Indiana as chancellor of IPFW, a campus offering over 200 programs of study to 13,400 students. In 2015, IPFW launched the DNP program in collaboration with its sister Purdue campuses.
Barbara Chalko graduated from DePauw University cum laude with a BSN in 1979. She received her MSN as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in adult health from Indiana University in 1983 and became an assistant clinical professor at IU School of Nursing. Chalko was recognized as Outstanding Faculty Member of the BSN program multiple times. She was also recognized with the IU Trustees Teaching Award in May 2001, 2003, and 2004. In addition, Chalko presented at nursing conferences and co-authored articles.
Barb Chalko began her nursing career as a staff nurse at Community Hospital and St. Vincent Hospital. She became the manager of nursing education services for the Carmel St. Vincent Hospital when it opened in 1985. She worked as an educational consultant for course development and presentation of educational offerings with the Nursing Services Departments at both St. Vincent locations. She was also an educational consultant related to chemotherapy at the local VA Hospital. Chalko served on the executive committee for the Central Indiana Chapter of American Society of Pain Management Nurses. She was a member of the Central Indiana affiliate of Clinical Nurse Specialists, Central Indiana Chapter of Oncology Nursing Society, as well as Sigma Theta Tau. Chalko was active in the Nursing 2000 program. She also served on the committee for the Susan Komen race for the Cure 2001 and 2002.
Chalko left a lasting impact on her students, colleagues, and all who knew her.
Jeanette Goodwin Chamberlain was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1983 from IU School of Nursing. She was chief of nursing and continuing education coordinator at the National Institute of Mental Health, an associate professor and acting director of psychiatric nursing programs at the University of Washington in Seattle, an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and a supervisor at the Division of Public Health in Indianapolis. She received numerous awards/honors in her lifetime, including being listed in Who’s Who in Health Care (first edition). She published multiple research articles in nursing, psychiatric, and continuing education journals. Chamberlain was awarded one of the first traineeships from National Institute of Mental Health in 1957.
Jeanette Chamberlain was an outstanding leader in psychiatric nursing and provided support for IU School of Nursing regarding projects related to psychiatric nursing. Dr. Chamberlain’s consultation was extremely valuable in implementing a three-year project for the Continuing Education Program at IU’s Columbus campus. The project educated nursing home administrators and staff in the care of the aged with mental health problems.
Victoria Champion's NIH-funded research career has spanned 30 years, focusing on cancer screening and use of technology, underserved populations, and cancer survivorship. She has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals including nursing, medical psychology, and public health journals, many of which are interdisciplinary journals. Additionally, throughout her research career, she has mentored all levels of students and faculty, many of whom are now successful funded researchers. Dr. Champion is principal investigator of an interdisciplinary behavioral oncology training grant. Her mentoring activities led to the development of the Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) program at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center (IUSCC). Dr. Champion founded the Behavioral Cooperative Oncology Group (BCOG), a collaborative organization of behavioral oncology scientists from Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and The Ohio State University.
Dr. Champion has served on many scientific review panels and advisory boards, including a six-year term presidential appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board. She was instrumental in developing the Indiana Cancer Consortium, which is dedicated to decreasing morbidity and mortality from cancer throughout Indiana. She served as member and chairperson of the national American Cancer Society scientific review group and a member of the Community-Level Health Promotion study section, as well as conducting many ad hoc reviews for cancer centers, SPORE and PPG grants, and numerous training grants. Dr. Champion has served as a member of the Department of Defense breast cancer integration panel and as presidential appointment to the CDC Executive Committee for breast and cervical cancer.
Brenda Cleary is currently (2014) a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Career highlights include serving from 2008–2011 as the inaugural director of the Center to Champion Nursing in America, a joint initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In this role, Dr. Cleary collaborated with other directors at AARP in analyzing proposed policy legislation in terms of its impact on an aging population. She also supported the development and the implementation of the 2010 IOM recommendations on the Future of Nursing. And while in Washington, she represented AARP on the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, tasked with implementation of the Institute of Medicine’s Report to Congress on Retooling for an Aging America.
For 14 years prior to joining AARP, she held the position of executive director of the North Carolina Center for Nursing, the first state-funded agency committed to ensuring nursing resources to meet the healthcare needs of the citizens of North Carolina. While there, she convened and chaired the National Steering Committee of the Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers and authored/edited two award-winning books. She was among the 2002 cohort of RWJ Executive Nurse Fellows.
Formerly, Dr. Cleary was regional dean and professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing. While at TTUHSC, she received the Excellence in Teaching Award and the President’s Academic Achievement Award. She was also co-investigator on a federally-funded dementia research grant and maintained a faculty practice as a geriatric CNS.
Dr. Clifton is a Family Nurse Practitioner who has been working as an assistant professor for the University of Utah College Of Nursing (CON) since 2005. This role incorporates student instruction for graduate level classes, patient care as lead clinician for the Juvenile Justice Service team, and clinical management as clinical director of the CON/Juvenile Justice Service (JJS) team, which manages and staffs clinics in six juvenile facilities along the Wasatch front. Dr. Clifton has worked to expand the purview of the university to nine clinics beginning in July 2014. Because of the high quality patient care provided under Dr. Clifton’s leadership, negotiations are currently underway to expand CON staffing to all 17 JJS facilities throughout the state of Utah. These clinics not only serve the justice-involved youth of the state, but also provide community health placement sites for RN and NP students.
Dr. Clifton has taught “Professional Roles,” a core graduate course, for the past six years. The course has been repeatedly cited by students as one of the most influential because Dr. Clifton pushes students to think beyond the patient-provider relationships to see other roles that advanced practice nurses can assume.
Dr Clifton has served as an elected board member of her statewide professional organization, most notably as president in 2010. She has been the recipient of the CON Faculty Service Award (2011), the Utah Nurse Practitioners Group’s State Award for Excellence: Educator (2012), and Sigma Theta Tau Gamma Rho chapter’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice (2013).
A founder of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Edith Moore Copeland was born on June 10, 1901, in Brazil, IN. She attended Indiana University School of Nursing in 1919. On June 29, 1924, Edith married Fred Copeland. Her family included two sons, Fred, Jr., and John Robert.
As an industrial nurse, Copeland worked at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, MO, for eight and a half years. After moving to California, Copeland worked at Merritt Hospital for three internists practicing in Oakland, CA. After retiring in May of 1969, Copeland worked with the Peace Corps. She resided in San Mateo, CA, until her death on October 5, 1992.
After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University, Dr. Crosby proceeded to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice with a concentration in executive leadership from the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is a graduate of the Johnson & Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management, and is certified as a Nurse Executive, Advanced (NEA-BC) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
Dr. Crosby has served in administrative positions at Indiana University Hospitals, Methodist Hospital of Indiana, the University of Alabama (UAB) Hospitals, and Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans, LA. She served as vice president and chief nursing officer at University Hospital, State University of New York (SUNY) in Syracuse, and most recently served as chief nursing officer at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System, where she led the administrative and clinical teams in achieving Magnet recognition from the ANCC.
Through academic appointments at IU School of Nursing, UAB School of Nursing, Syracuse University College of Nursing, SUNY College of Nursing, and, most recently, as associate dean for clinical operations, VCU School of Nursing, Dr. Crosby has inspired many of our current and future nurse leaders.
Dr. Crosby returned to her home in Fort Wayne in 2009 to teach in the graduate program at Indiana University Fort Wayne and work with faculty to offer the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree on the Fort Wayne campus. She continues to advocate for strong nursing leaders to transform the healthcare system for individuals, communities, and populations.
Mollie R. Cummins (formerly Poynton), PhD, RN, is a health informaticist and faculty member at University of Utah. She holds a PhD in nursing science and information science from Indiana University, where she received the Emily Holmquist Award. At Indiana University, she was mentored by Dr. Anna McDaniel. Dr. Cummins lead an AHRQ-funded study to develop and evaluate a health information exchange process for emergency departments and poison control centers. Her work was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality and the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, scientific papers, and abstracts.
Dr. Cummins identified crucial inefficiencies and safety vulnerabilities in the current process of collaboration between emergency departments and poison control centers, leading to the design, development, and testing of a groundbreaking new system for communication. Her research contributions innovate the way patient information is managed in order to improve quality and safety, strengthen systems of care, and influence the way poisoning is managed in Utah and beyond. As a nationally-elected member of the ANI (Alliance for Nursing Informatics) steering committee, Dr. Cummins reviewed emerging health informatics policy matters and opportunities for nursing influence on policy decisions. In 2014, she joined the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, the intramural research division of the National Library of Medicine.
Ruth Davidhizar won the IUSON Distinguished Alumni Award in 1991. She was designated in 2006 as Transcultural Nursing Scholar by the Transcultural Nursing Society. She was professor and dean of the School of Nursing and on the faculty in the MSN program at Bethel College.
Davidhizar authored more the 850 articles, book chapters, and books on strategies to enhance the provision of culturally appropriate care and developed a model for assessing cultural phenomena relevant to the delivery of culturally appropriate care. Her co-authored textbook, Transcultural Nursing: Assessment and Intervention, has been widely adopted by schools of nursing and has been translated into French. Her honors include: Distinguished Writer for the Distinguished Writers Program; Sigma Theta Tau; Sigma Theta Tau Region 4 Mentor Award; featured author in the Journal of Practical Nursing; listing in International Who’s Who; special recognition as Distinguished Alumni at Indiana University Gala Recognition Dinner; listing in American Men and Women of Science; Honorary Doctorate in Humane Arts from Andrews University; ISNA/AJN Indiana Writing Excellence Award.
Dr. Davidhizar served as a writing mentor for faculty members, students, and colleagues. She was the recipient of many private and federal grant awards, receiving $1.6 million for long-term care grant fellowships from 1998–2001. She was a frequent presenter of cultural competency and other health-related topics throughout the United States to nursing, educational, and other health-related groups. Dr. Davidhizar was a strong advocate for embracing cultural diversity and was a member of the Association of Black Nurses.
When Anne Mitchem-Davis graduated from the IU School of Nursing in 1953, she became the school’s first African American graduate. She went on to lead a distinguished career in nursing, beginning as a school nurse for the Marion County Department of Health and Hospitals (Indianapolis, IN) and eventually becoming assistant dean of the College of Nursing at Howard University (Washington, DC).
Mitchem-Davis’s career path took a gradual turn towards academic nursing. She moved to Boston, where she became a nurse and assistant supervisor at the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, MA. She spent a short time as nursing advisor for the Consultation and Education Program at Boston University but returned to patient care at Boston City Hospital, where she spent thirteen years as a nursing director in outpatient care. It was after this position that Mitchem-Davis directed her career towards academic nursing. She moved to Chicago to become chairman of the College of Nursing at Chicago State University where she was named advisor of the year and faculty member of the year. Later, she took a similar job as chairman of Senior Studies at Howard University’s College of Nursing, eventually becoming assistant dean and coordinator of the Mississippi Delta Project. She was named IU School of Nursing’s 2005 Distinguished Alumni award winner. Mitchem-Davis served with the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston until 1962 when she became an assistant professor at Hampton Institute. She was the first African American director of Nursing in the Out-Patient Department of Boston City Hospital. She later served as the executive director of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Deborah Winders Davis has been involved in pediatric and neonatal health care for more than 35 years with graduate and post-graduate education in nursing and developmental psychology. She is a tenured professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine at the University of Louisville, KY. Her research areas include understanding the developmental processes that result in individual differences in children's cognitive outcomes, especially in children who are “at-risk” (e.g., children born prematurely and those from low-income families). Specifically, Dr. Davis has studied the development of attention-regulation skills within the context of parent-child interactions. Additionally, she has an interest in promoting positive parenting skills and parent health literacy to improve developmental and health outcomes, especially in low-income families. Prior to its closing, Dr. Davis was the co-director for the Jefferson County Kentucky Study Center for the National Children’s Study (2008–2013).
