Dr. Kathleen O\u2019Connor, who has been on the nursing faculty at Missouri Western State University since 1980, has been named dean of the university\u2019s College of Professional Studies. She will begin her duties July 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cKathleen has been a valued member of the Missouri Western campus for a long time, and I’m pleased that she’s agreed to take this leadership role,\u201d said Dr. Jeanne Daffron, provost and vice president for academic and student affairs.<\/p>\n
Dr. O\u2019Connor began as an instructor at Missouri Western in 1980. She became an assistant professor in 1987, then an associate professor and chairperson of the department of nursing in 1998. As chairperson, Dr. O\u2019Connor led the development of Missouri Western\u2019s Master of Science in Nursing: Health Care Leadership program. She also helped create a partnership with Metropolitan Community College for an RN-to-BSN program at MCC\u2019s Penn Valley campus. She is a past recipient of the Missouri Western State University Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award and the university\u2019s Jesse Lee Myers Excellence in Teaching Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored that Dr. Daffron has confidence in my ability to serve as Dean of the College of Professional Studies,\u201d Dr. O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI have served on the council of chairpersons of Professional Studies for 14 years and look forward to leading and advocating for the excellent chairs and faculty in this college.\u201d<\/p>\n
The College of Professional Studies includes the departments of criminal justice, legal studies and social work; education; engineering technology; health, physical education and recreation; military science; and nursing and allied health.<\/p>\n
Dr. O\u2019Connor is a Registered Nurse in Missouri, and has worked primarily in critical care at the University of Missouri Medical Center, St. Joseph Hospital and Heartland Health System. She is currently chairperson of the Missouri Association of Colleges of Nursing and is a past president of the Collegiate Nurse Educators of Greater Kansas City. She is also a member of the American Nurses Association, Missouri Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nurses, and American Organization of Nurse Executives.<\/p>\n
Missouri Western State University is a comprehensive regional university providing a blend of traditional liberal arts and professional degree programs. The university offers student-centered, high quality instruction that focuses on experience-based learning, community service, and state-of-the-art technology. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit www.missouriwestern.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Kathleen O\u2019Connor, who has been on the nursing faculty at Missouri Western State University since 1980, has been named dean of the university\u2019s College of Professional Studies. She will begin her duties July 1. \u201cKathleen has been a valued member of the Missouri Western campus for a long time, and I’m pleased that she’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[232,275,337,585],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8459,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions\/8459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}