Kreitzer named inaugural holder of the Mary Jo Kreitzer Chair in Wellbeing Leadership

Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing founder and director and School of Nursing professor, was named the inaugural holder of the Mary Jo Kreitzer Chair in Health and Wellbeing Leadership. It is the first endowed Bakken Center chair.

Kreitzer has authored more than 150 publications and is the co-editor of the text Integrative Nursing, 1st and 2nd editions, published by Oxford University Press. Plans for the third edition are underway. Kreitzer was named one of the 100 most influential health care leaders in Minnesota by MN Physician, is a distinguished policy fellow in the National Academies of Practice and is a Fellow Ad Eundem of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Kreitzer has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of numerous clinical trials focusing on mindfulness meditation for people with chronic disease, including studies focusing on solid organ transplant, cardiovascular disease, chronic insomnia, diabetes and caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studies include the use of social technology to enhance healing and wellbeing and the impact of mindfulness on brain-computer interface performance.

“Throughout my career, I have been passionate about advancing wellbeing. It has been the joy and privilege of a lifetime to be the founder and director of the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing at the University of Minnesota,” says Kreitzer. “For more than 27 years, we have worked with national and international leaders to advance integrative health and healing by conducting interdisciplinary research, developing innovative models of care, creating transformative curricula, and engaging with policy makers to create more accessible and equitable health care.”