In addition to her research, Dr. Davis has past experience with pregnant and postpartum women and with infants and children with complex health problems. Since late 2013, she has been in a leadership role in the emerging Child & Adolescent Health Research Design & Support (CAHRDS) unit to promote scholarly work among the departmental clinical faculty. Her professional goal is to improve child outcomes through the generation and use of new knowledge. Her IU education and the long-term commitment of the faculty at IU have been instrumental in her career.
Associate professor emeritus, Indiana University School of Nursing and Indiana University School of Nursing faculty member for over 40 years, Nancy E. Dayhoff is the founder and managing partner for Clinical Solution, LLC. She is the co-recipient of the Edge Runner Award from the American Academy of Nursing and has also received the Sagamore of the Wabash award.
Other awards include Excellence in Leadership and Excellence in Research awards from the Alpha Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International; Outstanding Research Utilization Award, Patient Care Research Committee of Clarion Health (currently IU Health) Partner; and IU School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni. She is the first author of 22 data-based presentations and co-author of 26 data-based presentations at local and national professional meetings.
She is the first author of 18 invited clinical papers at local and national meetings of professional organizations and first author of one book chapter. She has served in various positions on multiple committees that include: Board of Directors, Major Hospital, Shelbyville, IN, and the Major Hospital Foundation, Grant Making, Community Relations Committee.
Dayhoff is a consultant for the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, consulting on the project Developing ABC Codes for use by CNS’s and Developing RVUs for CNS codes. She is also working on a project in collaboration with Alternative Link Solutions/ABC Coding, Inc. and Relative Value Systems, Inc.
Dayhoff has consulted with five individual hospitals in Indiana and one eleven-hospital consortium within the Midwestern states, two law firms, and one medical review panel.
Dr. Lucille Joel was president of the American Nurses Association when Katherine Dimmock attended her first ANA convention. She listened as Dr. Joel spoke about “The Teaching Nursing Home.” However, that discussion did not affect her as much as the statement (paraphrased), “You know, I sometimes wonder if I should have made small contributions in my corner of the world.”
Making small contributions through pre-licensure nursing education has been Dimmock’s path in life. She is very practical and has sought to make students’ undergraduate education less stressful. She has been a nurse educator in Connecticut, Indiana, Wisconsin, and now, Florida. For a few years, her nursing support was focused on victims of medical malpractice whose injuries were clearly below the standard of care, and whose lives were changed forever by the injuries that they had sustained. She quickly learned, however, that she belonged in nursing education. Dimmock says that nursing has been very good to her and for her. She has achieved her goal of “becoming an Emily Holmquist,” IU School of Nursing’s dean when Dimmock earned her BSN, a goal that she set at “capping” in 1968!
As dean or campus president, she has been able to serve students, faculty, and staff in a different way—through caring. Nursing education for Dimmock is life-giving. She practices Mother Theresa’s belief that “we cannot do great things. We can do small things with great love”—and that is truly her legacy. She says she is humbled by the Legacy Leader award, and offers a heartfelt “thank you.”
Mark Douglas has served in the nursing and healthcare profession for over 20 years practicing as a critical care nurse, family nurse practitioner, attorney, and business leader. Mark is a two-time graduate of the IU School of Nursing and also a graduate of the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
During his career, Douglas has been fortunate to serve in a number of professional nursing roles that first began in the surgical intensive care unit at IU Hospital. After completing his master’s degree, he joined Gennesaret Free Clinic (Indianapolis) serving as the opening director of Indiana’s first respite care program for homeless men where he also served in the dual role as a Nurse Practitioner providing primary healthcare services to those with specials needs and limited access to healthcare.
Douglas then entered law school where he worked on healthcare reform efforts and served as one of the first Hall Center for Law and Health research Fellows. Upon graduation he practiced law for Hall, Render, Killian, Heath, and Lyman. He then joined Aetna where he currently serves as the Head of Innovation for the Medicaid division where he leads several national initiatives for the company including efforts related to patient-centered strategies, accountable care and technology and analytics integration.
Throughout his career, Douglas has been incredibly fortunate to have the support and mentoring of the IU School of Nursing faculty and staff where he has served as an adjunct faculty and on the Dean’s Board of Advisors.
Janet Barber Duval served as a faculty member of Methodist Hospital School of Nursing, Purdue University, and Indiana University for 16 years before joining the United States Air Force in 1980. Her military assignments included clinical leadership and educational roles in critical care, contingency planning, and medical readiness. Duval was named consultant to the USAF Surgeon General for Emergency and Trauma Care and received the Air Force Association’s highest nursing award for contributions to military medicine. She retired with the rank of Colonel in 2001.
Duval has subsequently been affiliated with the Hill-Rom Company as clinical consultant in healthcare design. She has authored and co-authored textbooks in adult and child care, emergency care, and forensic nursing. She is the former editor of the Journal of Emergency Nursing and currently editor-in-chief of Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, a position she has held for over 40 years. She is the instructor in continuing education and online courses in forensic nursing for the University of Texas, University of New Mexico, and the University of California. Duval received the President’s Medal from the University of Bari, Italy, for contributions related to the development of the country’s first master’s program in forensic nursing. She holds memberships in several organizations and was named Distinguished Fellow by the International Association of Forensic Nurses. She was granted Retired Fellow status by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 2013.
A look at history—a dreamer—an innovator—an entrepreneur describes Diane Gorgal Eaton. Working at IU Hospital as perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist, Eaton saw a new medical device, similar to an insulin pump, that was being used for giving medicine to prevent labor. Thinking as an entrepreneur, she saw how the use of this device could impact the health of high-risk prenatal patients by monitoring them in their home. Birth Wise Home Health Care Agency was born.
Eaton and her partner, Julia Brillhart, opened a one-room office and Birth Wise became the first high-risk pregnancy home healthcare specialty in Indiana. Birth Wise grew from Indianapolis, expanded to Fort Wayne and employed 16 people. Eaton had a dream—nurses can be entrepreneurs—a dream come true.
Patricia Ebright was an associate professor and associate dean for graduate programs at the Indiana University School of Nursing. She completed her undergraduate and graduate masters education at the University of Cincinnati (OH) College of Nursing and Health. Her healthcare experience included 44 years as a registered nurse, with the first 28 years working as staff nurse, nurse manager, and Clinical Nurse Specialist in acute care hospital settings. For over 16 years Ebright taught in undergraduate and graduate nursing education programs, the last 14 years at IUSON. She was a member of the first Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship class sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation, and completed a one-year informatics fellowship with the VA in Indianapolis. Dr. Ebright’s research focused on healthcare provider decision making in the context of actual care situations, and toward increasing understanding of the influence of work complexity on patient safety, quality of care, and the implications for system design and nursing education.
Dr. Ebright made significant contributions to understanding nurses’ work and the strategies nurses use to manage complex environments. The impact of her work is substantial, improving the quality and safety of patient care, supporting nurses, and overcoming traditional boundaries between education and practice. More recent research in collaboration with other IU faculty, funded by the National Association of State Boards of Nursing, investigated clinical education experiences of undergraduate nursing students with particular attention to clinical reasoning and decision making in actual care situations.
Dr. Marilyn Ellison Edmondson’s academic credentials include the doctorate of Education, University of Cincinnati (OH, 1976); Master of Science in Nursing, Indiana University (1966); Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Cincinnati (OH, 1962); Registered Nursing Diploma, Jewish Hospital, Cincinnati (OH, 1958).
Her academic excellence was recognized at IU’s Founder’s Day Ceremonies and she was inducted into Alpha Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. For outstanding doctoral performance, Dr. Edmondson was inducted into Pi Lambda Theta and Kappa Delta Pi, national honor societies in education.
Dr. Edmondson was presented with IU’s Distinguished Alumna Award (2003) for outstanding national and international contributions to nursing. She was recipient of University of Cincinnati (OH) Alumni’s Mosaic Award (2011) for fostering diversity, inclusiveness, and the cause of the underrepresented.
Two special role models, a nurse and a special education teacher, fueled Eskew’s desire to become a pediatric nurse. The values instilled in her as a child by her parents to pursue a great education led her to IU School of Nursing.
Her career started as a student nurse at Riley Hospital for Children in 1975, and she continued to work there while pursuing a master’s degree in Child Health Maintenance. In 1981, she took a position at St. Vincent Hospital in staff development, educating nursing associates and mentoring new nurses at the bedside in the areas of pediatrics, newborn nursery, neonatal intensive care, and as the Nurse Practitioner for the Newborn Follow-up and Genetics Clinics. Director of Nursing for the Children’s Specialty Hospital was her next role and one that shaped her development as a nursing leader.
In 2005, a tremendous opportunity presented itself as she was involved in the startup of a new hospital within the Clarian system. Now IU Health North, it was there that she held several leadership positions including manager of NICU, director of Pediatric Services, and interim chief nursing officer. Each of these roles provided her the opportunity to mentor nurses as they developed their own leadership styles and helped prepare them as our next generation of nursing leaders.
Now, she has come full circle returning to Riley as the administrator of Neurodevelopmental Behavioral Services. This is truly a culmination of her professional experiences in nursing education, care of children, and leadership.
As a 1973 graduate of Indiana University School of Nursing, Kathryn Ganske has worked as a staff nurse and manager in critical care, asthma and allergy office practice, an independent contractor in health assessment, and as a hospital director of clinical education. In 1994, she began a career in higher education at Shenandoah University (Winchester, VA), where she held a number of positions including clinical faculty, laboratory coordinator, undergraduate curriculum coordinator, and, in 2007, was appointed director of the then Division of Nursing.
In 2012, Dr. Ganske was named the founding dean of the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing (Shenandoah University) on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. She holds degrees from George Mason University (MSN), and the University of Virginia (MA in Bioethics and PhD in Nursing). Her research interests included bioethics, family caregiving, and moral reasoning in nurses. She was awarded more than $1.5 million in federal and private grants. In 2010, she was named to the ANA Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board. In 2013, Ganske was named a Valley Health System Corporate Member. In 2014, she became Commissioner of Education for the Virginia Nurses Association. Her publications include articles on moral reasoning, moral distress, and ethical implications in caregiving. As an ANA Ethics and Human Rights Board member, she participated in the revision of the ANA Code of Ethics and developed the hallmarks of an ethical work environment.
Janet E. Gillon was the first nurse with advanced education to practice as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Riley Hospital (1966). Her special interest was the care of children/families with congenital heart disease. Ms. Gillon was a member of the Association for Care of Children’s Health and American Nurses Association.
She was a role model for many young nurses because of her ability to care for very fragile cardiac infants. Her principles of cardiac care were important to many nurses developing their practices. Although she has been gone from Riley for quite some time, parents of children with cardiac challenges still speak of her importance in the psychological comfort as well as the physiological care of their children.
Linda Gilman’s impact on the nursing profession is bound to the development, funding, implementation, and evaluation of the Indiana University Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) program, which has graduates employed in all 50 states, the military, and foreign countries.
Gilman wrote multiple grants to fund the PNP program for 18 years throughout the state of Indiana and the federal government. The PNP program was initially a continuing education program, but, through her curriculum development and evaluation, the program was moved into the graduate program in 1980.
