Distinguished Faculty Alumni
Melissa Avery
1993
Recognized for her leadership and advocacy of midwifery at local, national and international levels serving as the current President of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and for bringing distance education to the School of Nursing thereby increasing access to graduate level education.
Mary Mescher Benbenek
1994
Recognized for her transcultural work with East Africans and serving on Health Advisory Committees directing health policy on access to care, health care literacy and disaster preparedness. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, she has stimulated the learning of her students and modeled exceptional advanced practice nursing.
Judith Beniak
1982
Recognized for being the first Chief of AIDS/STD with the Minnesota Department of Health and for establishing the Health Careers Center which provides advisory services for undergraduate students interested in health careers.
Linda Chlan
1992, 1997
Recognized for advancing the science of nursing through her ground-breaking research on adjunctive therapies to promote relaxation for patients in the ICU environment. Her work with undergraduate and graduate students has stimulated their thinking and motivated many to embark upon their own research careers
Maryann Chowen
1976
Recognized for her work in transforming health care on St. Paul’s East Side as Block Nurse and Healthcare Coordinator of the Payne-Phalen Living at Home/Block Nurse Program, having a profound impact on the seniors she serves and contributing to a national model for health care delivery that could serve as a template for today’s health care reform initiatives.
Linda Halçon
1983, 1986
Recognized for her leadership as the Public Health Director of Isanti County, Director of Boynton Health Service, and in disaster relief in Sudan and Iraq. With her holistic perspective, she has advanced the acceptance of complementary and alternative therapies in nursing and health care, extended the use of her Health Realization model to help refugees, and promoted the use of essential oils as a fundamental treatment for disease.
Kathleen E. Krichbaum
1979, 1991
Recognized for her influence on nursing education and healthcare by developing the ACHIEVES and CET models for program evaluation, for her research on care delivery models with nursing home residents and for ground-breaking work on the phenomenon of complexity compression.
Ruth Lindquist
1976, 1979
Recognized for her research on risks of and responses to cardiovascular and cerebro-vascular disease, for incorporating complementary therapies into the critical care environments and for establishing a local, yet influential Women’s Only Cardiac Support Group and for being an extraordinary mentor to doctoral students.
Carol O’Boyle
1992, 1998
Recognized for her contributions to the field of infection control and her collaboration with international partners to establish infection control education and practice in emerging regions of the world. Her research tool has been translated into multiple languages for use throughout the world.
Linda Olson Keller
1980, 2008
Recognized for her advocacy of nursing in general and public health nursing in particular, as well as social justice for all. Her invention of the Public Health Nursing Wheel has resulted in an international framework for guiding nursing practice, education and management.
Margaret Plumbo
1978
Recognized for helping to establish nurse practitioners in women’s health care in Minnesota, for playing a vital role in the School’s achieving national prominence in nurse-midwifery, and for advancing the role of nursing in this country and several nations of the former Soviet Republic.
Cheryl Robertson
1988, 2000
Recognized for directing the international programs at the Center for Victims of Torture, and developing innovative community-based programs for refugees and torture survivors, raising the visibility of refugee war trauma, torture and the role of public health nursing.
Mary M. Rowan
1989, 1992
Recognized for her vision and leadership in developing the successful Post-Baccalaureate Certificate and Master’s of Nursing degree programs. A highly regarded mentor, she has touched the lives – and helped the careers – of hundreds of nurses and nursing students.
Diane Treat-Jacobson
1998
Recognized for her commitment to early detection and non-invasive treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and her international leadership in the field of vascular nursing. As a past President of the Society for Vascular Nursing, she has improved the care, enhanced the education and generated new knowledge for patients experiencing these challenging conditions.