Search for dean of nursing underway

Final decision on hiring nursing dean expected by early May.

By Michelle Hagopian

Published March 18, 2008

The Sinclair School of Nursing announced four candidates to lead the school when Dean Rosemary Porter retires in August.

Linda Bullock, an MU nursing professor and a chairwoman of the school’s search committee, said the committee chose Ginette Pepper, Nancy Ridenour, Donna Hathaway and Judith Fitzgerald Miller as its candidates.

Bullock said all four candidates are either currently deans or associate deans of nursing programs at another university or have been in the past.

She said each candidate will make a three-day visit to campus and will speak at an open forum for one and a half hours during the visit.

“We like for the candidates to meet with a variety of people when they visit,” Bullock said.

Provost Brian Foster created the search committee in October 2007, when Porter announced she intended to retire. The search process has many steps, he said.

“The search began six months ago, and that’s when we began advertising and making calls to potential candidates,” Foster said.

The committee — a group of about 20 interdisciplinary faculty, staff and students —reviews all potential candidates after three or four months of searching.

The list is then narrowed to a group of semifinalists who meet confidentially with committee members in a specific airport for an interview, Foster said.

“The entire process is kept confidential until we make a list of finalists,” he said. “If it wasn’t confidential, candidates might compromise their current job and lose credibility, which is damaging to their career.”

He said the interviews are held in airports to ensure privacy in an off-campus setting.

Each candidate then goes through a two-day interview process with the committee and often returns to campus for a second time to visit.

Foster said when candidates visit they are not only being evaluated by the committee but are also evaluating their potential job.

“The candidates’ visits is a combination of our committee evaluating them as a potential dean and their deciding whether they would be comfortable here,” he said.

The candidate interviews and campus visits end in mid-April, and shortly after, the committee expects to announce the new dean, he said.

“We’ll meet as a committee in April to discuss the details of each candidate and they’ll offer their opinions,” Foster said. “I’ll make the ultimate decision on who to hire, and then we’ll notify the candidate and nail down a deal.”

Bullock said the committee would assess the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate before deciding on the finalist.

She said Porter is expected to step down Aug. 31.

“Dean Porter will most likely end her term by Sept. 1, and the new dean candidate we select will work with her until that point,” Bullock said.

She said the MU schools of Medicine, Health Professions and Nursing and the College of Engineering are represented in the search committee.

In addition, MU extension members, alumni, a few students and a staff member from a hospital on campus are included.

Bullock said Foster intentionally created an interdisciplinary committee.

“Provost Foster tried to assemble a team of people with a variety of experience and background to make a sound decision,” she said.

Foster said this search is important to the school because of its prominence.

“The nursing school has become one of the top schools in the nation and has done innovative things to increase the number of nursing graduates,” he said.

He said the number of graduates from the school is extremely important now because of the shortage for nurses across the country.

MU Engineering Dean James Thompson, who is another chairman of the search committee, said the search has generated a lot of national attention.

“In the beginning of the search, we had a large number of candidates that were eliminated in the screening process,” he said.

Thompson said he anticipates the final decision for the position will be made no later than early May.