Gilman was also instrumental in the founding of the Association of Faculties of PNP Programs, which supports faculty for standards and competencies. She additionally wrote a grant to bring directors and faculty of NP programs to IUSON to develop Standards of Practice and Scope of Practice, laying the foundation for the establishment of the Certification Board for PNPs, now known as the Pediatric Nursing Certification board. Gilman actively supported the development of NAPNAP and served as its national and Indiana president.
Linda Gilman was integral in working with NPs and the state legislature to have both the title and definition of “nurse practitioner” written into the State Nurse Practitioner Act. She was granted a sabbatical to work with Senator Virginia Blankenbaker to review the status of children in Indiana. From this collaboration, Gilman wrote "Resolution 76, Children and Youth," which resulted in future child legislation. She was recognized by the Governor of Indiana as a Sagamore of the Wabash for inspiration in leadership.
Dr. Grossman was a true pioneer and visionary in nursing in the state of Indiana and beyond. Much of her vision is mainstream in the modern field of nursing today. She served as supervisor in the maternity department of Methodist Hospital where she pushed to implement a policy of permitting fathers to be in the delivery room with their wives, which was unheard of in the 1950s. Her specialty was rooted in parent–child nursing, to which she was truly dedicated.
As dean of IU School of Nursing, Betty Grossman continued to challenge boundaries. During her tenure she founded the Maternity Family League, MOM Project, and was responsible for the early development of the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS). Realizing that research was the means for moving the nursing profession into the future, she encouraged the development of advanced practice nursing and the nurse practitioner. Grossman helped develop a master’s program in nursing as well as the doctoral program in nursing at IUSON, which is still the only one in the state of Indiana. She set in motion the positions of deans for development and research, and she was instrumental in getting the various health professions on the IUPUI campus to work together unlike many other institutions where they operated separately. Dr. Grossman played a part in developing Sigma Theta Tau into what it is today. The Indianapolis Star chose her as one of the ten most influential people in the field of medicine in Indiana in the 20th century. By maintaining open lines of communication and using her her mentoring abilities, eternal optimism, boundless energy, and zest for life, she moved IU School of Nursing forward to what it is today.
Dr. Patricia T. Haase was the first director of the Associate of Arts degree in nursing program at IUPUI that began in 1962. She provided excellent leadership during the transition at Methodist Hospital from its diploma program to IUPUI's AA Program (which later was changed to ASN). She facilitated the integration of the Indianapolis Purdue AA faculty into the IUPUI faculty and the coordination of a single AA program at IUPUI. With the assistance from the IUPUI School of Education, she spearheaded the Guided Study Program for academically disadvantaged nursing students at IUPUI. She was a major resource person nationally regarding issues related to associate degree in nursing.
In her career advancement, Dr. Haase became the executive director of the nursing section of the Southern Regional Education Board. During this time she authored the following books: A Proposed System for Nursing: Theoretical Framework-Part 2, 1976; Statewide Planning for Nursing, 1982; Primary Care in the Baccalaureate Nursing Program, 1982; and Acclimating the Novice Nurse: Whose Responsibility? 1982. Later she authored The Origins and Rise of Associate Degree Nursing Education, 1990, and Associate Degree Nursing Education: An Historical Annotated Bibliography, 1942–1988, 1990. Her final position in her career was the dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after serving as the associate dean of graduate nursing at that institution.
Dr. Halstead has over 35 years of experience as a nurse educator in academic settings. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her expertise and leadership in online education, curriculum development and evaluation, evidence-based teaching, and nurse educator competencies. She is co-editor of the widely-referenced book on nursing education, Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty. She chaired the national task force on the development of the National League for Nursing’s Core Competencies for Nurse Educators, resulting in the development of evidence-based competencies and scope of practice for nurse educators. She has received several HRSA Title VIII grants for the development of advanced practice nursing programs, delivery of primary care services in vulnerable patient populations, and most recently (2013) received a $1.2 million HRSA NEPQR grant with the dual purposes of establishing interprofessional collaborative practice environment in acute care and rural primary care settings.
Dr. Halstead is the recipient of numerous awards, including the MNRS Advancement of Science Award for the Nursing Education Research Section (2007) for her leadership in advancing the science of nursing education and the Sigma Theta Tau International Elizabeth Russell Belford Excellence in Education Award (2011). In recognition of her contributions to nursing education, Dr. Halstead was inducted as a Fellow in the National League for Nursing’s Academy for Nursing Education (2007) and the American Academy of Nursing (2011). Her work in promoting excellence in nursing education is widely disseminated nationally and internationally. She served as president of the National League for Nursing from 2011–2013.
Dave brings more than 22 years of clinical and organizational leadership in organizations such as Methodist Hospital Dallas, Baylor University Medical Center, IU Health, Northwest Community Healthcare, UCLA Health, and Providence Health & Services. He has served as staff nurse, manager, educator, clinical nurse specialist, director of learning, clinical innovation & quality, and associate chief nurse. Recognized for his passion and talent at creating and sustaining organizational clinical excellence, Dave is a dynamic leader with a reputation for teambuilding and collaboration, and is an extraordinary role model for nurses who strive to advance the profession and quality of patient care.
As past president of AACN (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses), his presidential theme—“Reclaiming Our Priorities”—inspired thousands of nurses across the country to refocus their attention and resources on the really important work of nurses—quality and efficiency, thinking and working smarter and especially about making the right decisions. As the 38th president of AACN, the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, he worked tirelessly to help every nurse be the best they could be. Dave also served on the American Nurses Association Board of Directors representing specialty nursing practice. He’s honored to have been invited to participate as lead faculty for the AACN CSI (Clinical Scene Investigator) Academy.
An active speaker and author, Dave is widely recognized for his outcomes in workforce development, fostering true collaboration, building and sustaining healthy work environments, transformational leadership as well as the designation and re-designation process for ANCC Magnet Recognition®.
Anita J. Harden is described as a leader, educator, innovator, and philanthropist. Caring for the seriously mentally ill is her passion. She was instrumental in developing a unique program at Community Health Network in the Gallahue Mental Health Center (Indianapolis), called Continuing Care. This program provides therapeutic support and options to attain quality of life in the community for this patient population. Harden’s leadership broadened to include inpatient services expansion at Community Health Network. In 1983, she led a team of nurses and psychiatrists to plan the therapeutic programming as well as the state-of-the art psychiatric facility. These accomplishments led to her appointment as vice president of Behavioral Health Services. Under her leadership, Behavioral Health become one of the most comprehensive and well-regarded behavioral programs in Indiana. After a national search, Harden was appointed president of Community Hospital East, where she served five years before retiring. Her work with nursing leadership helped to attain JCAHO certification as a stroke center, the first in the network.
Following her retirement, Harden formed Interim Executives to provide interim CEO leadership to community organizations during their search for a permanent CEO.
Harden has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout her career. She is active in the community and serves on the advisory boards of the Indiana University School of Nursing and the Black Nurses Association. She is on several governing boards. As a volunteer, she helps to fundraise for the endowment she established to benefit the seriously mentally ill at Community Health Network Foundation.
Dr. Huff’s service to IUSON included over four decades of exemplary achievements, accomplishments, and service in a variety of capacities while a faculty member. She was the first minority faculty in the IUSON BSN program to serve as a course leader and as project director of a federally funded nursing grant.
Over her long tenure as a faculty member, Marchusa never wanted to be an administrator but wanted to have the real-life experiences of being a nurse with real patients so that she would have valid, accurate examples of patients that she could share with her nursing students. She was able to garner that clinical experience through her work as a Community Health Network nurse where she worked at Community North.
In addition, she maintained clinical relevancy through her Army Reserve work. Her extraordinary sphere of influence, significant impact on others and her contributions to the nursing discipline and profession have been validated through her many awards and honors over the years as well as board memberships. There are those special stars in one’s life that have such an impact as to make us wonder where we would be without them. Marchusa Huff is one of those stars for all of us, whose bright and shining contributions to IUSON, IUPUI, Indiana University, the larger community of Indiana’s citizens, and our profession will continue to burn brightly.
Dr. Pamela R. Jeffries, Vice Provost for Digital Initiatives at Johns Hopkins University and professor at the School of Nursing, is nationally known for her research and work in developing simulations and online teaching and learning. Throughout the academic community, she is well-regarded for her expertise in experiential learning, innovative teaching strategies, new pedagogies, and the delivery of content using technology in nursing education. She has served as PI on grants with national organizations such as the National League for Nursing, has provided research leadership and mentorship on national projects with the National Council State Board of Nursing, and has served as a consultant for healthcare organizations, corporations, and publishers providing expertise in clinical education, simulations, and emerging technologies.
Jeffries is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, an American Nurse Educator Fellow, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow. She also serves as president to the interprofessional, international Society for Simulation in Healthcare and as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Global, Intraprofessional Education forum. She has numerous publications, edited three books, is sought for consulting and to deliver presentations nationally and internationally. She has received federal and state grant funding to support her research in nursing education and the science of innovation and learning. Jeffries is also in the prestigious Sigma Theta Tau Research Hall of Fame and is the recipient of several teaching and research awards from MNRS, INACSL, the NLN, and the AACN.
Helen R. Johnson received the IU School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award in 1977. Purdue renamed their “Nursing and Allied Health Sciences Building” to the “Helen R. Johnson Hall of Nursing.” The name honors Johnson as the first head of the Purdue nursing program. Johnson started Purdue’s nursing program in 1962. Johnson was chief of nursing services for the Veteran’s Administration hospitals in Indianapolis. In her retirement she was coordinator for four South-Central Indiana counties in a national tax assistance program titled, Tax Counseling for the Elderly. Johnson was a leader in the educational community for nursing.
Dr. Jones began her nursing career in New York, earning a BSN in 1966 and worked in pediatrics and intensive care settings. In 1970 she received her master’s degree from Indiana University and assumed a teaching position at Boston University. Later she completed a post-masters certificate as an NP and earned a doctorate in 1986. At Boston College (Newton, MA) she received a HRSA grant to develop a graduate curriculum in Primary Care.
Dr. Jones is a mentor, scholar, educator, and professional leader in nursing. She has published over 130 articles and book chapters and written/edited 14 textbooks. Jones’s research focuses on transition care and recovery at home, development and classification of nursing language, instrument development, workforce evaluation, and expansion of nursing theory (Newman’s HEC). She has been funded by HRSA, NIH-NINR and other foundations.
Dr. Jones is the recipient of awards including the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Award, Boston College Distinguished Teaching Award, MARN Researcher of the Year Award, and the Dorothy Garrigus Founders Award, SSTI. She was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1980 and recognized by graduate students at BC with the Jones Award.
She has served as president of ENRS and NANDA-I and as co-chair of the AAN Expert Panel on Theory Guided Practice. Dr. Jones holds an appointment as a visiting professor at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and remains focused on enhancing the care of patients and families through the promotion of nursing science.
Dr. Jones has held executive leadership positions for 40 years promoting education for nurses and collaboration between academic and healthcare organizations. She has held faculty appointments since 1990. As director and professor with tenure at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, she laid the ground work for the school to become a college. She is the past chancellor for the Resurrection University, Chicago, IL, and developed and implemented the first graduate nursing and bachelor’s health information management degrees.
