Frantz Named Dean of the College of Nursing

Rita A. Frantz, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor in the UI College of Nursing, has been named dean of the college effective July 1, 2007. Frantz succeeds former Dean Melanie C. Dreher, who resigned effective May 31, 2006 to accept the deanship at Rush University College of Nursing in Chicago. Professor Martha Craft-Rosenberg has served as interim dean over the past year.

"Dr. Frantz has a well established national and international reputation as a top scholar," says UI Executive Vice President and Provost Michael J. Hogan. "She's proven her leadership skills in a variety of roles, and she's built an impressive record of success with her involvement in all aspects of the university's mission."

Hogan says Frantz emerged from an excellent pool of candidates for the deanship.

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The Iowa Board of Regents and the Iowa Board of Nursing have approved a plan by The University of Iowa College of Nursing to offer the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. Enrollment for this program will begin in Fall 2007.

A relatively new degree in the field, the DNP is a practice-focused degree (as opposed to the research-oriented PhD) which prepares advanced practice nurses for leadership roles by educating them in evidence-based practice, economics, finance and policy. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing requires that by 2015 all nurse practitioners entering advance practice be prepared at the practice doctorate level.

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Tripp-Reimer Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
Toni Tripp-Reimer, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Associate Dean of Research, received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual meeting of the Midwest Nursing Research Society in Omaha, NE, in March. The award recognizes an MNRS member who has significantly advanced the profession of nursing either through an extensive program of research or creation of environments where research can flourish, and whose distinguished career yielded outstanding and noteworthy accomplishments.

Thompson Earns Teaching Excellence Award
Professor Ed Thompson, PhD, RN, CRNA, ARNP, FAAN was selected by the Council on Teaching to receive the prestigious President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. Thompson has taught in the College of Nursing and the Carver College of Medicine since 1998, while also serving as director of the Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) anesthesia program. Under his leadership, the program has become recognized as one of the premier nurse anesthesia programs in the country. Thompson received another feather in his cap when 2008 U.S. News & World Report Guide to Grad School was published this spring. The Anesthesia Nursing program is now ranked No. 6 among public universities nationwide. In fact, the College's rankings were outstanding. Read more...

Lehmann Receives Life and Faith Award
Susan Lehmann, MSN, RN, UI College of Nursing assistant professor (clinical), is this year’s recipient of the Geneva Lecture Series Committee’s annual Faith and Learning Award, which is presented to a member of the UI community who exemplifies the idea of combining or synthesizing his or her faith with learning or teaching. Lehmann was presented with the award April 24, in conjunction with the Geneva Lecture presentation, for her work with the homeless and for the institution of Nurses Christian Fellowship on the UI campus.

  College Loses Friends and Alumni

Byrdice Tams Schroder, GN 35, Oct. 17, 2006, at age 94, and after a brief hospitalization and suffering a heart attack. Tams Schroder, who lived in New Jersey for many years, earned an MSN degree from Columbia University in New York City. Her career culminated in the National League of Nursing, a national nursing program accreditation association. An outspoken advocate for quality nursing and public health, she established and endowed the Xenobia Tams Gibson scholarship for graduate nursing students at the UI College of Nursing.

Dr. Florence Stolte Montz, GN 47, Feb. 7, 2007, Bismarck, ND. Throughout her career, Montz successfully combined her nursing and religious passions by offering her medical and leadership skills to many of her church's organizations and activities. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, as executive director, Montz helped the Council for Christian Medical Work transition to creating community-based health care in isolated rural areas of developing countries. In this role, she planned and supervised the training of health workers in India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Guatemala. In her later years, she served as editor of Better Health, a quarterly publication of worker health benefit plans in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.

Eleanor Frances Field Nichols, GN ’41, March 7, 2007, after a long illness with Alzheimer's disease. Nichols worked three years at the Independence, Iowa, hospital before moving to Decorah and continued her nursing profession by volunteering her skills in the Decorah schools and at Luther College. She enjoyed her role as nurse for scouting day camps and the Decorah Kilties. According to her daughter, she treasured her nursing profession and her years of nurses training at The University of Iowa.

Sheila Regan Coin, BSN 64, April 18, 2007. Coin began her nursing career in Boston and then moved to Chicago where she founded her own management consulting firm, eventually moving to Washington, D.C. where she continued working in consulting with the Council for Logistical Research. She was an active member of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the American Red Cross and volunteered for more than 25 years raising money for the Lupus Foundation. Regan Coin was an avid traveler and intellectual enthusiast enjoying music, the fine arts and history.

Anna Overland, associate professor emerita, May 31, 2007, in Story City, IA. A UI contributor for more than four decades, Overland had a long, distinguished career in nursing. After supervisory experience in maternal health nursing, Overland served as a nurse in the U.S. Army during and after World War II, spending most of her tour of duty in Korea. She had a master's degree from Columbia University Teachers College and was an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing and Health, and an administrator at Cincinnati General Hospital. She was an associate professor of maternal/child nursing at the UI College of Nursing for 24 years, and established the Anna Overland scholarship for nursing students.

Gwen Elizabeth Tudor Will, 41 BS GN, June 2 in Amherst, MA. Following a stint as director of nursing and assistant professor at the UI College of Nursing, she earned a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing, education and administration from Columbia University in 1951. She was head psychiatric nurse at the National Institutes of Health where she helped found Woodley House, the nation’s first psychiatric halfway house. Will was a consultant to the United Nations, and in 1952 published a seminal work in the journal Psychiatry, "A Sociopsychiatric Nursing Approach to Intervention in a Problem of Mutual Withdrawal on a Mental Hospital Ward."  

