On becoming a former dean

I am always asked: 

Do you miss being the dean?  (Not really!) 

How does it feel not being the dean? (I love being a former dean!) 

What are you doing now that you are retired? (I am not retired yet! I am on a sabbatical leave.) 

How is your book going? (I am not writing a book at this very moment!)  

I was inspired by some publications related to stepping up to come up with what I miss and what I do not miss about being dean, and what I like and what I do not like about my new role as former dean. (Hansen, 2004 and Shipley, 2003)  I must preface my lists, however, with how much I enjoyed my deanship and that I considered it an honor to have served for 12 ½ years as the dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.  I also considered it a true privilege to have worked with an incredibly stellar group of faculty; to have hired some 43 new faculty whom I consider the future leaders of the School and the discipline as a whole; to have partnered with the most loyal and effective staff, as well as the most brilliant students, who are the future movers and shakers in health care.  How could anyone leave this # 1 School of Nursing without missing a great deal?  Yet, now that I am giving attention to other projects and initiatives that are near and dear to my scholarly heart, I consider being in the role of former dean as equally, if not more so, the best role that I have ever embarked on and adopted.  So let me first start with what I miss about being the dean.

What I miss about being the dean?

• People, people, people - and the tons of relationships that come with the deanship

• My immediate leadership team, dean colleagues and VP’s and our joint problem

solving and policy forming sessions

• Advocating for faculty promotions

• Making strategic faculty awards and appointments

• Connecting faculty with exciting, new national and international opportunities

• Welcoming and bidding goodbye to students upon admission and graduation and seeing the Kimmel Center full of excited and happy faces at graduation

• Meeting with parents and hearing their experiences

• Fireside chats with students at my house

• Announcing celebratory faculty and student awards

• Dancing during celebrations where staff desperately tried to teach me line dancing - to no avail

• Welcoming international colleagues and telling them about our stellar faculty, bright students and effective staff

• Identifying systems and process issues and insuring we have sustainable action plans

• Interactions with many constituents – Board of Overseers, Alumni, Trustees, Communities, National Deans, etc.

• Successful fundraising for the School

• Hosting alumni events and gatherings

• Presenting State of the School Address with the pride attached to the accomplishments of our communities and seeing our auditorium full with campus leadership, colleagues, students and faculty

• Witnessing and being humbled by the generosity of our School supporters and friends

• My parking spot to which my car was programmed to get to

• Not having to carry my office key with me everywhere I go (the dean’s office was always open)

What I do not miss about being the dean?

• A grueling 24/7 structured and packed calendar without enough time for each appointment

• Having to say No to School community’s aspiring proposals due to budget, policies, time, etc.

• Continuous thinking and working on budget and fundraising with inability to meet all demands and all strategic goals

• Using plane and train rides for thinking time and for making to do lists

• Complaints from, and about, faculty, students and staff from faculty, students and staff

• Chicken and salmon meals, hence skipping many celebratory meals

• Due to time constraints, giving similar and slightly refreshed welcome and goodbye remarks throughout the years

• Having to close the School because of University decisions for snow days when important meetings, classes, etc. are planned

• Not being with family for important celebrations and not being with close friends due to scheduling issues

What I absolutely love about being a former dean?

• Having blocks of time to think, read, write, revisit, debate and challenge ideas, old and new

• Reflecting on my intense deanship role and career and processing the meaning and outcomes of strategic decisions

• Being invited to speak about transition theory, interprofessional education and women’s health, and witnessing global progress in each of these areas

• Reconnecting with my international colleagues, friends and family

• Having time to go to lectures and attend conferences and enjoy hallway serendipitous conversations and reconnecting with many old students and colleagues without having to rush conversations because of next urgent deanly appointments, deadlines or meetings

• Working in my spacious home office while watching kids playing in Fitler Square

• Decreasing the piles of files, articles and books (accumulated over several years) by sorting, reading and sending to the right people

• Accommodating my grandchildren’s schedules instead of vice versa

• Being considered the wise/experienced consultant, but not the implementer of strategies, ideas and actions

What I don’t like about being a former dean?

• Questions about what it is like being retired, when in actuality I am working and on sabbatical (Hansen, 2004)

• Not participating in School and University events by choice, hence missing dialogues, debates and people

References

Hansen, H. Reese. "Some Thoughts on Stepping Down after a Long Term of Deaning." University of Toledo Law Review. Vol 36 (2004): 69-72

Shipley, David E. "Resigning as Dean-Stepping down or Stepping Up." University of Toledo Law Review. Vol 35 (2003): 189-193

An Uncommon Journey

UPfront Magazine - Spring 2014

It is hard to believe that this is the twenty-fourth, and last, message that I am composing for UPfront magazine. I am writing this while a snowstorm is looming in Philadelphia, a reminder that in spite of such storms, I made the decision almost 13 years ago that I would leave my 34 year’s position at the University of California, San Francisco to come to lead the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. And leading I did, jointly with the best faculty, staff, students and alumni. And it all went so very quickly! But when we pause to look at what we have done together, what we have been able to accomplish, and where we have landed, our journey seems much longer than twelve years.

These past twelve years have been a journey informed by many traditions of excellence which were developed by my predecessors and upon whom we were able to build; Dean Claire Fagin who set the School on the map with a focus on research and practice; Dean Norma Lang who made a difference in connecting all that with health policy; and Interim Dean Neville Strumpf who moved the School’s strategic planning initiatives forward and integrated faculty governance. All my predecessors enhanced the School’s visibility and reputation and gave us the momentum and set the stage for an incredible twelve years of innovations that made us truly a leading school of nursing globally. 

In the past twelve years we have been able to triple our endowment to $72.4 million, increase enrollment by 57 percent, renovate Fagin Hall, launch a new undergraduate curriculum, introduce graduate specialties, and develop several distinguished research centers. Our reach extends to local, regional, national and global populations and our efforts are making a difference in healthcare and in building research programs. As I reflect upon our success, I am thankful to our faculty and staff, whose accomplishments impact science, practice and policy. Their diverse interests, skills and outlooks enhance our collective scope of influence and positively affect healthcare. They are the researchers whose nationally and internationally recognized work helps to inform public health policy. They are the educators who mentor, teach and encourage students to find their voices and establish successful academic and professional careers. They are the thought leaders who look for ways to collaborate in order to develop new solutions that positively impact populations. These are the amazing, empowered and talented people who make Penn Nursing Science world-renowned.

In this issue of UPfront, we highlight how our School has positively influenced the world in four ways: by giving a voice to nursing, by enhancing inquiry and innovation, by promoting clinical judgment and by creating a culture of engagement. These tenets, developed by our faculty, student body and administration, continue to underpin our vision and strategic goals.