After conducting a nationwide search for the next chair of the School of Nursing, NIU’s College of Health and Human Sciences found they already had what they were looking for.

Brigid Lusk recently was appointed the position after serving as interim chair for the last two years.

“I’m thrilled and honored,” said Lusk, who got her master’s degree here at NIU and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lusk believes naming an official chair will make organizing future plans more permanent, as well as allow for easier decision making processes for faculty.

“It’s important for the staff to have a recognizable figure that they know will be around for a while,” Lusk said.

One of Lusk’s goals is to create and staff an accelerated nursing program that students who have already graduated could come back to and take part in. The program would take place over a year or 18 months, and would allow students who never studied nursing when originally in college the opportunity to become registered nurses.

“This would help to address the nursing shortage with rapidly prepared nurses,” she said.

Another problem Lusk hopes to address is the recruitment of students into the school.

“The problem isn’t the numbers,” Lusk said. “We had over 1,000 applicants the past year, of which 220 were qualified.”

The problem was the school could only accept 70 of them because of the lack of staff and resources. Since she’s been the interim chair, however, the number has increased from 60 to 70.

Lusk also is working with other nurse leaders in the Illinois Council on Nursing Resources to support Gov. Blagojevich’s plan to initiate a centralized nursing information center in Illinois. NIU also recently announced a new partnership with Harper College in trying to provide bachelor’s degrees in nursing. “We have some great faculty here, and we’re in the process of hiring one or two more. We also have great students,” Lusk said. “This is an exciting time to take the leadership in the School of Nursing.”