Three Iowa alumni have recently been named fellows of American Academy of Nursing. They are Carol Jorgensen Huston, 77 BSN, DPA, California State University, Chico; Rebecca A. Johnson, 88 MA, 92 PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia; and Victoria M. Steelman, 79 BSN, 89 MA, 97 PhD, CNOR, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics.

Heidi Nobiling, 94 MA, MBA, CNAA-BC, was named interim chief nursing officer in the Department of Nursing Services and Patient Care at University Hospitals and Clinics in February. Upon completion of a successful CNO search, she will assume a new position as Senior Assistant Director of Nursing Services and Patient Care.

Mary Fran Tracy, 84 BSN, a critical care clinical nurse specialist at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis, was elected president of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Melissa Dawahare, 96 BSN, 2001 NMD, has just released seven books as part of her complete health system, House Call. The main book in the series is titled House Call: The Doctor Knocks at Your Door with the Secrets of Health Transformation.  Dr. Dawahare is an expert in complementary and alternative medicine and a leading naturopathic medical doctor practicing in Tempe, Arizona.  Her passions are health and wellness and this new series of books helps people solve their health care problems and stay healthy.

Alumni Hosted on Campus June 8-10

A variety of activities were held for the honor classes of 1967, 1962, 1957, 1954, and 1947, during alumni reunion weekend. On Friday, tours of the Nursing Building and new Nursing Clinical Education Center gave visitors a taste of the daily lives of current students. At breakfast and dinner events Saturday, alumni had more opportunities to get reacquainted.

The following award presentations were also a part of the festivities:

Distinguished Alumni Award


Ida M. Moore, 73 BSN, 78 MA, was presented with the UI Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award at an alumni reunion banquet June 8. She was recognized in the Achievement category.






Woodrow Morris Friend of Nursing Award

Congressman Dave Loebsack (shown below, at left, with Woody Morris) is the 2007 recipient of the Woodrow Morris Distinguished Friend of Nursing Award, which honors those who have championed the profession of nursing through support of the College of Nursing.






Distinguished Achievement in Nursing Award

JoAnn Herman, 75 MA, PhD, (shown below, at right, with Interim Dean Martha Craft-Rosenberg) received the Distinguished Achievement in Nursing Award at an Alumni Banquet Saturday evening. This award celebrates those who have contributed significantly to the advancement of the academic mission in the nursing profession. Dr. Herman was selected for her commitment to theory, clinical reasoning and nursing scholarship.


Service Achievement Award

Also honored at the Alumni Banquet was Terry Wicks, 81 BSN, CRNA, MHS, who was presented with the Service Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to the advancement of the service mission of the nursing profession.


Read more about these accomplished alumni!

• An $87,000 grant from the Wellmark Foundation will enable College of Nursing researchers to develop "Depression Training to Promote Nurses as Advocates for Older Adults." Kathleen Buckwalter, PhD, Sally Mathis Hartwig professor in gerontological nursing, director of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at the UI College of Nursing, and Marianne Smith, PhD, assistant professor, collaborated on the proposal submission.

• Buckwalter (PI) and Smith (Co-PI) have also secured funding of $148,346 for two years from the Research Retirement Foundation for a project titled “Dementia Training to Promote Involvement in Meaningful Activity." Other collaborators include Linda Seydel, Kristin Johnson, David Reed, Linda Buettner, Suzanne Fitzsimmons and Toni Tripp-Reimer.

• Professor Janet Specht and Associate Professor Paula Mobily have received $1.9 million in funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research for a study titled “Nursing Empowerment: Promoting Evidence-based Practice Adoption in Long Term Care.” Specht is PI, and Mobily is Co-PI. Other investigators include Keela Herr, Gerry Jogerst (College of Medicine), and Sara Sanders (School of Social Work) with College of Nursing statistician David Reed and Sheila Horras as expert LTC nurse.

UI College of Nursing students showcased an array of presentations on individual and group community service projects at the 2007 Civic Engagement Fair, May 2.

Exhibits reflect the work of students in Assistant Professor (clinical) Susan Lehmann's Public Health Practicum related to population interventions in sites across southeast Iowa. Students of Assistant Professor (clinical) Nicki Markovetz and Instructor (clinical) Vanessa Kimm's Parent-Child Practicum were also featured. Their booths had previously been displayed at a health fair at the Broadway Neighborhood Center earlier in the year as part of a year-long program to educate the populace on the prevention of childhood obesity.

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Alumni on campus for the June 8-10 reunions had a superb opportunity to visit the Nursing Clinical Education Center. One alumna was so impressed with the new technology College of Nursing students work with today, that she pledged her future financial support for the College of Nursing.

Private gifts like these create diverse new opportunities for the College to enhance academic programs and the teaching-learning enterprise, to expand the existing centers of research excellence, and to prepare nurses for their future roles as health care leaders.

Annual support ensures that we will continue our proud tradition of nursing education at the UI.

Thanks again for your support and partnership throughout the year! Learn how you can give to the College of Nursing online, or call the UI Foundation at 319/335-3305.

I have heard from a number of alumni and enjoy every contact. Please keep the news coming. Your successes are important to us and your classmates. -- Liz Swanson

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your classmates. To send your news or to UNSUBSCRIBE, call 319-335-7006 or e-mail elizabeth-swanson@uiowa.edu.

The University of Iowa College of Nursing
50 Newton Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1121
Phone: 319/335-7018 or 800-553-IOWA (4692) ext. 5-7108

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