Professor and Executive Vice Dean Marie Nolan, Ph.D., MPH, RN, FAAN, has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JHSON). She will begin the position on April 16 following the departure of Dean Patricia Davidson, Ph.D., MEd, RN, FAAN, who has accepted a position as vice-chancellor of the University of Wollongong in Australia.
“I am so grateful for Dr. Nolan’s enthusiasm about this opportunity and for the ways in which she will continue to lead our school in success,” says Davidson. “Dr. Nolan is an impressive nurse, researcher, and educator with a deep passion and commitment to the school, university, and health system here at Johns Hopkins.”
Within JHSON, Nolan has served as professor, executive vice dean, director of the Ph.D. program, associate dean for Academic Affairs, and chair of the Department of Acute and Chronic Care. She was director of the first nursing doctoral program in China to graduate nurses with a Ph.D. through JHSON’s collaboration with the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing funded by the China Medical Board.
As a researcher, Nolan is internationally known for her work in helping patients and families make decisions in the face of critical illness. Her pioneering end-of-life research has revealed that instead of the autonomous decision-making model prevalent in clinical practice and healthcare policy, most critically ill patients prefer shared decision-making with their family and physician.
Dr. Nolan holds a joint faculty appointment in the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. She has served on advisory panels of the National Institutes of Health regarding end-of-life care research and as president of the International Network for Doctoral Education in Nursing. She is a recipient of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Excellence Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the 2019 Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association.
“It is a great honor and privilege to lead the school during this transition,” says Nolan. “The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is an exceptional place, and I look forward to taking this new part in our continued leadership and excellence.”