Dr. Jones has served as the national director for Career Education Corporation, establishing an RN-BSN nursing program for articulation with existing Practical and Registered Nurse programs and a nursing continuing education program approved by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She serves as the president and CEO for EdAct4U Consulting, specializing in small and specialty colleges and nursing and healthcare administration organizations by tailoring topics requested into action plans for the client that produce achievable outcomes and results.
She has taught for Chamberlain College of Nursing as an adjunct instructor in a graduate nursing informatics major and as an adjunct clinical professor for the University of Florida, College of Nursing in the baccalaureate nursing program. She also serves on accreditation teams for regional and national accreditors. Her long history of service and national network equips her with the skills and opportunities to continue to make future contributions to the field of nursing.
A nationally recognized pain management expert has stated that Dr. Keck has had a tremendous impact on thousands of patients in pain. Dr. Keck is known for her passion to improve pain management throughout the lifespan. She developed a vast knowledge base that allowed her to design effective pain control measures based on the best scientific evidence. She taught courses in pain and symptom management to advanced practice nurses who would produce data-driven clinical decisions to positively impact patient care. Her research and that of her students provided support for non-invasive, non-pharmacological interventions for pain relief. With her research team, she developed and validated the Riley Infant Pain Scale that is used throughout the world. However, her greatest reward has been the impact her students have had on the improvement of pain care for patients.
Dr. Keck is a master teacher responsible for the delivery of difficult courses that form the basis for evidence-based practice, statistics, and research methods. She was also a pioneer in the delivery of courses through video links and web-based media. Her efforts have been rewarded with numerous teaching awards. Students have reported that Dr. Keck’s encouragement and groundbreaking teaching style was instrumental in their success in the courses, solidifying their career paths. Dr. Keck’s students love her enthusiasm, rigor, delivery style, and clear concern for their welfare beyond the classroom and continue to consider her a mentor and friend.
Dr. Kenner has had a long and distinguished career in neonatal nursing and education. In 1993, she published a comprehensive neonatal nursing text. This textbook changed the way neonatal nurses delivered care. Her comprehensive neonatal text is used in practice and education worldwide and is now in its sixth edition. She started a neonatal nursing journal, Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews, as the first topic-specific neonatal journal. This journal is now in its second decade, and changed neonatal nursing globally.
She built the Council of International Neonatal Nurses, Inc., a non-profit organization representing over 60 countries. It is the only voice for neonatal nursing globally and is only one of two nursing organizations working on the Every Newborn Action Plan and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. This work involves the United Nations, Save the Children, International Paediatrics Association, USAID, WHO, and many others with the goal to improve outcomes for newborns and their families.
Dr. Kenner has helped raise the standard of neonatal nursing care and education. She has raised the visibility of the neonatal specialization. In addition she has research that focus on parents and the transition to home from the neonatal intensive care unit. Her early work informed the development of discharge and follow-up programs. In summary, Dr. Kenner’s work has impacted practice and education globally. Her work is now informing global health policy.
Jane Marie Kirschling was appointed dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing and university director of interprofessional education in 2013. She previously held administrative and faculty positions at the University of Kentucky, University of Southern Maine, University of Rochester, and Oregon Health & Science University.
Kirschling’s clinical expertise is in mental health nursing with a focus on end-of-life care. Early in her career, her research centered on assisting families through the process of providing care for a terminally-ill loved one and the grieving process. More recently, she has focused on workforce development.
At the national level, Kirschling served on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Board of Directors from 2004 through 2014 and is a past president. She founded the Kentucky Nursing Capacity Consortium and co-convened Kentucky’s Action Coalition. Currently, she co-convenes the Maryland Action Coalition.
Kirschling has received numerous awards, including the Beth Wessinger Award from the Oregon Hospice Association in 1995, the Organization of Maine Nurse Executives Leadership Achievement Award in 2003, the Agnes E. Flaherty Leadership Award from the American Nurses Association-Maine in 2006, and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association’s Leading the Way Award in 2013. Kirschling was co-recipient of the Kentucky Nurses Association’s Nurse of the Year Award in 2010 and received the Kentucky Nurse Practitioner Advocate of the Year in 2011. She is an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Executive Fellows Program (2000–2003) and was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2009.
Karren Kowalski, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, is president and CEO of the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence and co-leader of the Colorado Action Coalition for implementation of the IOM report. She is a professor at Texas Tech University School of Nursing and teaches in the DNP program in Nursing Administration. She previously served as assistant vice president and administrator of Women and Children’s Services and chairperson of the Department of Maternal Child Nursing at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and Rush University in Chicago.
She completed doctoral work in Sociology, University of Colorado, with major areas of study in leadership, women’s studies and family; received her BS from Indiana University and MSN, University of Colorado. She has served as project director on seven state and federal grants totaling more than $6.4 million; has authored numerous articles and co-authored five advanced textbooks, including Fast Facts for the Classroom Nursing Instructor, and Beyond Leading and Managing, Nursing Administration for the Future. She is an associate editor of JCEN.
Dr. Kowalski is a Vietnam Army nurse veteran, a Magnet appraiser, and recipient of numerous awards and honors focusing on leadership. Among these are the 2010 Colorado Florence Nightingale recipient; Distinguished Alumnae of the University of Colorado, School of Nursing; charter member of the Colorado Nurses Association Hall of Fame; past president of CNA and CGEAN (Council of Graduate Education in Administrative Nursing). She was elected to the American Academy of Nursing (1981) and to the Academy of Nursing Education (2013).
Dr. Krothe was formerly a professor at Indiana University School of Nursing and the assistant dean of the School of Nursing on the Bloomington campus. She served as the project director for the Brown County Health Support Clinic, a nurse-managed clinic in rural Indiana for 10 years. Her area of teaching expertise is community health nursing focusing on community-engaged scholarship. She is active in a number of professional organizations and has made numerous presentations and published related to utilization of a community development model to address issues related to access to health care, the role of nursing in improving access, and investigating how faculty frame their community-engaged work as scholarship. She served as the president of the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators and as chair of the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations.
Dr. Krothe spent a sabbatical leave at Massey University, New Zealand, in 2000 and in 2007 serving as a consultant to faculty colleagues at the university who established the first nurse-managed school-based clinic in the country. Honors include the Thomas Ehrlich Award for Service-Learning from IU for excellence in the development and practice of community service-learning; the Tony and Mary Hulman Award from the Indiana Public Health Foundation for providing access to care for uninsured populations; the Creative Achievement Award from the Public Health Nursing section of the American Public Health Association; the Distinguished Service Award from the IU Alumni Association; and the Outstanding Contributions to Community Health/Public Health Nursing Practice Award from the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators.
Barbara Kunkler received a general nursing degree in 1951 from IU. She attended the Indianapolis campus (now Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis). Kunkler retired from physician relations for the IU School of Medicine in 1994.
Kunkler served on the advisory board of the IU School of Nursing and on the board of the IU School of Medicine’s J.O. Ritchey Society. From 1977 to 1978, she was the president of the IU School of Nursing Alumni Association. Kunkler has also served as the school’s affiliate representative on the IU Alumni Association’s Executive Council.
A lifetime member of the IUAA, she was a member at large on the Executive Council from 1984–1987 and on the IUAA Insurance Committee. Kunkler was a board member of the Woodburn Guild from 1994 to 2006. She received the IUAA’s Gertrude Rich Award in 2001.
Marjorie’s professional work is one of giving: in early years as a recovery room supervisor in Iowa Hospitals where she was active in ANA, to Indiana University Hospital, Indiana University School of Nursing, Alpha Chapter Sigma Theta Tau International, and IU Alumni Association. Staffing throughout the house at IU Hospital as a float pool nurse, she mentored new employees on the then-new Transplant Unit, and served as the educator in the Nurse Transplant Organization in its infancy.
Recognized by her students at IUSON as an Outstanding Clinical Professor, she was commended for her student guidance, support, enthusiasm, and strong commitment to high standards of patient care. She organized a math course to identify students at risk and provide remediation. She was a strong advocate for students in the Student Learning Advocacy Committee. A lifetime IU Alumni member, Marjorie served on its Board, and was the treasurer and represented IU in Leadership. This educator traveled to Russia five times to present at conferences with Russian nurses. She has been an integral part of Alpha Chapter, STTI, since her induction in the 80s, serving as president for two terms, and a Board member thereafter, providing leadership at conventions, celebrations, and achieving numerous awards at the Biennial Conventions. She represented Alpha at Nursing 2000 and worked in their scholarship endeavors. Alpha created a special award in her honor in recognition of her work. Nursing has been a lovely journey for Marjorie, a nurse for 63 years.
Phyllis J. Lewis has dedicated her entire life, professionally and personally, to the betterment of health and education for her community, state, and the nation. Through her extensive experience as an educator, practitioner, advisor, author, presenter, administrator, consultant, and mentor, Mrs. Lewis has contributed to the areas of health and education of children and youth enrolled in public education.
Mrs. Lewis has demonstrated a great deal of these through her body of work while employed by the Indiana Department of Education from 1978 to 2012. For her leadership and work, Mrs. Lewis was awarded the Maynard K. Hine Medal/Leadership Award, the Emily Holmquist Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award, Dotaline Allen Award, Sigma Theta Tau Distinguished Service Award, ISNA, and Fellow American School Health Association (ASHA).
Her association participation includes past president of ASHA, National Association of State School Nurse Consultants, and IUSONAA, with lifetime membership and involvement with IU Alumni Association and ISNA/ANA.
Active in her community, Mrs. Lewis is an elected member of the MSD Wayne Township School Board, serving consecutively since 1968, and has held all offices to date. An active member and past president of the Indiana School Board Association, she received the Outstanding Board member Award.
Mrs. Lewis earned a diploma from Union Hospital School of Nursing; BSN, MSN, and FNP Certificate from IU School of Nursing; and Parish Nurse Certificate, Marian University. The health and education of children and youth continue to be a priority in her life.
As the consultant of city and county level government and the Health Projects director, I-Chuan is leading the construction and re-shaping of health policies in urban communities in Taipei and rural communities in Yilan county, Taiwan, through building healthy cities and communities. Her research has focused on developing health policies for governmental and non-governmental organizations. She has been involved in program design for long-term care providers for the elderly. She has published 60 articles and 16 books and has been published in numerous international and domestic journals.
She is interested in assisting nonprofit organizations to help them improve their health care, education, and training programs for long-term care patients and workers to enhance the quality of management and services. She helps free-standing long-term care facilities to set up their service systems by assisting them in the creation of informatics documentation systems that allows them to improve nurse competency and quality of health services.
Class of 1923
A founder of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Marie Louise Hippensteel Lingeman was born on August 17, 1900, in Rochester, IN, and graduated from high school in North Manchester, IN. She graduated from Indiana University School of Nursing in 1923 and married Dr. Ralph Lingeman that same year. They relocated to Fort Lauderdale, FL, and their family included four children. Lingeman’s nursing career included work in general duty, as an OB supervisor, and as an office nurse for two physicians. While suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she requested to be buried in North Manchester, IN. Her family became her main interest until her death on September 7, 1984.
As associate chief of nursing for research, Dr. Logsdon works with 800 direct care nurses and 50 nurse leaders to foster a climate of clinical inquiry and nursing excellence. In her academic role, Dr. Logsdon has a sustained record of leadership to the School of Nursing and the University of Louisville, particularly through efforts to foster faculty and student scholarship, women’s health, and leadership development of women. She has served as principal investigator and led interdisciplinary research teams for several large, externally-funded, research projects and she has a strong publication record in scientific, clinical, and consumer journals.
