DUSON Faculty & Staff Leadership Spotlight highlights the diverse leadership background of our nursing faculty and staff. In this spotlight, leadership isn't focused on a "title." However, it is the act of motivating people to do more than they ever thought possible in pursuit of a greater good.

DUSON shines a light on Professor and Director for the Institute for Educational Excellence and Chair of the Clinical Health Systems & Analytics Division Terry Valiga who's been with DUSON for eight years.

Q: What would people be surprised to know about you?

A: People would be surprised that I've been married for 45 years and have had a "commuter marriage" for 33 of those years. Maybe that's how we've stayed married so long ... we never see each other!

Q: What is a cause you're passionate about?

A: I'm passionate about excellence in nursing education, advancing the science of nursing education, expecting all faculty to be formally prepared as educators, not just be clinicians who happen to be in a teaching role, ensuring that words like "leadership" and "mentoring" and "excellence" have real meaning and do not become "household words" that get applied to everything we do.

Q: Tell us about a leadership role you hold with a project, service group or organization that you are involved with outside of DUSON.

A: I am part of a team that is attempting to develop a National Nursing Education Research Network. This is a "grass roots"  effort that is not funded by any school, organization or foundation but is moving forward because those involved are passionate about developing the science of nursing education, enhancing the quality and rigor of pedagogical research, and sharing data with one another.

Q: Why was it important for you to be involved with this organization and carry the responsibility of this role?

A: This is ground-breaking work in nursing education, and there are only 5 of us on the leadership team, one of whom is an expert researcher but not a nurse educator. Being involved gives me the opportunity to be part of shaping new practices related to doing research that will help the nursing education community know more about individual faculty and students, curricula, and academic program outcomes.