Bradley University Names Shelley Hawkins department chair and director of nursing

"The College of Education and Health Sciences is incredibly fortunate to recruit such a talented and influential nursing leader,” said Jessica Clark, dean and professor of the College of Education and Health Sciences. “Dr. Hawkins brings over 30 years of nursing education, practice and research to her role as department chair and director of nursing.

“Our nursing programs are already held in very high esteem across the greater Midwest region and now nationally with our online program reach. I am excited to see Dr. Hawkins elevate the Department of Nursing under her transformational leadership and look forward to continued nursing success for years to come."

Hawkins earned her bachelor’s and master’s in nursing at the University of Alabama, Birmingham; her post-graduate family nurse practitioner degree at the University of Virginia; her post-graduate geriatric nurse practitioner degree at the University of Texas; her doctorate in nursing administration and education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and a post-doctorate in chronic illnesses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hawkins is recognized as a national expert in nurse practitioner education. Having served as a mentor for numerous nursing faculty relative to all aspects of the academic nursing appointments, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, elected president of the Council on Collegiate Education for nursing of the Southern Regional Education Board, appointed director of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties Leadership Mentoring Program and a fellow of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Wharton Executive Leadership Program.

"I welcome the opportunity to serve as the chair and director of the school of nursing at Bradley," said Hawkins, "and look forward to working with my talented colleagues."