In 2005, Dr. Logsdon received the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nursing Research Award. In 2006, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. In 2009, Dr. Logsdon received the International Nursing Research Dissemination Award from Sigma Theta Tau, International. Dr. Logsdon serves on the Editorial Board of Archives of Women’s Mental Health, President’s Advisory Panel of Postpartum Support International (a consumer support organization), and completed three years of service as co-chair of the Expert Panel on Child/Adolescent/Family Nursing of the American Academy of Nursing. Previous national leadership roles include Editorial Board of Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Neonatal Nursing; Research Advisory Board of Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nursing; Board of Directors of Midwest Nursing Research Society; and Board of Directors of Postpartum Support International. In the Louisville community, Dr. Logsdon serves a co-chair of the Health Start Advocates Committee.
Known for her passion for nursing research, Dr. Lusk has contributed in multiple ways to advancing nursing science in this country and internationally. The major focus of her pioneering research is worker health and safety, with an emphasis on preventing noise-induced hearing loss by randomized-controlled testing of effectiveness of innovative computer-based interventions to increase use of hearing protection. Her federally-funded studies led NIOSH to develop intramural research to address the behavioral factors influencing workers’ use of protective equipment, thereby influencing federal policy and programs, as well as numerous researchers in many countries.
To help to ensure a future cadre of researchers and practitioners in occupational health, she developed master’s and doctoral programs for occupational health nursing at the University of Michigan School of Nursing; established a fund at the school to support pilot studies; advised and mentored students and faculty regarding their research; served as a charter member of the nursing research study section at NIH; and reviewed NIOSH and other special program grants.
Many of her leadership activities were also devoted to promoting development of nursing science. Following retirement from academia, she served as president of the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS), and as founding president of the MNRS Foundation whose mission is to raise funds to support MNRS research grants. As a researcher and educator for many years, Dr. Lusk’s work has affected the health of workers, and through her mentorship has impacted the careers of hundreds of researchers and students, and thereby, the countless workers they serve.
Dr. Brenda Lyon consistently demonstrated leadership in purpose-driven work to: advance the practice of nursing; educate Clinical Nurse Specialists to effectively implement the role (IUSON Adult Health CNS Program achieving top national ranking since 2000); enhance the recognition of CNSs and CNS practice nationally; and to develop substantive knowledge in the area of stress and coping. She was instrumental in establishing Indiana’s statutory recognition of nursing’s autonomous scope of practice in the 1970s and in the statutory recognition of CNSs as advanced practice nurses in the 1990s; she served as president of the Indiana State Nurses Association (1977–1981); she was a founder of the Midwest Nursing Research Society Section on Stress & Coping and led the development of MNRS’s first knowledge synthesis conference focused on stress and coping; and she was a founder of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists.
Lyon authored numerous articles, book chapters and was the co-editor of Foundations of Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice. She had a private practice in nursing as a CNS focused on the diagnosis and treatment of stress-related physical illness from 1975–2013. She received the Indiana University School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award, the first Brenda L. Lyon Excellence in Leadership Award by the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, which is awarded yearly, and the Indiana University W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service. She was a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in the American Academy of Practice-Nursing.
Following graduation with honors from Fairland High School in 1952, Rebecca Markel proceeded to obtain a diploma in nursing from Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, in 1956, plus three degrees from Indiana University. In 1968, she joined the IU School of Nursing faculty, and from 1989 until her retirement in December, 1997, she served in the administrative position as assistant dean for Development. She was a life member of the IU Alumni Association, serving on the association's Executive Committee, and a huge supporter and fan of IU Athletics, especially basketball. Additionally, she was a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, serving as vice president, and was a charter member Board of Directors of the Joseph Boggs Society for Historical Preservation.
She was involved with numerous university boards and committees, plus received multiple honors and awards for her nursing and educational accomplishments, including Distinguished Service Award from IUSON Alumni Association; Maynard K. Hine Medal, highest honor for IUPUI Alumni Leadership; and Emily Holmquist Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award. She also achieved status as a Sagamore of the Wabash, awarded by Governor Frank O’Bannon.
Dr. Rose M. Mays (MSN, ’74) is professor emeritus at Indiana University School of Nursing. Her master’s degree major is in pediatric nursing and she also holds nursing degrees from the University of Evansville and the University of Texas at Austin. During her 36 years at the school, Dr. Mays taught pediatrics and was among the first faculty of the school’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner track. For more than 20 years she also served as a faculty member with interprofessional leadership education programs based at Riley Hospital for Children. From 2001 until her retirement she was the school’s associate dean for community and international affairs.
In addition to her IU teaching and administrative responsibilities, Dr. Mays conducted a program of research and clinical service focused on health promotion and disease prevention for vulnerable adolescents. She was elected to the American Academy of Nursing for her success in establishing community programs that served homeless youth and teen mothers and is a Fellow of the Society for Adolescent Health & Medicine.
Among her other professional memberships are the American Nurses’ Association, American Public Health Association, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners, and Chi Eta Phi Sorority. Over the course of her career, Dr. Mays volunteered for a number of community organizations. She served a board member of the IU Foundation, Goodwill of Central Indiana, Methodist Health Foundation, the Avondale Meadows Academy, and the University of Evansville. She is also a life member of the IU Alumni Association.
As long-time faculty member at the IUSON, McDaniel had a distinguished record of achievement in the school’s tripartite mission of teaching, research, and service. An award-winning teacher, she provided leadership in curriculum development for graduate programs in nursing administration, nursing and healthcare informatics, and transdisciplinary research training. Her research focuses on cancer control, from prevention (tobacco prevention and cessation) through survivorship (symptom management) and exemplifies nursing's commitment to health promotion and enhancing quality of life.
She played a pivotal role in the development of translational science on the IUPUI campus and IUSON, in her role as associate dean for Research. McDaniel has been at the fore-front of large scale interdisciplinary change to promote health and improve healthcare delivery, with nursing as the lead sensibility. An innovator in both consumer education and interprofessional education, her collaborative, interdisciplinary work provides replicable models for improving educational and health outcomes by integrating the use of new technology across settings. As the profession becomes increasingly concerned about how to increase access to actionable, evidence-based information, McDaniel is certain to remain an influential national leader in nursing education, scholarship, and health policy. She is currently dean at the University of Florida College of Nursing.
Dr. McNelis is at the forefront of national efforts to transform clinical education so that new nurses at advanced and entry levels are better prepared for practice. She provided leadership on a series of grants focused on: increasing the number of graduate psychiatric mental health students and improving their learning environment; exploring and developing models to improve clinical education in undergraduate nursing programs; improving the admission process to increase student retention and diversity; and exploring and developing programs to increase the number of faculty in schools of nursing nationally.
She co-led the early transformation of the university’s Clinical Nurse Specialist track to a Nurse Practitioner track in response to national trends and demands. These transformative efforts had tremendous impact on improving mental health care in Indiana and across the nation. The number of students enrolled/graduated increased by 100%, and IUSON graduates are well-positioned to lead change in their communities as evidenced by the clinical and professional leadership positions they hold. Moreover, the educational model, pedagogical approaches, and research used in the transformation are now being extended to developing interprofessional curricula with nursing, social work, and medicine for serving Indiana citizens with substance use disorders.
Dr. McNelis’ research findings are facilitating a critical review of current practices nationally and changing the way educators think about constructing clinical learning environments. Through publications and national and international conference presentations, as well as consultations with schools of nursing and healthcare institutions across the country, she is a leading voice for transforming clinical education.
For over 15 years, Susan was the CNO for a multi-campus vertically integrated health system. She had leadership responsibility for nursing practice, organization, staffing, budget, and associated processes for approximately 1600 registered nurses and other nursing staff, as well as responsibility for pharmacy, respiratory therapy, renal dialysis, home health and end-of-life care. Ms. McRoberts was responsible for strategic and business plans for most clinical and quality services development and implementation of the plan for the provision of patient care, recruitment, retention and recognition of nursing staff, education and promotion of nursing within the system and the community. Her accomplishments include institution of professional practice model, joint faculty appointments, institution of electronic medical records, and patient safety initiatives. In addition to her CNO responsibilities, Susan provided unwavering support for IUSON as an adjunct faculty member teaching in the nursing administration program as well as providing countless leadership, safety and informatics case studies/projects for our master’s, DNP, and PhD students.
Susan was often sought out for her advice to keep our school’s curricula current and relevant to the rapid changes occurring in our healthcare systems. In addition, she has advocated for nursing as an active member of the Indiana State Nurses Association, the American and Central Indiana Organization of Nursing Executives, the National and Indiana Association of Healthcare Quality, Sigma Theta Tau; Vice President of Alpha Chapter, 2010–2012, the Executive Board Member/Founding Member, Indiana Center for Nursing and the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety; CNO Council. In all roles, Susan is known for being straightforward, positive, collaborative and providing a strong voice for nursing
Julie A. Meek, PhD, RN, served as clinical associate professor at IUSON and coordinator of the school’s DNP program. Prior to joining IU in 2008, Julie was founder and 13-year CEO of The HaelanTM Group, a predictive-modeling and health-coaching company, purchased in December 2006. As the first entrant and successful graduate of the Indiana University Emerging Technology Center, Haelan brought 60 new jobs to central Indiana and won 10 business awards for growth, innovation, and entrepreneurism.
Applying her nursing knowledge, Julie led Haelan to achieve best-in-class healthcare cost control for their employer clients and significantly changed the population health management industry by introducing powerful predictive-modeling and health-coaching methods to the spectrum of health-management services. Julie was awarded a patent in 2008 on the specific method by which Haelan prospectively identified the 10%–12% of a population about ready to become 80% of the employer’s current year healthcare costs.
Julie’s entrepreneurial spirit impacted nursing as she innovated in many areas, including nursing’s development and use of health-coaching skills, use of ePortfolio and other learning technologies, and helping nurses pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Julie earned her doctorate in nursing with highest distinction from Indiana University in 1993.
Dr. Usha Menon’s outstanding contributions to the elimination of health disparities are embedded in the translational aspect of her research program. Since completing her doctorate, she is especially recognized for her work on the reduction of cancer disparities among underserved and minority populations through culturally-appropriate intervention programs. One of Dr. Menon’s foremost skills is in mentoring faculty and students from underrepresented backgrounds, evidenced by mentees receiving federal grant funding publications, scholarships, and advancement in their own academic careers. She facilitates a higher level of creativity and achievement with respect to cancer disparities through her commitment and dedicated efforts to sustain culturally responsive research, with focused attention to the issues of ethnic culture, healthcare access, and health literacy.
Dr. Menon continues to contribute to our national priority in the delivery of health care—equitable health outcomes for minority and underserved populations. With consistent funding from both the NIH and national foundations, her behavior change model, measures, and study results have influenced the work of other researchers in cancer control (i.e., colon, breast, lung, cervical cancers), in diabetes control, and in physical activity increase. Overall, through her success rate in receiving federal and private funding to conduct research with underserved populations, mentoring of students and faculty from underrepresented backgrounds, and her ability to translate findings to both her teaching and regional and national service, Dr. Menon has made a significant impact on community-based cancer control and on the profession of nursing.
As the first chief nurse executive for Clarian Health Partners, Sonna’s achievements included consolidation of the Department of Nursing, and the Departments of Perioperative Services, Respiratory Care, and Social Work under a single administrative structure across the three hospitals including Methodist, Indiana University, and Riley. Consolidation included standardization of staffing, policies, procedures, standards of care, orientation, roles and responsibilities, and compensation programs to ensure the success of the merger.
