Professor and director named an inaugural Distinguished University Professor
Louise Jenkins, PhD, RN, FAHA, ANEF, professor, director of the Institute for Educators, and director of the Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificate program, was named an inaugural Distinguished University Professor by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). The title is the highest appointment bestowed on a faculty member at UMB and recognizes not just excellence but also impact and significant contribution to the awardee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice.
Jenkins has a distinguished career in nursing that spans more than 55 years, the past 24 as a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She has an exemplary record of significant contributions to the University's missions of teaching, research and scholarship, and service. Her record reflects consistent excellence across all elements: sustained scholarly productivity; broad dissemination of scholarship through publications and presentations; dedicated service to the University and the larger community; demonstrated leadership in fostering excellence in teaching and learning; engaged mentoring and advising of students; and support of nursing faculty and the teaching enterprise within the University, throughout Maryland, nationally, and internationally.
In her nomination letter, Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing, wrote, "Dr. Jenkins' contributions to the multiple missions of the University are substantive and ongoing. She has demonstrated that she is a visionary and innovative educational leader who perceives how the art and science of teaching must evolve and is then able to create the organizational systems, teaching methodologies, and curriculum to move the enterprise forward. Through her teaching, research and scholarship, and service she has brought statewide, national, and international recognition and true distinction to the University. Dr. Jenkins approaches everything she does with a fierce commitment to absolute excellence, but this drive is always tempered with such genuine warmth and caring for other individuals that it makes it possible for others to believe that excellence is in fact achievable and that she will support them in achieving it."