Welcome back!

Change is in the air, locally, nationally, and internationally! We have all been witness to some extraordinary happenings these past few months. Some of these happenings have been heartbreaking, like the invasion of Georgia by the Russians; some have been challenging, such as the increasing prices of gasoline and food all over the world; and some have been awe inspiring like the Olympics held in Beijing, China and a presidential campaign that saw a woman, an African American, and an elder as lead candidates, and witnessed the democrats select Senator Barack Obama as their nominee for the presidency. This has certainly been a summer to remember.

This has also been a memorable summer at our School of Nursing, one that has been exciting and transforming. We have seen beams and walls erected, windows installed, furniture arrive, and moving vans unloaded. As a result, we now have a newly renovated Claire M. Fagin Hall. Even the workers like our school so much, they continue to be present with us, to improve, modify, and fine tune our environment to match the vision of our architects, Maxman and Associates. Throughout the summer, Pat Burke and Helene Lee were seen charging through the halls to address unexpected leaks in the ceiling; elevators and air conditioning that did not work; and to negotiate with builders, construction crews, and movers to insure that every aspect of our renovation and transition took place smoothly and effectively, and with as little disruption as possible to all of us. Thank you, Pat and Helene, for your diligence and dedication. And thank you all for your patience and flexibility. In celebration of our newly renovated School, please join us at the official grand opening ceremony on Thursday, October 30, 4:30 to 6:00 pm, immediately following the annual State of the School Address.

In addition to changes in our space, there have also been many changes in our faculty. This is a banner year for new faculty so a very special welcome to Dr. Jeane Ann Grisso, Dr.Cynthia Connolly, Dr. Mary Ersek, Dr. Victoria Rich, Dr. Maureen George, Dr. Joseph Libonati, Dr. Matthew McHugh and Dr. Linda Hatfield. Having such a stellar group of new faculty members is a reminder that this could not have happened without an incredible commitment and investment of time and talent by many people including the tireless search and personnel committees, division chairs, academic affairs office and each one of you. What a hardworking and synergetic team resulting in an outstanding group of new faculty! Thank you all and a warm welcome to our new faculty members.

Speaking of faculty new and old (not in age), there have also been important changes in faculty support systems led by our Division Chairs. We now have Division Support Teams (no more ASG). In order to make faculty support more effective, staff members are assigned to specific divisions and individual faculty members, and these teams are led by Division Managers, Jamie Leigh for the Family and Community Health Division and Mary Kononenko for the Biobehavioral and Health Sciences Division. Let us embrace these changes which are designed to be more effective for faculty and staff.

All these dynamic changes are balanced by continuity. Here are only a few vivid images, from our summer, which reflect continuity in our mission and goals. During the First International Conference of Nursing Science in Jerusalem, Israel, we watched one of our alums, Dr. Miri Rom, who is the director and Associate Dean of the Henrietta Szold Hadassah School of Nursing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, demonstrate creative leadership in the face of incredible challenges while fostering global collaboration in nursing scholarship. She made us proud as a shining example of our primary goal of graduating global leaders. We are also proud of our own Dr. Barbara Medoff-Cooper for her commitment to global scholarship through establishing an ongoing effective relationship and partnership between our school and Hadassah Hebrew University School of Nursing. These two colleagues are shaping nursing research in Israel.

And here is another summer image - Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott training faculty in Botswana for her research on the prevention of HIV-AIDS. You can just imagine Loretta engaging these Botswana nurses and teachers just as she would if she were in her classroom here – with enthusiasm, humor, and a clear commitment to eradicating this disease that has ravaged their country. Also in Botswana, it was so gratifying to see Dr. Anne Tietelman and her Co-chairs, Dr. Jackie Campbell from Hopkins and Dr. Esther Seloilwe from Botswana University, as they led a dynamic, stimulating, and state-of-the-science pre-conference on “Gender-Based Violence and HIV Risk Among Adolescent Girls: International Perspectives on the State of the Science”, prior to the International Council on Women’s Health Issues (ICOWHI) conference that took place in July. Their audience of nurses, physicians, health care workers, lawyers, and public health workers were challenged by the program and the synergistic presentations. Overall, it was just awe inspiring to see the interdisciplinary collaboration and sharing between our faculty and the faculty from Botswana.