She was a founding member of Nursing 2000, a collaboration of nursing education and nursing practice to foster the profession of nursing, which is now part of the Indiana Center for Nursing that was formed to ensure the future of Indiana’s nursing workforce. As the associate dean for practice for the IUSON, Sonna collaborated with the dean to ensure that the school had high priority for clinical placements at Clarian Health Partners (now IU Health).
She also worked with the dean and the faculty to achieve representation of the school on hospital system committees, and to achieve increased funding for joint initiatives including joint positions and a model of preceptor teaching. As a result of her support for the school, the annual Sonna Ehrlich Merk Distinguished Lectureship was established in 2000 and continues today. She received the Emily Holmquist Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from the school in 2005. Sonna has established the Donald and Sonna Merk RISE Scholarship with her husband for the school on the Indianapolis campus and she established the Maryanne and Frank C. Springer, Jr., Nursing Scholarship for the school on the Bloomington campus.
Virginia Myers Mermel played a significant role in advancing nursing and nursing education during the last quarter of the 20th century. Her professional achievements included contributions as a practitioner, academic, and educator. Virginia served in leadership positions as varied as: the director of the Graduate Nursing Program at Georgetown University, the acting health coordinator for Afghan Refugees under the United Nations High Commissioner in Pakistan, the chief of party/program director for USAID in Indonesia, and, finally, as the dean of the Muscat Nursing Institute in Muscat, Oman. Her innate drive, thoroughgoing honesty, and ever-optimistic outlook were a product of a Hoosier upbringing born out of the hard times of the Depression.
By virtue of a Sunshine Society scholarship she was able to attend Indiana University and graduated at the top of her class in 1959. Her career began as the profession of nursing and its role within the medical community began to change rapidly. As the gender equality movement took dramatic steps forward in the decades of the 60s and 70s, Virginia was there to position gains for nurses and for women in the workplace in general. By returning to school to receive her doctorate while her children were young, she broke traditional barriers and lifted the bar for professional accomplishment. Her efforts on behalf of nurses in places across the world brought western standards and equality for women into formerly closed societies. Virginia, just a girl from small town Indiana, fought the good fight for nurses across the globe.
A founder of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Flora Elizabeth McWilliams Miller was born on July 29, 1901, in Olney, IL. She graduated from Indiana University School of Nursing in 1922, and attended George Washington University/District of Columbia. Her family included one daughter and three sons. She was widowed in 1962, after 32 years of marriage. Miller worked as a public health nurse in Rushville, IN; Washington, DC; and Miami, FL. She also conducted field research in the Southeastern States Area for the National Committee on the Costs of Medical Care Study.
Miller also worked in the PHN program for WPA in Dade County, Miami, FL, and assisted in the formation of the Nursing Section of the Dade County Health Department. She occasionally was a relief nurse at the University of Miami Infirmary. In 1988, Sigma Theta Tau instituted a distinguished lecturer award in her honor. Miller lived in Miami, FL, until her death on November 25, 1993.
For nearly two decades, from 1992 to 2011, Barbara Mitchell was the executive director of Nursing 2000, Inc. in Indianapolis, a not-for-profit organization to promote and support careers in registered nursing through collaboration between nursing practice and education. She was accountable for the organization’s operation, including strategic planning, program development, and fiscal management. Under her leadership, Nursing 2000 reached $1 million in cumulative scholarship proceeds for undergraduate and graduate nursing scholarships. Nursing 2000 also hosted an Indiana summit that led to the creation of the statewide nursing workforce coalition.
Barbara Mitchell expanded the programmatic effort through grants including educational mobility and regional adaptation of the Nursing 2000 Model in northern Indiana. She also served as the Indiana conduit for RWJF Colleagues in Caring: Regional Collaboratives for Nursing Workforce Development, a network of 40 states addressing workforce issues. In addition, she made presentations at local, state, and national conferences and served on several boards including the Central Indiana Organization of Nurse Executives, Spotlight on Nursing, and as vice president of the Indiana Nursing Workforce Development Coalition. She co-authored a number of publications related to nursing workforce development and leadership, notably Collaboration for the Promotion of Nursing: Building Partnerships for the Future, published by Sigma Theta Tau International.
Previously, Mitchell was staff development coordinator at IU Medical Center, Indianapolis; Assistant Director of Parkview School of Nursing, Fort Wayne; Faculty at Harper School of Nursing, Detroit; and clinical nurse at Beaumont, Toledo and Parkview Hospitals.
She received the National League for Nursing’s Award, Outstanding Leadership in Workforce Development; the Dotaline Allen Award, IU School of Nursing; the Special Recognition Award, IU School of Nursing Alumni Association; and Recognition of Leadership, Contributions and Dedication, Indiana Organization of Nurse Executives.
Dr. Linda Moneyham, a professor and senior associate dean in the UAB School of Nursing, is an expert in women’s health, psychological stress and coping, and adaptation to chronic illness. Dr. Moneyham’s program of research spans more than 20 years and focuses on the development and testing of interventions supporting positive adaptational outcomes for women with chronic disease, in particular rural and minority women with HIV disease.
Dr. Moneyham developed and tested a peer counseling intervention for rural women with HIV disease that has been implemented by community-based organizations in the Deep South. Her current research is focused on prevention of cervical cancer in HIV-infected minority women in the Deep South. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and was the UAB School of Nursing’s first Rachel Z. Booth Endowed Chair.
She currently holds appointments as a senior scientist in the UAB Center for AIDS Research and the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center. Dr. Moneyham has been recognized for her research in minority women and HIV/AIDS by the Southern Nursing Research Society and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. She also is recognized as an expert research mentor and has been recognized for her mentorship of minority researchers both at the predoctoral and postdoctoral levels with awards from the graduate school and from the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center.
After graduation, Ruth Ann Morris worked at the Veteran’s Hospital before returning to IU for MSN studies. She worked as a psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist at Wishard’s Midtown Mental Health Center and Community Hospital, opening the Gallahue Mental Health Center.
Her career path lead to several leadership positions including vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Community Health Network in Indianapolis. She also served as vice president and chief nursing officer at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut where she merged the Saint Francis Hospital Diploma School of Nursing with the Saint Joseph College BSN program. She also collaborated with Sacred Heart University to initiate on-site nursing degrees for Saint Francis employees.
Ruth Ann holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Indianapolis and both a BSN and MSN from Indiana University. She has served as clinical associate faculty at Indiana University, University of Connecticut, University of Hartford, Saint Joseph College, Sacred Heart University, and Marian University where she was instrumental in starting the nursing program.
Today Ruth Ann is VP and CNO at IU Health Bloomington. Bloomington Hospital was designated Magnet in 2010. She continues to mentor tomorrow’s nurse leaders and teach leadership. The IU Bloomington Nurse Leadership Academy was created in 2009. Her support has also significantly increased the number of nurses with advanced degrees.
Dr. Nichols was a distance education doctoral advocate since her doctoral work at IUPUI using one-way video and two-way audio. Subsequently she has implemented various formats of distance education. In Australia, she became professor of nursing and dean of the College of Health Sciences at Southern Cross University. There the NSW Board of Nursing reported to the legislature she had developed the “first totally nursing focused program in the state!” She collaborated with the health department to create a Center for Professional Development obtaining more than $4M in external funding and increasing enrollment by 1000 students.
Later, at Old Dominion University, she established a weekend program for pre-licensure nurses and played a key role in TELETECHNET, a distance education partnership with community colleges, leading to 450 more majors and 1500 pre-majors. As provost and vice president of Arts & Sciences at Lamar, she guides the efforts of 200 full-time faculty across 12 academic departments and six inter-disciplinary programs ranging from dual credit to study abroad. She oversees 48 budgets that exceed $40M for approximately 6800 majors. She guided the college’s engagement in a public/private distance education partnerships with a focus on ensuring program quality. She has served as a consultant to a number of educational institutions, the WHO, and hospitals. Recipient of Outstanding Teaching and Research awards, Dr. Nichols’ publications and community service activities focus on nursing administration, cancer care, and professional review boards.
After graduating from IU School of Nursing in 1959, Dr. O’Toole worked as a staff nurse in psychiatric nursing at University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH. She then entered the master’s degree program at Rutgers where she was mentored by Hildegard Peplau. In 1963, she was employed by Western Reserve University to help develop a master’s degree program to prepare Clinical Nurse Specialists in psychiatric mental health nursing. In 1970, she received a doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in Sociology through the Nurse Scientist program. She then returned to Case Western Reserve University to teach in the graduate program. In 1974, she went to Kent State University to develop their master’s degree program where she remained as a professor for the rest of her career.
She also maintained a private psychotherapy practice while teaching at Kent State. Her scholarship was primarily in the areas of clinical practice, standards of psychiatric mental health nursing, organizational effectiveness, and recognition and reporting of child abuse. She co-edited a book, Interpersonal Theory in Nursing Practice: Selected Works of Hildegard E. Peplau. Her primary impact on the profession was in the development of graduate programs and the education of clinical nurse specialists at a time in the history of nursing when specialization was increasingly important as a way to advance the research base of nursing.
Margie Payne has worked at Eskenazi Health (formerly Wishard Health Services) for nearly four decades. She began her career as a staff nurse in Wishard’s inpatient psychiatric unit in 1985 and has since progressed to positions of increasing responsibility including serving as manager of two inpatient psychiatric units, a multi-team leader, and director of Acute Care Services. She currently serves as CEO of Eskenazi Health Midtown and vice president of mental health operations for Eskenazi Health.
In addition, Payne has served as president of the Indiana Chapter of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and vice president of the board of directors for Intecare Mental Health Managed Care Organization.
While at Eskenazi Health Midtown, Payne has led an effort to increase the roles of nursing RNs and CNSs in mental health and to “integrate” mental healthcare to clinical sites where primary care services are available. This new approach limits barriers and ultimately the stigma of accessing mental health care. As Indiana’s first community mental health center, Eskenazi Health Midtown provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services. In 2013 alone, Eskenazi Health Midtown had nearly 500,000 patient visits at 21 health sites and facilities.
Along with the Recovery Model concept, Eskenazi Health Midtown has developed several unique programs under Payne’s leadership including the Prevention and Recovery Center for Early Psychosis, Indiana’s first psychiatric emergency department and Crisis Intervention Training Program for law enforcement, addictions treatment programs, child and school-based programs, and an art therapy program, among many others.
Dr. Pressler has a longstanding history as a nurse educator and researcher. She has taught students at the baccalaureate, master’s, and PhD levels. She was the program director of the University of Michigan’s Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation, a program funded to educate a new generation of nurse scientists prepared to conduct high-impact research. Dr. Pressler has served in many leadership positions, including chairperson of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, American Heart Association (2007–2009) and a member of the Executive Committee, Heart Failure Society of America (2002–2008). She is currently a member of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines.
Dr. Pressler is well known for her program of research focused on improving quality of life and reducing mortality and unnecessary hospitalizations among patients with heart failure. She has conducted many studies about problems that diminish quality of life and increase mortality in heart failure, including lack of medication adherence, nutritional deficits, and cognitive dysfunction. She is now testing innovative interventions to improve memory, enhance quality of life, and lower healthcare costs of patients with heart failure. Dr. Pressler’s work has been widely disseminated through publications in journals such as Nursing Research and Journal of Cardiac Failure and national and international presentations.
