Press Release

September 29, 2006
Contact: Kaylyn Dines
(973) 972-3000
or Lynn McFarlane
(973) 972-8539

UMDNJ Educator to be Inducted into Prestigious National Nursing Academy

NEWARK — Dr. Gloria McNeal, a nationally recognized administrator and nurse educator at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has been selected to participate as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Throughout the nursing profession, the FAAN designation is known as the highest honor bestowed upon nurse leaders in education, management, practice and research. A Burlington Township resident, McNeal will be one of 54 nurse leaders nationwide to be formally inducted as a 2006 fellow at a ceremony to be held Nov. 11 in Miami.

The American Academy of Nursing was formed to advance health policy through research and dissemination of nursing knowledge. The Academy is comprised of 1,500 nurse leaders who have been identified by their peers as the highest achievers in the nursing discipline. Fellowship in the academy provides opportunities for members to collaborate on initiatives that address critical healthcare issues.

Since 2003, Dr. Gloria J. McNeal has served as an associate professor and assistant dean of the UMDNJ-School of Nursing. In this capacity, she has secured $1.25 million in grants to support nursing education programs and a mobile healthcare project for medically underserved populations. During her career, she has secured more than $3 million in extramural grant awards.

She received a bachelor of science in nursing from Villanova University College of Nursing, a master of science in nursing from University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and a doctor of philosophy degree from University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Wayne State University in Detroit. She is the author of 85 articles, books, book chapters and abstracts, including two major texts on the use of telehealth technologies in the homecare setting.

She is a board member of several professional organizations including the Association of Black Nursing Faculty in Higher Education. McNeal currently serves on the editorial boards of two national nursing publications and is the editor of Visions Online, The E-Journal of Pennsylvania League for Nursing.

McNeal has received more than 25 teaching excellence awards from state, local and national organization and institutions including the 2005 Diva and Don Award from the New Jersey Institute for Nursing and the 2006 C.A.R.E.S. Award for Educational Excellence from the New Jersey State Nursing Association. In 2005, she was inducted into The Stuart D. Cook, M.D., Master Educators Guild at UMDNJ.

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.