I am very pleased to announce three new appointments to DUSON’s faculty. I want to thank the members of the search committee for bringing these applicants to DUSON for interviews and successful recruitment!

Emily Funk, DNP, CRNA, joins us on April 1, 2020. She will have teaching responsibilities within our Nurse Anesthesia Program and will be a member of the Clinical Health Systems & Analytics Division.

Dr. Funk graduated magna cum laude from The Ohio State University with her BSN and earned her MSN in Nurse Anesthesia and DNP at Duke University. Her capstone project, “Structured Handover in the Pediatric PACU,” won the 2017 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses Mary Hanna Memorial Journalism Award.

Dr. Funk is a staff Nurse Anesthetist at Duke University Medical Center and is the CRNA Pediatric Clinical Lead and a CRNA Charge Nurse. As Clinical Associate with DUSON, she has contributed to our nurse anesthesia program by providing workshops and lectures in pharmacology, pathophysiology, and anesthesia principles and has served as a member of several DNP student projects. 

Dr. Funk’s professional interests are focused in pediatric anesthesia, education, quality improvement, and global health, including missions to Haiti, Philippines and Uganda.

Stephanie A. Gedzyk-Nieman, DNP, MSN, RNC-MNN joins us on July 1, 2020. Her teaching responsibilities will be within our ABSN program and she will be a member of the Healthcare of Women, Children and Families Division. 

Dr. Gedzyk-Nieman earned her DNP and MSN (Nursing Education) from Lewis University and her BSN from the University of Iowa. She also holds a specialty certification in Maternal-Newborn Nursing and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Healthcare Ally designation from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Gedzyk-Nieman is currently on the faculty of Lewis University’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CONHS), where she has taught theory and clinical for the Childbearing Families course, Professional Development, Role Transition, and Evidence Based Practice to baccalaureate and accelerated baccalaureate students for more than 15 years. She also serves as a preceptor for students in the Chicago area pursuing an MSN in Nursing Education. In addition to her teaching, Dr. Gedzyk-Nieman has served on a variety of committees at both the CONHS and the University level at Lewis University.  

Dr. Gedzyk-Nieman’s scholarly work is focused on gender diversity in the nursing profession and nursing self-care, and she has published and presented widely on these topics. Her work on attitudes of acceptance of male nurses among female nurses was also a finalist for the 2018 Excellence in Educational Research Award at Sigma’s International Nursing Congress in Sydney, Australia. She is also an active member of the American Association for Men in Nursing Foundation Board and led Lewis University’s CONHS AAMN Center of Excellence application. 

Maryellen Kelly, DNP, CPNP will also join us on July 1, 2020 as an Assistant Professor on Track III and will be a member of the Healthcare of Women and Children Division. 

Dr. Kelly has been a pediatric nurse practitioner in pediatric urology for 9 years. Her clinical practice focuses on voiding dysfunction, neurogenic bladder and bowel secondary to spina bifida, hydronephrosis and vesicoureteral reflux, and for the past 3 years she’s been a clinical associate with DUSON in both the ABSN and MSN programs. 

Dr. Kelly is currently a NIH K12 scholar for her research into bladder dysfunction in children with diabetes, and she recently completed the first multi-center cross-sectional survey of children identifying the true prevalence of bladder dysfunction in children with diabetes. She is also working within Duke’s Urinary Dysfunction Lab for potential biomarkers of bladder dysfunction in diabetics.  She’s presented at over 40 national and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Kelly received her BSN and MSN from Columbia University and her DNP from the University of Pittsburgh.  She is currently enrolled in Duke’s Clinical Research Training Program which will cumulate in a Masters in Health Science Clinical Research this spring.

We look forward to welcoming Emily, Stephanie and Maryellen to DUSON in the upcoming weeks and months. 

Additionally, two recent appointments and promotions have been approved by the Board of Trustees:

Malinda Teague has been appointed assistant clinical professor in the School of Nursing, effective December 1, 2019.

Eleanor Stevenson, associate clinical professor in the School of Nursing, has been promoted to clinical professor in the School of Nursing, effective December 1, 2019 through June 30, 2025