By Andrew Cohen

Michelle DeBose, Ph.D., MSN, MSEd, CNEcl, assistant professor in the Prairie View A&M University College of Nursing, has been selected to participate in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s 2022-2023 cohort of Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing Program. The ELAN fellowship is designed to further develop and enhance leadership skills in academic leaders in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs.

“AACN is the national voice for academic nursing,” said DeBose, who has worked at PVAMU for five years. “Their leadership fellowships are highly competitive, and I am humbled to have been provided with the opportunity to participate. It will be extremely valuable to assist me in honing my leadership skills related to the challenges being faced by nursing programs.”

DeBose’s research interests are in qualitative methods with a focus on breast cancer, health disparities, student success, transcultural nursing and women’s health. She has clinical nursing experience in the neonatal, pediatric and adult ICU for more than 20 years.

She has served on the faculty at several universities and held administrative positions as clinical coordinator, co-nursing administrator, campus dean and department chair, and has written and secured funding for numerous grants educating community women about breast health and health disparities.

DeBose also mentors undergraduate and graduate students and junior faculty and was recently nominated for the National League of Nursing Mary Adelaide Nutting Award for Outstanding Teaching/Leadership in Nursing Education.

The need for more opportunities for mentoring and developing faculty, as well as the need for transformative leadership has consumed DeBose since arriving at PVAMU. “Just as students need to be guided in their learning process, so do faculty,” she said. “They must be taught how to facilitate the learning process, how to map a curriculum to the new AACN essentials. Clinical faculty must be taught how to facilitate critical thinking, clinical reasoning and sound clinical judgment.”

Given this, an ELAN fellowship arrives at just the right time. DeBose noted the college has not had anyone serve as associate dean since her arrival at PVAMU. “I have always been interested in an associate dean role,” she said. “Associate deans are middle managers who enhance team development and execute the dean’s vision. Faculty must be empowered to be successful. The dean looks at the college’s big-picture from a university-wide perspective.”

“I believe becoming an ELAN fellow will provide me with the tools required to support our new dean as she navigates both the university and the college,” DeBose continued. “I aspire to be in a leadership role to assist the dean’s vision to grow the faculty, shape the next generation of students and build a research portfolio.”