NLN Foundation for Nursing Education Welcomes Two Trustees

Dr. Nancy Langston Named Board Chair Former NLN President Helped Create Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY — January 5, 2012 — The NLN Foundation for Nursing Education is pleased to announce it has elected two nationally recognized leaders in nursing education to fill open positions on its board of trustees.

Nancy Langston, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, returns to the board to serve as its chair, 10 years after she was founding chair of the NLN Foundation during her tenure as NLN president, from 1999-2001. According to its original mission statement, the NLN Foundation was created "to raise, steward and distribute funds that promote excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce." In the ensuing decade, Dr. Langstons commitment to the NLN and to the NLN Foundation remained strong.

"We have kept Nancys seat warm, and this is an ideal time for her to re-engage with the Foundation as it moves into a new phase of growth and productivity," said NLN CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, who also serves as CEO of the NLN Foundation. "We are honored to have her rejoin the board in this leadership role."

The second new NLN Foundation trustee is Jean R. Marshall, MSN, RN, FAAN, who currently maintains residences in Florida and in New Jersey, where she continues to teach at her alma mater, the College of Nursing at Seton Hall University.

"Jeanie has been known throughout New Jersey for her fundraising prowess," noted Judith A. Halstead, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, president of the NLN. "She has also distinguished herself in multiple projects, working as the lead contact with corporate and community leaders, cultivating resources to maximize impact on regional and national levels in the promotion of diversity and culturally sensitive patient care."

In an interview, Dr. Langston recalled the genesis of the NLN Foundation. It occurred during the late 1990s, at a time when the focus of research occurring in schools of nursing was almost exclusively on the clinical discipline and there were limited funds to support nursing education research. During a conversation that she, as NLN president, had with then-CEO Ruth Corcoran, "we realized," she related, "that there was no national organization that funded nursing education research, a significant focus of the NLN. We asked ourselves, wouldnt it be wonderful if we could create a corollary to the National Institutes of Health, which funds clinical research, for the purpose of supporting nursing education research, building the science of how we educate future nurses?"

The NLN Foundation has since broadened its scope to support other ways the NLN promotes excellence in nursing education, including, for example, through faculty/leadership development programs. Now looking ahead to her second time around as NLN Foundation chair, Dr. Langston identified as her primary goal the expansion of the board to include leaders in business and the non-profit world who can help secure the NLN Foundations future as a sustainable foundation that does not rely on the NLN (its parent organization) for support. To achieve that goal, she intends to reach out to colleagues who may already have those critical connections. "I expect Beverly Malone to be a great partner in that regard," Dr. Langston said.

She also aims to raise the foundations visibility among the community of nurse educators, in particular encouraging those approaching retirement to "keep the NLN Foundation in the forefront of their minds as they consider their legacies." She herself has taken that commitment to heart. "It is my profound belief that anyone heading a foundation ought to be a donor to the cause," asserted Dr. Langston. "I just signed my will, and the NLN Foundation is in my estate plan."

Bio-sketches of Dr. Langston and Ms. Marshall are available here.

Editors and reporters: For interview opportunities, please contact NLN chief communications officer, Karen R. Klestzick at 212-812-0376 or kklestzick@nln.org.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers professional development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 35,000 individual and 1,200 institutional members. NLN members represent nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education and health care organizations and agencies.

The NLN Foundation for Nursing Education plays a central role in empowering nurse educators, raising stewarding, and distributing funds that promote excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce and advance the nations health.