Dean’s Message

This fall, while hosting more than 100 UIC pre-nursing students for an open house at our building in Chicago, I reflected on how much has changed for the better since spring 2020.

Those were days of relatively empty hallways, classrooms and labs, and now our campuses are buzzing once again, filled with the energy and enthusiasm of future and current nurse leaders (still using sensible precautions).

I completed my first full year as dean in September. Since the start, I’ve been putting in place my “dream team” (see p. 18) of associate and assistant deans to help guide the research, practice and educational missions of the college. They bring a remarkable breadth and depth of experiences, passions and ideas to their respective jobs. I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that, together, they are the most diverse team ever to lead UIC Nursing, a fact that aligns with our vision of transforming health and health care by creating a pipeline of future nurse leaders with diverse backgrounds. For so many of our students who come from minority backgrounds (as you’ll read about on p. 14), my hope is that they will see themselves reflected in this team.

Another enormous highlight of the past year was the conclusion of IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC. Thanks to the participation of hundreds of generous donors, we surpassed our $33 million goal (see p. 28). I want to thank Dean Emerita Terri Weaver and Steven George, our former assistant dean for advancement who has since been promoted to university-level leadership as assistant vice chancellor for advancement. Terri and Steve steered us through seven of the campaign’s eight years, and our strong finish owes an enormous debt to their vision and leadership.

All in all, it’s been a fabulous year for the UIC Nursing community, and I am excited to tell you about much of it in the pages of this issue of Vital Signs.

On that note, it’s worth mentioning that, with this issue, we celebrate 30 years of Vital Signs magazine. It debuted in fall 1992, and collectively, the issues make up a sort of journal kept by the college, chronicling many of the people, initiatives and events that gave shape to all that we are today. Though much has changed over 30 years, including an evolving sense of what it means to bring more health equity to our communities, our commitment to driving discovery through research and preparing the best nurses, nurse scientists and nursing educators, has been essential to UIC Nursing all along.

Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, Professor and Dean UIC College of Nursing