Dean's Message

For many years, I worked at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, and what I loved about it was its mission to serve every veteran equally. It doesn’t matter whether you are a CEO or living on the streets; whether you have health insurance or not. If you’re a U.S. veteran, you receive the same standard of care.

This is also what I love about UIC. Students from all income levels and life circumstances get opportunities here at a scale and scope that far exceeds what most universities offer. Individuals from vastly different backgrounds— whose paths might never have crossed otherwise—befriend each other, learn from each other and grow professionally together. And as soon as any student, faculty or staff member joins our college, the commitment we make to health equity, in our research as well as in the way we teach and practice patient care, is at the forefront.

The specialness of this place was on public display during the past nearly two years. In the battle against COVID-19, we did what nurses do best. We jumped in. In the pre-vaccine days of the pandemic, our faculty and students stepped up by the dozens to coordinate triage phone lines, take shifts at the hospital, screen frontline workers, perform testing in vulnerable communities and more.

When the vaccine became available, roughly 1,000 volunteers from UIC’s health professions colleges stepped up to administer vaccinations, and nearly half of them came from the UIC Nursing community.

I was delighted, but not surprised, when we were recognized by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing with a New Era Award for our collaboration with UI Health to fi ght the spread of the virus (p. 3).

Truly, based on all I know about our students, faculty and staff after 20 years on faculty, I have innumerable reasons to feel so proud to lead this college.

What I’m most looking forward to now, as dean, is the opportunity to meet more of our wonderful alumni and friends—to learn about the myriad ways they are making us proud as the living evidence of the excellence we strive to achieve every day.

Equally, I’m eager to demonstrate to all of you my commitment to be a good steward of this college, building on the legacy of the extraordinary deans who preceded me. I intend to lead us into the future with a continued emphasis on our tripartite mission: to educate top-tier nurses, nurse practitioners and nurse scientists; to discover new knowledge that moves healthcare forward; and to deliver the highest quality care to communities that need it most.

Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF Professor and Dean