From the Dean's Desk
From the Dean's Desk
Dear friends,
One of the many things I love about nursing is the breadth of people who are attracted to the field. Our fall 2025 RN-BSN program commencement speaker, Jamie McGrath, chose nursing at 18 because she knew she wanted to help people. Twenty-three years later she remains committed to the field and has earned her BSN. Current BSN student Grayson Wills, who you will meet in this newsletter, recognized during his twin brother’s cancer treatments that nurses have the greatest impact on patients, and that helped define his choice of careers. Associate Professor Charisse Madlock-Brown is a health informaticist, not a nurse, but chose to join the College of Nursing because, as she says in this newsletter, nurse researchers get it. They see the nuances and realities of patient care, and it translates into their research.
Thank you all for the work you do as nurses, educators, researchers, and supporters of nursing education
Wishing you a happy, healthy, and rewarding 2026.
Go Hawks!
Julie Zerwic, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN
Kelting Dean and Professor
In late-September, after an endless battery of blood tests and injections, University of Iowa College of Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) student Grayson Wills took a three-day trip to Chicago for a medical procedure. Six hours after sitting down at City of Hope Cancer Center, it was over.
“They took blood from one arm, spun it in a machine to separate the different blood products, and then they gave me back my blood,” says Wills. “The only thing I lost that day was my stem cells, which I already had a really high count of.” The next day he returned to Iowa while his stem cells traveled to Canada to be transplanted into the body of a 47-year-old man battling cancer. Wills is a registered donor with the National Marrow Donor Program and, although he will never meet the beneficiary of his stem cell donation, he would do it again in a heartbeat.
Fall fun
We had some wonderful events this semester. View the photos from Homecoming, the Pancake Breakfast, the senior Plunge into Nursing, and Pinning.
Four faculty recognized for gerontological excellence
Theresa Bechtel, Emily Griffin, Chelsea Howland, and Katie Knox, were recently recognized as 2025 Distinguished Educators in Gerontological Nursing by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. Distinguished Educators are honored for their leadership, educational excellence, and commitment to advancing gerontological nursing.
Undergraduate commencement
125 students, 79 in the BSN pre-licensure program and 46 in the RN-BSN program, graduated from the College of Nursing on December 20. Ceremony attendees heard from 2026 Emerging Nurse Leader Award recipient Dan Lose (16DNP, 12BSN), BSN (pre-licensure) student speaker,Charlotte Wetjin, and Jamie McGrath, RN-BSN student speaker. University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson conferred the degrees.
SIMIA
A new look for SIM-IA
The exteriors of the Simulation in Motion – Iowa trucks underwent a makeover and were recently rewrapped with a fresh, new black and gold design. We think they look pretty sharp!
Charisse Madlock-Brown
Charisse Madlock-Brown is a self-described puzzler, with a love of discovery and creative problem-solving. Growing up she wanted to be a nun due to their air of mystery and dedication to service, but after working in the library during college she chose to pursue library science instead. Returning to her hometown of Iowa City, Iowa to earn a master’s in library science at the University of Iowa, Madlock-Brown began working at the Hardin Library for Medical Sciences. It was there she discovered a whole new world that combined puzzles, service, and the research, information management, and data analysis skills she was gaining in her master’s program—health informatics. “I found that people in medicine had a lot of interesting questions and many of the tools and technologies weren’t up to speed to answer them. I saw several opportunities to do some interesting problem solving,” she says.
One Day for Iowa 2026
One Day for Iowa, the University of Iowa’s 24-hour online giving day, will be held on March 26. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the day brings together thousands of Hawkeyes worldwide in support of the university. Thanks in part to funds raised during One Day for Iowa, the College of Nursing has been able to provide scholarships to our students, add a new degree program to aid in addressing the nursing shortage, and bring innovative educational opportunities to healthcare providers across Iowa.
This year, community support on One Day for Iowa will fund scholarships for graduate students who are part of our rigorous, 36-month anesthesia nursing program. These future Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are critical to the success of Iowa’s rural hospitals and the health of our rural communities. Our program is ranked No. 3 in the nation, and two-thirds of its 250+ graduates practice in Iowa.
Stay tuned for more information, including an exciting matching challenge, and we hope you will join us on March 26.
March 31
Planning to attend the MNRS Annual Research Conference?
Be sure to stop by the College of Nursing Dessert Reception!
Tuesday, March 31, 7 - 9 p.m.
St. Louis Union Station Hotel - Midway 6
St. Louis, MO
Alumni Updates
Have you started a new job, gone back to school, or earned an award? Did you have a baby, run a marathon, or write a screenplay? Do you just want to update your former classmates about where you are these days? We want to hear it all!