Welcome to the New Academic Year
A Message from Dean Meleis
Dear Members of the School of Nursing Community,
Welcome to the start of a new academic year filled with the promise of new and exciting changes and continuous opportunities to march forward in achieving our strategic goals. “New,” “Change,” “Innovation,” “Games,” “125th Anniversary,” “Art,” and “Diversity,” are concepts that will drive many dialogues during the upcoming year while we are having our usual annual discussions about science, productivity, teaching, practice, and “Care to Change the World!” So, as you reflect on your active, productive, and (hopefully) regenerating summer months, here are a few reflections on our School since last May.
As always, our School had a very active and dynamic summer. We bid a sad goodbye to some departing members of the faculty and staff who have moved on to new and exciting opportunities – they include Drs. Deborah Bruner, Kathy Richards, and Mary Lou de Leon Siantz. Their many contributions to our School will continue to be part of our future. In the meantime, we have six new faculty members joining our community – Dr. Eun-Ok Im, Professor and a world renowned expert in women’s health, and her collaborator, Dr. Wonshik Chee; as well as four new Assistant Professors, Drs. Bart De Jonghe, Tanja Kral, Lea Ann Matura, and Alison Buttenheim. Let’s help them become true Penn Nursing faculty by showing them our authentic and unique School of Nursing spirit and values through a warm welcome.
After graduating our largest class (389) in May, we also welcomed 56 second degree students this summer who are already well into their program. They come to us from nineteen states, 48 institutions of higher learning and with undergraduate degrees in such fields as Anthropology, Neuroscience, Public Health, Spanish, and Sociology. They will be joined this fall by 10 additional second degree and/or transfer students; 92 traditional undergraduates; 144 MSN students; 10 PhD students; and ten Post-doctoral students. You can meet all our new students and faculty at the Back-to-School Picnic on Tuesday, September 6, 12:00-2:00 pm in our Carol Elizabeth Ware Lobby at Claire M. Fagin Hall.
If you ask our faculty what is on their mind, I suspect many will say the exciting challenge of implementing a new undergraduate program that is organized around four concepts – Voice, Inquiry, Engagement, and Judgment – and four components over four years – the Stance of Nursing, the Stance of Practice, the Phenomenon of Nursing, and the Complexity of the Care System. Launching this new futuristic program while maintaining the high standards of our existing program is both challenging and demanding but we are all ready! And so are the science labs on the 2nd floor which were renovated to meet some of the conceptual and substantive knowledge of the new curriculum. Incidentally, this Phase IV renovation completes our second floor renewal.
This year we celebrate the 125th Anniversary of Nursing at Penn. This celebration, which you will hear more about during the year, is being led by the HUP Alumni. We are so proud of their incredible accomplishments, our nursing history at Penn, and the phenomenal art gift they gave our School to commemorate this milestone. More on what our HUP Alumni have been up to in October.
Two University-wide initiatives resonate with our strategic goals and will drive many dialogues during the upcoming year. The first is “Games!” This is the University theme for the freshmen reading project. Jane McGonigal’s book, “Reality is Broken,” gives a completely different meaning to all kinds of game playing including reaching, connecting, interacting, judging, engaging, competing, teaming, problem solving, and planning among many other concepts very familiar to nursing practice. Considering that one of our strategic goals for 2010-2015 includes such concepts as innovations, games, and entrepreneurship as vehicles for developing and providing care that is more congruent with a future of technology, informatics, limited resources, collaboration, and community focus, this University theme supports our own goals. With this in mind, we have a game and innovation champion, Dr. Nancy Hanrahan, who will guide our School community in integrating these ideas into our work.
A second University-wide initiative is a challenge by President Gutmann and Provost Price to develop within each School a plan for fostering excellence by building a more diverse faculty and creating a more inclusive campus community that mentors, supports, and sustains diverse faculty. Our champion for this initiative (which has been a priority strategic initiative for our School for many years) is Dr. Nancy Tkacs, who was just appointed as the School’s Assistant Dean for Diversity and Cultural Affairs. We look forward to her guidance as she builds on Dr. Mary Lou de Leon Siantz’s excellent “Campaign for Diversity.”
Amidst the discouraging international conflicts, many ups and downs of an unstable economy, earthquakes and hurricanes, our School has had much uplifting news recently! Just some of these include Dr. Lois Evans’ award for Pioneering Contributions to Geropsychiatric Nursing from the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association. Dr. Martha Curley will receive the 2011 Elizabeth McWilliams Miller Award for Excellence in Research, and Dr. Eileen Sullivan-Marx will receive the Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Award for Excellence in Nursing Practice, both from Sigma Theta Tau International. Drs. Chris Bradway, Jianghong Liu, and Anne Teitelman have all been selected for induction as Fellows in the American Academy of Nursing (we will celebrate them at our Penn Nursing reception at the Academy on October 15th). And closer to home, Dr. Barbra Mann Wall was selected as the Evan C. Thompson Endowed Term Chair of Excellence in Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations to each one of you and thank you for bringing such honor to our School.
This is only a synopsis of our School as we begin the year and as always, you will hear much more at our annual State of the School Address which will take place on Thursday, October 27, 3:30-5:00 in the Ann L. Roy Auditorium - to be followed by a reception 5:00-6:00 pm in the Lobby Café.
You should also mark your calendars for an important lecture co-sponsored by the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine – Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, will present, “Health and Social Justice: Enemies or Bedfellows” on Wednesday, November 9, 2:30-3:30 pm in the Ann L. Roy Auditorium. It too will be followed by a reception in the Carol Elizabeth Ware Lobby 3:30-4:30 pm.
In closing, the diversity, the depth, and the richness in our School are reflected and driven by the sum-total of your knowledge and experiences. Your summer accomplishments and experiences are part of that. I hope you will take the time and create space in your schedules to share these experiences with other members of our community – reflecting, sharing, connecting, celebrating achievements, and welcoming each other are what makes our community inspiring and challenging. It is what makes us one community with shared values and a shared vision for the future. I look forward to another year filled with more rich experiences and achievements.
Welcome Back!
Dean Afaf I. Meleis, PhD, DrPS(hon), FAAN