Dr. Puetz graduated from the Henry Ford Hospital School of Nursing in Detroit with a diploma in nursing. She earned a baccalaureate in nursing from Indiana University in Indianapolis and graduate degrees (MSEd and PhD) from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She is the founding editor of the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development and in her career has launched three nursing journals and edited five.
She has published six books and numerous articles in the nursing and healthcare literature. She was the founder of the National Nursing Staff Development Organization, now the Association for Nursing Professional Development. An annual award for excellence in nursing staff development in her name was established by the organization. In 2006, Dr. Puetz started a company to provide consultation services in credentialing and publishing in nursing. She also serves as the continuing medical education consultant for the Studer Group in Gulf Breeze, Florida.
Dr. F. Patrick Robinson is the president of Research College of Nursing and previously served as senior vice president of academics for Orbis Education. He has served in academic leadership positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing, Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University Chicago, and Chamberlain College of Nursing. He has a distinguished record of service to the HIV/AIDS care community. As an advocate and leader within healthcare delivery, professional organizations, and academic institutions, he has been dedicated to positioning nursing as a key resource in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Consequently, he has had impact on the setting of an effective public policy agenda in synchrony with the unique competencies of nurses, expanded nursing visibility in interdisciplinary circles, and guided HIV/AIDS nursing education efforts nationally and internationally. Over the course of 20 years, he enacted collaborative relationships with expert partners across the globe to build capacity for care and education while raising the visibility of and positioning nurses to have significant influence on reducing the worldwide threat of HIV/AIDS. Forging partnerships with national/international nursing and health organizations, he was instrumental in persuading leaders to incorporate an ecological nursing perspective into their strategic agendas. Through his curricula/learning initiatives, he ensured the adoption of evidence-based nursing practices in the care, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS. In his role as a senior academic leader in the private sector, he focused on creating and supporting innovative, engaged teaching/learning practices in collaboration with leading school and colleges of nursing across the nation.
Dr. Rue graduated in 1955 with a BSN from Indiana University School of Nursing. She worked in hospitals in Indiana and Colorado from 1958–1960 and returned to IU from 1971–1973 to finish her MSN. She moved to Clearwater, FL, and participated in opening a new College of Nursing at St. Petersburg College using innovative techniques.
Dr. Rue graduated from University of Florida in 1985. She served as the director of education in Morton F. Plant Hospital and developed the therapeutic Humor Program that gave hospitalized adults materials to help Laugh Away the Pain. In 1992, she joined the National Assessment Institute to develop state and national certification and licensure programs. The next step was to write books for food safety. She credits the education that she received in 1955 and in 1973 for helping her to find different ways to use her skills.
Bonnie Ryan was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999 by IU School of Nursing. She served as a government affairs specialist for Vitas Healthcare Corporation in Miami, FL. In 1996 Ryan received a prestigious White House fellowship and was assigned to the Department of Veteran Affairs. Ryan held numerous nursing positions, including director of nursing homes and work at oncology centers. In the early 1980s, Ryan formed a full-service Medicare program in Chicago that employed 60 workers and served 100 patients on a daily basis.
Bonnie Ryan’s passion for helping low income families and children were evident in her life. She took on a second career as a 5th grade teacher and never looked back. Ryan fought a battle with breast cancer that gave her a profound appreciation for the patients that she served as an oncological nurse. Ryan stated after her experiences in helping the sick and the dying, “When you walk into the home of a dying person, you have to be accepting of all kinds of lives. Our purpose is to relieve pain and suffering. You can’t make everything better, but a lot can be done to help them make it easier.”
Dr. Kathleen Sawin has over four decades of scholarship and leadership in practice, policy, and academia. Through her work in pediatric and rehabilitation nursing she has expanded the roles of advanced practice nurses and strengthened the care of children with chronic conditions and their families. Early in her career she identified the importance of transition to adulthood for adolescents with chronic health conditions. Her subsequent research, funded by multiple grants, focused on understanding and optimizing adaptation in these adolescent and young adults and their families. Her findings influenced pediatric nursing practice and have been foundational in defining, implementing, and evaluating best practices in health care transition.
Dr. Sawin has advanced the theoretical foundations of individual and family self-management and expanded the measurement of self-management in adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions. This scholarship and contributions to the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry Project funded by CDC have substantially influenced clinical care for children and adults with spina bifida. For over a decade, as the research chair in the nursing of children, her leadership greatly enhanced nurses’ capacity for research in clinical and educational settings.
This chair position, only one of a few such positions in the country, is jointly supported by Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Further, Dr. Sawin’s leadership on national boards has resulted in the development of standards and research agendas for rehabilitation and pediatric nursing organizations which inform practice, identity important gaps in knowledge, and advance evidence-based practice.
Jean Schweer was the first chair of the IUSON Division of Continuing Education and one of the national leaders in the field of nursing continuing education (CE). Under her leadership the CE program was one of the first to be accredited through ANCC. She was a leader in establishing the Statewide Plan for Continuing Education in Nursing (1971), funded by a Kellogg grant. She spearheaded innovative ways to deliver CE, including using the statewide television network. She was the author of two books, Present Status and Future Directions of University-based Continuing Education in Nursing in 1978, and Creative Teaching in Clinical Nursing in 1972.
Writing textbooks in that era was viewed as a high-level scholarly contribution to the profession and very few faculty at IUSON at that time were publishing and disseminating scholarly work. Her work was the foundation for subsequent development of the current CE department. The foundational work of Jean Scheer continues to inspire the evolution of the IUSON Office of Lifelong Learning and the use of distance education to deliver academic courses and continuing education offerings.
Dr. Scisney-Matlock’s major professional experiences spans over four decades for teaching nursing and educational administrative appointments. Her research career in higher education began as a postdoctoral research Fellow at University of Michigan. Scisney-Matlock has carried out methodological studies and developed survey research to be the first to document and measure cognitive representations of hypertension providing new scientific understanding for therapeutic interventions of how people with different cultural and/or ethnic perspectives think about, behave towards, and self manage hypertension.
She has conducted research as the principal investigator of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research grants leading to the development and implementation of computer-generated health information programs of tailored self care activities to enhance medication and dietary adherence effective for lowering high blood pressure in women from diverse backgrounds. Dr. Scisney-Matlock has laid the groundwork for the translation of theoretically derived cognitive-behavioral interventions to clinical practice and been selected by medical writers as “one of three top health stories” as headline CNN.com, and in www.Reuters.news.com; archived in MDWeb.com.
Her first authored article, published in 2006, was cited in 2007 by Science Direct as 1 of 25 Hottest, Most Read or Downloaded Articles. In 2010, Scisney-Matlock’s presentation on computer-generated tailored dietary messages was awarded a “Blue Ribbon” and 1st Place at the University of Michigan Dean Research Day. Her lifestyle intervention work was selected in 2011 for inclusion in Cochrane Systematic Review, and by the American Dietetic Association as best intervention to enhance dietary adherence in adults.
In 2006, just three years after civic conflict ended in the West African country of Liberia, Dr. McDonald was nominated by the President Ellen Johnson-Sirfeaf of Liberia to become the general administrator and chief executive officer of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center (JFKMC). Since then Dr. Scott-McDonald has rebuilt the medical center ravaged during the conflict, re-opened the training institute, and secured funding to reduce maternal-infant mortality. She currently serves as the CEO of four major facilities.
Dr. McDonald’s leadership demonstrates a commitment to quality care, development of staff educational attainment, and advancing the administrative infrastructure. Dr. McDonald’s legacy will include influencing nursing in the United States, West Africa, and other countries by being a powerful female nurse administrator during a post-conflict period in a country struggling to overcome the damages to civil society and the healthcare system.
Her leadership is a model of empowering nurses through education, developing leadership capacity, and bringing interdisciplinary harmony to a low-resource healthcare organization that makes decisions by asking what is best for the patient. She is responsible for initiating the first publicly available baccalaureate education for nurses and midwives in Liberia.
Dr. Nancy Sharts-Hopko directs the PhD program in the College of Nursing at Villanova University (PA). Her research over the past 35 years has addressed women’s experiences of health and life transitions including menopause, hysterectomy, childbearing in a foreign country, a diagnosis of HIV, disability, and vision loss. She is a Co-PI on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to examine the effect on senior faculty of the Institute of Medicine's (now National Academy of Medicine) recommendation that the number of doctorally prepared nurses be doubled by the year 2020. She has over 160 publications.
Dr. Sharts-Hopko began her career as a staff nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at the New York Hospital in New York City. She earned her MA and PhD at New York University and began her teaching career at Lehman College in the Bronx. Subsequently, she taught for several years at the University of Delaware. Prior to joining the faculty at Villanova University, Dr. Sharts-Hopko served as a visiting lecturer at St. Luke’s College of Nursing in Tokyo. She previously served as a short-term consultant for the World Health Organization in Bangladesh. She has also served in the U. S. Army Reserve.
Dr. Sharts-Hopko served as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee at the Indiana University School of Nursing. She has served on two advisory committees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and as treasurer of Sigma Theta Tau International. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1990.
Dr. Maria Shirey, a scholar and mentor, has educated countless nurse leaders across the U.S. She is known for her work in authentic leadership and its impact in facilitating nurse manager (NM) work to create/sustain healthy work environments for practice. Her research on NM work has been disseminated broadly and used to shape U.S. workforce policy contributing nationally toward interventions in four key areas: formalizing creation of developmental programs for NM, testing innovative stress-reduction programs tailored to NM, creating internships for transitioning novice NM, and developing succession planning programs for sustainable NM workforce capacity. Her work forms the foundation for a newly-published, valid, and reliable instrument used to evaluate the NM practice environment.
Dr. Shirey’s leadership legacy as a scholar, mentor, prolific author, and editor is evident in her over 87 publications and 103 presentations delivered within the U.S. and internationally. Her collective publications have been cited over 600 times and used across disciplines. Dr. Shirey’s scholarly work is considered must-read for graduate nursing leadership students across the world. Through the gift of her archived writings in high-impact journals and her engagement in governance leadership roles, she has created a leadership legacy of shared knowledge and energy to advance the nursing profession. As past chair of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Certification Corporation and president of the American Board of Nursing Specialties, she continues to shape workforce policy related to continuing competence and credentialing in nursing to enhance patient care quality and safety.
Mary Soja taught at six schools of nursing: Blodgett Memorial Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI; Lansing Community College in Lansing, MI; Ferris State College in Big Rapids, MI; Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN; Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN; and Indiana University in Indianapolis, IN. She retired from IU after 20 years of service. Mary significantly impacted student nurses at IU both in the classroom and clinical areas. She supervised senior BSN students in their clinical rotation of “Nursing Management” on the medical surgical units of Methodist Hospital of Indiana.
In 1983, Mary designed and implemented a computer course, with K. E. Lentz, for student nurses at Methodist Hospital. For 14 years she taught the course that allowed about 600 students to chart patient information on the computer during their course in “Nursing Management.” The course, which was the first in the country, was described by M. Soja in Computers in Nursing in 1987.
Mary did research and published with others on the subject of “patient fall prevention.” Many of their recommendations have been implemented nationally. Many hospital beds now have the option of a “patient fall prevention monitor” and most nursing homes use monitors to prevent patients from falling.
She received honors from the MI State and IU nursing alumni associations and three BSN classes at IU. Soja was an active member of Sigma Theta Tau and helped facilitate several international conventions.
Lillian Gatlin Stokes is an associate professor emeritus and former director of Diversity and Enrichment at the Indiana University School of Nursing. She served as assistant professor at Purdue University and held staff nurse positions in Virginia, Illinois, and Indiana. She became a member of Indiana University School of Nursing in 1972 and provided continual evidence of commitment to nursing education and service.