Another image is from India. A series of summer briefings took place recently when the team that went to India – Drs. Eileen Sullivan-Marx and Terri Richmond and Sarah Jacoby (an alum and a HUP nurse), came home safely. The potential for education, practice, and research projects designed to improve health outcomes, health delivery models, and the role of nursing professionals in India as part of a partnership with India-ICICI Bank and Catholic University School of Nursing is almost coming to fruition. We look forward to hearing more about this initiative that will be linked with a University-wide effort and initiative in India.

There were many more moving images here in our School over the summer as well. Twelve junior and senior high school students were the recipients of intensive and fun education about their personal health and the different roles of nurses. These were the participants in this year’s Summer Mentorship Program, under the direction of Drs. Kathy McCauley, Peggy Griffiths, and two of our doctoral students, Melanie Lyons and Sarah Sawah, who led and coordinated the School component of this University-wide initiative to enhance diversity. And here is the unforgettable image: at the end of the program, these students created and acted in a video in which they played different roles in an emergency setting, where they received trauma patients. They played the roles of patients, family members, doctors, and of course, nurses with different expertise. Dressed for the part in scrubs, one played a nurse anesthetist; another, a clinical specialist; another, a nurse practitioner; and so on, and in these roles, they each spoke about what that role entailed and how professionals in these roles would respond to the emergency. I know that this experience left a lasting impression on these students and I cannot think of a more effective, and fun, way of communicating the potential of a nursing career to these young students. And, we now have two videos that may get us into the award winning circles of Hollywood, Dr. Kathy McCauley and our nursing students tap dancing heart beats and Summer Mentorship junior and high school students enacting nurses roles!


Another image is of medical and nursing students describing their transformative experience in Washington. Under the leadership of Dr. Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, nursing and medical students participated in the Leadership Education and Policy Development Program (LEAP). This program is designed to inspire racially and ethnically diverse doctoral nursing students and medical students to collaborate and utilize their research and clinical knowledge to shape health policy. These students visited various legislative offices and organizations that have a significant impact on health policy and participated in dialogues about health policies.

Mary Austin from our LIFE program shared several summer images reflecting just one day in the LIFE program. On her rounds, she heard many stimulating dialogues; one was about the qualities of women versus men as future presidents; she saw members receiving “calm and compassionate care” and members, who were recovering from strokes, being led in a “supermarket” shopping rehearsal; witnessed a bowling competition (the score was 11-9 Warriors); and listened to spirited word and name games. Most importantly, everywhere she went at LIFE, members and staff alike were “bright and smiling” and nurses were “quietly and effectively” taking care of the needs of the members. Clearly, these LIFE’s images express well our goals for translating the best models of care.

As always, our research centers were hard at work reviewing grant applications and working with different research teams. Two vivid images are of Lynn Sommers, from the Health Disparities Center, shortly after returning from Botswana, conversing with her colleagues and team refining innovative and challenging methods for her research study on “Injury from Sexual Assault: Addressing Health Disparity.” In addition, there was Loretta Jemmott (Wasn’t she just in Gaborone? Maybe it was her clone!) with her colleagues and team putting the last touches on a grant to study “Gender, Youth, and HIV Risk”. In another conference room, Kathy McCauley and Lorraine Tulman were conferring and designing the program for the PhD Forum and Doctoral Alumni Reunion which will happen this October as part of celebrating our 30 years of superb doctoral education.

In the Office of Academic Affairs, Kathy McCauley, Carol Ladden, Christina Clark, and their entire team were putting the final touches on welcoming our incoming class. We are pleased to welcome a total of 285 new students (93 BSN, 51 Accelerated/Non-Traditional/Transfer, 129 MSN, and 12 PhD students). This brings our student body to a total of 958 (491 BSN, 415 MSN, and 52 PhD students). Please join me in welcoming them.

Obviously, this is not all that took place during the summer months and whoever thought that summers are quiet, have not been to our School. There were many more activities and initiatives throughout the School and beyond the School’s boundaries as well, that were led by our faculty, students, and staff. All these dynamic activities reflect what our School is all about – an exciting and caring environment which was not hindered or slowed by the challenges of disruptions or changes.

Change is synonymous with our School where we passionately care to change the world. With a full summer behind us, I extend a very warm welcome to you all and wish you a year filled with transforming changes – let’s embrace change for a future of eminence.