Dear College of Nursing Community,
It is my pleasure to be writing to you from our brand-new building, David A. Straz, Jr., Hall. This facility was years in the making, and it would not have happened without your support. Thousands of Marquette Nurses will be better prepared for practice because of it.
I encourage our alumni to come back for a tour. You’ll see a place bustling with student activity, one where students are in the building from sunrise to well past sunset. You will see state-of-the-art simulation labs, expanded study areas and flexible classroom spaces. Moreover, you’ll notice all the features designed to make Straz Hall welcoming for all, things like respite rooms, lockers and a kitchenette in a large student commons. In short, you will see the future of nursing when you come here.
Straz Hall’s construction is just one of the ways the College of Nursing is being proactive about the future. Community-engaged research is another. We believe that the best, most impactful scholarship is done in partnership with the people it impacts. Dr. Kristin Haglund and Dr. Abiola Keller provided a sterling example of this with their public health survey of the Near West Side neighborhoods in Milwaukee, the results of which influenced a transformative multi-use development project called Concordia 27. Marquette Nurses believe that health is far more expansive than just medical care, and this study is proof of why that mindset matters.
All our work in the college is made possible by outstanding external partnerships, including and especially our preceptors. They are essential to the formation of the Marquette Nurse. In this newsletter, you’ll read about Marquette alumni that advance the profession by passing their skills and values to the next generation of nurses. You can also learn more about how to become a preceptor if you’d like to do the same. We would not have Marquette Nurses without preceptors; they deserve our sincere gratitude.
This has already been a very special year, and there’s still so much to come. I am looking forward to the great things we can accomplish from here.
Sincerely,
Jill Guttormson
Dean of the College of Nursing