The four textbooks that she co-authored were among the first to use a life-cycle theoretical framework to study medical-surgical and pediatric nursing; one that incorporated common health problems selected according to morbidity bearings on diverse populations. These textbooks shaped curricula of their day and were adopted by leading schools of nursing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and were translated into Japanese.
Since beginning her nursing career in 1963, she made significant contributions toward the advancement of underrepresented students and integrating them into the profession. She held the appointment of diversity director from 1996 until her retirement in 2008. This position enabled extending teaching and service to students to a full range of academic programs that resulted in increased minority enrollment, retention, graduation, and integration of diversity experiences into nursing and university life. She remained an advocate for programs and activities that create professional opportunities for students, graduates, and for programs that promote an understanding of diverse individuals and groups. These contributions and commitments facilitated recognitions by professional nursing organizations, the university, the School of Nursing, the community, and two governors of the State of Indiana.
Melinda M. Swenson has been certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) since 1980 and taught Nurse Practitioners since then in both adult and family specialties. She co-developed the innovative Narrative Centered Curriculum used in the FNP major at the IU School of Nursing since 1995. She has published and presented this unique curriculum nationally and internationally, highlighting modifications of patient-based learning and other narrative approaches to teaching and learning.
Her research interests include appreciative inquiry and other integrative strategies for curriculum planning and evaluation, the experience of living at risk for Huntington Disease, and Nurse Practitioner curricular concerns, focusing especially on reflective teaching and practice. During her academic career, she conducted and supervised research using a variety of qualitative methodologies, especially hermeneutics and phenomenology. She was a developer of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at IU School of Nursing.
Dr. Swenson is a professor emerita of nursing at Indiana University. She continues her clinical practice at the IU Health Center in Bloomington, specializing in college health, and at the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic. She is active in the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and the National League for Nursing, from whom she received the 2001 National Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Nursing Education and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Mary Tempel is a clinical nurse practitioner in dermatology. She has practiced for over seventeen years as a Nurse Practitioner at Dermatology, Inc. She became an RN in 1969 and earned a master’s degree in Nursing at the IU School of Nursing in 1997.
Mary served as a member of the Dean’s Council at the IU School of Nursing and she has served on the Outrun the Sun board since it was organized in 2004. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education of melanoma and other forms of skin cancer. She serves on several other non-profit boards and is a member of several nursing organizations.
She demonstrates excellence in clinical care and creates a pathway for other nurse practitioners. She encourages and mentors nurses to seek advanced degrees. One of her goals is to instill confidence in nurses and has been a strong advocate for advanced practice nurses.
Mary and her husband support a number of worthy causes including the IUSON where they established a RISE scholarship.
Dr. Walker, the Luci B. Johnson Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, is the leading expert in nursing on women’s weight during pregnancy and postpartum period (gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention).
She is the author of over 25 publications in this area, as well as numerous other publications on psychosocial and behavioral health of women during the motherhood transition and its implications for maternal and infant health. In addition, is she is co-author of a text on theory development strategies that is in its 5th edition and is used worldwide in nursing graduate programs.
She teaches courses in the areas of global health, quantitative data analysis, and philosophic and theoretical foundations of nursing science.
Susan Noble Walker obtained a diploma from the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing, a BS in nursing from Boston University, an MS in medical-surgical nursing from Indiana University, and an EdD in adult continuing education from Northern Illinois University. During her career, she specialized in gerontological nursing, directing that specialty in master’s programs at Northern Illinois University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).
She chaired the Department of Gerontological, Psychosocial, and Community Health Nursing at UNMC and taught and directed dissertations in the PhD program. Her leadership positions in professional organizations included: chairperson, American Nurses Association Council on Gerontological Nursing; chair, International Research Committee, Sigma Theta Tau International; Board of Directors, Midwest Nursing Research Society; MNRS Foundation Board of Trustees. She was elected to the American Academy of Nursing in 1991.
Dr. Walker began her research career at NIU with Dr. Nola Pender’s team, where she led the development of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile, an instrument translated into numerous languages and used in hundreds of studies around the world. Dr. Walker later directed an interdisciplinary (nursing, physical therapy, and nutrition science) research team at UNMC that focused on health promotion with midlife and older women, obtaining grants from NIH totaling more than $3 million, plus smaller grants from other sources. She has presented and published widely. She was an editorial board member for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing and a manuscript reviewer for Nursing Research, Research in Nursing and Health, and Western Journal of Nursing Research.
Dr. Joanne Warner began her nursing career with a baccalaureate degree from Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD, and completed her master’s degree at the University of Iowa before becoming the first graduate of Indiana University’s Health Policy and Health of the Community doctoral major.
Dr. Warner served as dean of Indiana University East when they received the first national accreditation independent of the system school. Later, under her administrative leadership of IU’s PhD program, she led the launch of the pioneering distance-accessible doctoral option. Currently professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Portland School of Nursing, she transformed nursing curricula through innovative programs like the new Doctor of Nursing Practice Family Nurse Practitioner program, the first doctoral program at the university in 38 years, and the “Dedicated Education Unit” (DEU) clinical teaching model. The DEU model is replicated nationwide, expanding the ability of educators to provide clinical education effectively.
Dr. Warner significantly impacted U.S. nursing education through her work with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, where she chaired the revision of the Master’s Essentials (2008–2011). Highly respected by her colleagues, Warner is considered an agent of change and inspiration to the next generation of nursing champions.
Nell Watts received the IU School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award in 1976. She served as the executive officer of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and devoted her career to enhancing the image and discipline of nursing.
An internationally-acclaimed pioneer in nursing education, she guided Sigma Theta Tau to a preeminent position in the worldwide nursing community. Under her leadership, the organization served as a catalyst for the growth and development of nursing research and scholarship. Mrs. Watts served admirably in numerous professional organizations and is widely recognized for her contributions to the progress of the nursing profession.
She was named Indiana Nurse of the Year by the Allstate Foundation and the Indiana League for Nursing in 1974. Nell Watts contributed to the progress of the nursing profession through her work in STTI. The Center for Nursing Scholarship and the International Nursing Library of Sigma Theta Tau were also developed through her inspiration and direction. During her lifetime she showed a commitment to the nursing community and to the continued education of nurses.
Dr. Weaver spent her career in positions of patient care leadership and in developing others as nurse leaders. She served as the the senior patient care executive at the University of Kentucky Medical Center and at Yale New Haven Hospital and as a senior clinical consultant for CSC Healthcare based in New York City. Diana taught in a number of academic nursing programs and was a member of the graduate faculty at University of Kentucky, teaching leadership in the Doctorate of Nursing Practice program.
Her honors include distinguished alumnus awards from Indiana University School of Nursing, where she earned her baccalaureate and doctoral degrees, and Ball State University, her diploma program. In 2011, she was awarded the Daniel J. Pesut Spirit of Renewal Award by Sigma Theta Tau International. UK HealthCare at the University of Kentucky annually bestows the Diana Weaver nursing leadership award.
Diana is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, International Honor Society of Nursing, and the American Nurses Association. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and is a past president of the American Organization of Nursing Executives (AONE), the professional association for nursing leaders.
Currently, Dr. Weaver serves as the senior nursing advisor at UK HealthCare where she develops leadership succession programs for all levels of nursing as well as acting as an executive coach and mentor.
Dr. Williams received the IU School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989. Of her many fine contributions, perhaps the most significant was her editorship of the journal, Research in Nursing & Health (RINAH). During her tenure at the helm of this journal (from 1983 to 1991), she guided it into the position of being one of the profession’s most respected research forums. She began her clinical practice at Minneapolis General Hospital, moved into a series of clinical leadership positions, and then to a position as an assistant professor and co-director of an NIH-funded investigative unit at the University of Nevada. She then joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1976 and remained there until her retirement in 1991.
Margaret had an impressively rich and productive career as a scholar and had a very significant leadership role with a positive impact on the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Margaret was an outstanding scholar. She was among the first wave of leaders in nursing research. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she conducted a series of studies examining women’s experiences of surgical procedures, including studies of cultural patterning of the feminine role and its influence on responses to hysterectomy. This early focus on culture, on women’s issues, and on a critically important healthcare experience is emblematic of the way she approached her scholarship. Margaret made significant contributions to the nursing profession and to nursing research. She was deeply respected, highly admired, and much enjoyed.
Based on the strong foundation in leadership she received at IU in Nursing Administration and Organizational Psychology, as well as invaluable contributions from mentors such as Angela McBride and Lois Myers, Gail A. Wolf’s career has primarily been spent in a leadership capacity. She served as a clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh School Of Nursing where she was responsible for the doctoral program in Nursing Leadership. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Wolf spent 23 years at the University of Pittsburgh Health Care System in a variety of senior leadership roles, including 10 years as the chief nursing officer for that 19-hospital system.
Gail’s career interests always centered on issues of leadership, work environment, organizational complexity, and organizational development. In the mid-1980s, she developed The Transformational Model for Clinical Nursing Practice, a leadership model that has evolved and continues to be used 30 years later.
Dr. Wolf is a Wharton Fellow, a member of the American Academy of Nursing, and served as president of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She served on the Magnet Commission for 12 years including two years as chairman of the Commission. In that role, she helped to design and develop the Next Generation Magnet Model and served as the editor of that publication. Gail published numerous articles and lectured extensively throughout the United States, Australia, Greece, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Finland on issues relating to leadership of patient care.
Class of 1923
A founder and longest living founder of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society of Nursing, Mary W Tolle Wright was born in Brownsburg, IN, on July 14, 1900. She graduated from Lebanon High School in Lebanon, IN, and attended Indiana University in 1919. Mary graduated from Indiana University Training School in 1923. In 1925 she married; her family included two sons, John and William. During her career she lived in Houston, Texas, where she did private duty, general duty, and night duty.
For approximately 30 years, Mary lived in Little Rock, AK, where she volunteer-taught for the Red Cross; served as executive secretary for the State Nursing Association and the State Board of Nursing. She was active with the League of Nursing (now NLN), and was the director of Nursing at Arkansas Baptist Hospital and chief nurse of the mobile blood bank. While living abroad she was a U.S.O.M. clinic nurse in Nepal, India. Wright’s overseas travels also included living in Liberia, Nepal, and Afghanistan. She died February 20, 1999, in Weslaco, Texas.
With over 40 years of professional nursing experience, Jane Younger has developed expertise in administration and education in the U.S. and abroad. As the healthcare project coordinator of a partnership program with Sokolov Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, she was able to lead a team of talented health professionals in overhauling the health delivery system at Sokolov Medical Center. The improvements in nursing education contributed significantly to improved patient outcomes and earning the Journey to Excellence Award from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a hospital-wide designation.
As co-director of the International Nursing Leadership Institute leadership development courses were conducted annually for nurses of the former Soviet Union. These were conducted in Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Denmark, and England in conjunction with ICN. She is currently working with the Armenian Nurses Society, providing leadership development that includes establishing a chapter of STTI in Armenia and chartering its first members.
She previously served as president of Kentucky Organization of Nurse Executives and Kentucky Nurses Foundation, and she was a former Magnet Surveyor for the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
She is a member of ANA and STTI, IOTA Zeta Chapter and vice president of Global Education Development Institute. She was recognized as one of the 50 Outstanding Nursing Alumni by the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and received Indiana University’s Distinguished Alumni Award for outstanding contributions to international nursing.
*deceased
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