SOUTHEAST EMPLOYS NEW CHAIRPERSON FOR NURSING

Catherine Taylor Foster, senior staff specialist in the American Nurses' Association Center for Nursing Practice in Kansas City, has been named the new chairperson of the Southeast Missouri State University nursing department.

"I am looking forward to joining the faculty and staff and meeting the students," she said. "I hope I will be able to make a contribution as they work toward their goals."

Foster said she brings 32 years of nursing experience to the job.

Foster, who will begin her duties later this summer, is also a colonel in the Army Nurse Corps, U.S. Army Reserve, and is the chief nurse of the 325th General Hospital in Independence. She is also a graduate of the resident course at the U.S. Army War College.

A Madison, Wis., native, Foster will replace Helen Miner, who has served as acting chairperson during the past school year. Miner will return to teaching full time.

Miner said Foster "has a very good administrative background and has very strong professional ties. Her position with the American Nurses' Association is significant."

In addition, Foster is a member of the consulting faculty in the directorate of graduate degree programs for the Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She is also a member of the affiliated graduate faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and has served as associate professor and associate dean for faculty affairs at the University of San Francisco. She also has served as assistant professor at the University of New York at Stony Brook.

Miner said Foster will help students in broadening their understanding of the nursing profession beyond the local area, and also will help the department in developing a master's degree program. As part of her duties, Foster will also teach a nursing research class this fall.

"I feel that there is a great opportunity for Southeast Missouri State University, particularly because it's in a rural area," Foster said, speaking of the university's nursing department.

"There are many opportunities to reach out to communities in the area, to assist them to determine their health care needs and to provide the registered nurses to deliver that care," she said.

Foster holds a doctoral degree in rehabilitation nursing from New York University, and a master's degree in medical-surgical nursing and a bachelor's degree in nursing, both from Marquette University in Milwaukee.

She also earned a master's degree in public administration from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.