The Year in Review MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING
2019-2020 ACADEMIC YEAR
NOTES FROM THE INTERIM DIRECTOR Dr. Elizabeth Gephart, DNP, PNP-BC, APRN Andrea dove into teaching and leading our efforts to teach health assessment, procedural skills, and learning all about simulation. We look forward to expanding our assessment and simulation labs under her leadership.
Greetings from the School of Nursing faculty and staff! It is hard to believe but another year has come and gone, and the 2019-2020 academic year has come to an end. And what a year it has been. We have many wonderful memories, but we also will long remember the effects of COVID-19 on the spring semester with the move to all online classroom activities. Faculty and students rose to meet the challenges from all the nooks and crannies of their homes. Bedrooms, kitchens, recliners, and even garages became classrooms for MU faculty, students, their spouses/partners, and children. We struggled, conquered, and showed incredible resilience in meeting these unprecedented demands. Professor Andrea Tirpak joined the nursing faculty in the fall of 2019. She is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner who brings her expertise in adult health nursing and her work as an advanced practice nurse to students in the graduate program.
It is with sadness that we say good-bye to four of our valued colleagues this year. Leaving in January, Professor Francis Oke transitioned into being a student of the nurse anesthesia program. And at the end of the academic year we say good-bye to Professor Julie Standerfer who is retiring, and to Dr. John Blakeman and Professor LeAnn Rhinehart who are leaving for other opportunities to further their nursing careers. We thank you for all you have done in providing high quality education for our students and for the Big Blue. You will be sincerely missed! On a happier note it is with pleasure that celebrate the promotion of Dr. Pamela Lindsey from Director of the School of Nursing to the Dean of the College of Professional Studies. Dean Lindsey will be providing leadership for the School of Nursing, the School of Education, and the Department of Exercise Science and Sports. Dr. Elizabeth Gephart will continue in the Interim Director position for the School of Nursing through the 2020-2021 academic year.
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