Pulse - Summer 2011

              Table of Contents
SON Dean Novotny to Step Down..............1
Nursing and Judaic Studies Forge
Partnership...............................................2
Board of Advisors Events..........................2
SON launches DNP Anesthesia Track........3
Dinner for Second Degree students..........3
A National Conversation about Advanced
Practice Nursing.......................................4
New Board and Faculty Members.............4
Improv Troupe Makes it Real for Nursing
Students...................................................5
Commencement........................................6
Molloy Fellowship.....................................7
Nursing Faculty Honored..........................7
Message from the Dean............................8
Pulse The
www.fairfield.edu/nursing
Summer 2011
SON Dean Novotny to Step Down
D r. Jeanne Novotny, dean of the
School of Nursing, remembers
the conversation she had with
then-president Aloysius Kelley, S.J., the
day he hired her in 2001.
“You have three years to turn the
School around,” he told her. “If you
can’t, I’m going to close it.”
“Father,” she remembers replying,
“I’ll give you 1000 percent, and if I can’t
do it, I’ll help you close it.”
Adds current President Jeffrey von
Arx, S.J., “Not only did she fix it, but she
did so spectacularly, it is now one of the
strongest nursing programs in the country.
The renaissance of the school and its
present strength is due to Dean Novotny
and the talented team of faculty and
administrators she gathered around her.
“I knew it would be a big challenge, but
I also thought that I didn’t want to be an
old woman looking back and wondering
if I should have taken the risk,” said Dr.
Novotny, who has announced plans to
step down at the end of this month.
Fortunately for Fairfield, closing the
School is the last thing anyone wants
to do these days. Then, total School
enrollment hovered about 120, accredita-tion
was still needed, and the level of
scholarship was not where it should have
been. Ten years later, with the School
bursting at nearly 700 students, accredita-tion
accomplished with flying colors, a
strategic focus on care of the older adult,
and national recognition, the School of
Nursing is one of the University’s major
success stories. Under Dr. Novotny’s
leadership, the Clinical Nurse Leader,
Nurse Anesthesia, and Doctor of Nursing
Practice graduate programs were all initi-ated.
This spring, she was honored at the
Fairfield Awards Dinner. SON Advisory
Board members Craig Haba ’91 and
Claudia Schechter served on the dinner
committee.
Next year, the School will be in the
very capable hands of Associate Dean
Suzanne Campbell, Ph.D., an esteemed
faculty member and scholar, who has
agreed to act as interim dean while the
University continues its nationwide search
for a new dean.
Fairfield University
a publication of the school of nursing
Dr. Novotny with University President
Jeffrey von Arx, S.J. at the Fairfield Awards
Dinner, where she was honored with the
Distinguished Faculty Award.