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The University of 51С�Ƴ� is proud to announce that Jennifer Morton, dean of the Westbrook College of Health Professions, has been selected to be a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (the Academy).

Morton, D.N.P., M.P.H., PHNA-BC, is one of 253 distinguished nurse leaders inducted into the Academy’s 2023 Class of Fellows. The 2023 fellows represent 13 countries, 40 states, and the District of Columbia.

The American Academy of Nursing is a policy organization and an honorific society that recognizes nursing's most accomplished leaders in policy, research, practice, administration, and academia to advance equitable solutions to the nation’s most complex health care challenges.

Academy fellows hold a wide variety of influential roles in health care and thus contribute their collective expertise to the Academy, engaging with health leaders nationally and globally to improve health and achieve health equity by impacting policy through nursing leadership, innovation, and science. fellows are selected based on their contributions and impact to advance the public’s health.

Morton is a board-certified advanced public health nurse whose research and scholarship interests lie in community-based care with vulnerable populations.

As health professions dean, Morton oversees nearly two dozen graduate and undergraduate academic programs focused on the allied health professions, guided by an interprofessional education model. Her teaching expertise is focused on pediatrics, evidence-based practice, nursing theory, public health, and community health nursing. In the clinic, she has worked with pediatric clients ranging from neonatal intensive care units to public schools, and she has worked in community-based settings both locally and abroad, including in Ghana.

Prior to her role as dean, Morton oversaw tremendous growth in UNE’s Nursing programs as director of the School of Nursing and Population Health with its 4-year traditional and accelerated (16-month) programs.  

Morton also demonstrates a successful extramural grant record, convening institutional, foundation, and federal awards totaling $4.9 million. This funding targets nursing/health professions education, training, and service focused on vulnerable populations in Maine. Additionally, she is a member of several national and international professional organizations, including the International Association of Forensic Nurses, the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators, and the American Public Health Association.

“I am humbled and honored to be selected as a fellow in the Academy for my work in public health nursing and health professions education,” Morton remarked. “I’ve been fortunate for opportunities that advance programming within the community and among nursing and other health professions students.”

Morton and the 2023 inductees will be recognized for their substantial, sustained, and significant contributions to health and health care at the Academy’s annual , taking place on October 5-7, 2023, in Washington, D.C.