Connie White Delaney Dean’s Leadership Chair to ensure school’s exceptional leadership

In the growing and dynamic field of academic nursing, having a strong dean who can envision collaborative solutions to both local and global questions is key to sustaining a nursing school’s competitive advantage. To ensure the School of Nursing will remain a magnet for top-tier executive leadership, the Development team is taking steps now, well before Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, announces plans to retire, to raise money for an endowed dean’s chair.

The genesis of the Connie White Delaney Dean’s Leadership Chair began with three members of the Dean’s National Board of Visitors: Richard Norling, Jeannine Rivet and Michael Rohovsky. Together, they worked with the school to design the chair’s purpose and made the first donations toward endowing it.

“We have tremendous respect for how Dean Delaney has reimagined academic executive leadership and elevated the school’s national and international reputation,” says Rivet. “And we realized that to sustain this trajectory and culture of excellence for years to come in such a competitive market for nursing leaders, the school’s deanship must include an endowed chair to attract the best leader.”

What is a dean’s chair, and what does it provide a leader? Few endowed chairs exist outside of higher education. For the next dean of the school, who will be the Delaney Leadership Chair’s inaugural holder, it will provide funding necessary to compensate the dean in a highly competitive market. Additionally, it will provide the dean with the resources to develop transformational leaders in nursing education, research and practice. Every future dean of the school will hold the Delaney Leadership Chair.

Further, a chair not only elevates the holder, it also honors the person it is named after. The Delaney Leadership Chair will memorialize the leadership attributes and character demonstrated by Dean Delaney through her impeccable reputation, commitment to research, education, ethics and advancement of innovation.

We welcome your support! In partnership with the Delaney Leadership Chair Fundraising Task Force, the school has $750,000 left to raise to establish the Delaney Leadership Chair. Please contact Andrew McIlree, director of Development & Alumni Relations, at 612-624-2428 to learn more.

Delaney Leadership Chair Fundraising Task Force membership

Michael Bleich, PhD, RN, FAAN, task force co-chair
NursDynamics, LLC

Marjorie Page, DNP, RN, task force co-chair
M Health Fairview, Retired

Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor ad honorem, University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Karen MacDonald, MS, RN, CPHQ
Nurse Executive Consultant

Shonda Craft, PhD, LMFT
Dean, College of Health and Wellness Professions St. Cloud State University

David Rothenberger, MD
Professor of Surgery Emeritus, University of Minnesota Medical School