The UAB School of Nursing has been known for many years for its capacity to educate leaders, having its leadership and administration pathways in the graduate program highly ranked for more than a decade.
While leadership development outside of educational pathways often happens informally, the School is mobilizing its experts to formally invest in its people at a different level. Leadership sets the tone for change and the goal of the Leadership Initiative is to develop leaders at all levels who know how to monitor the environment and connect the dots for where the future is going, thus positioning their organizations in a strategic direction for meaningful transformational change.
The UAB School of Nursing recognizes that everyone should be equipped with leadership abilities enabling them to advocate, set their own direction and make their work matter, leaving a place better for those who follow.
Those leading the Leadership Initiative will educate but also role model and share knowledge with others, creating opportunities, facilitating resources and putting people forward in a supported and mentored way. A fundamental premise of the initiative is that all nurses are leaders independent of whether or not they have a formal leadership title.
This initiative will equip UAB School of Nursing faculty, students and community nurses to become multipliers and broaden the UAB School of Nursing’s influence.
Leadership
Director, Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing
Maria Shirey
PhD, MBA, RN, NEA‐BC, ANEF, FACHE, FNAP, FAAN
Prior to becoming Dean June 1, 2022, Shirey was the School’s Associate Dean for Clinical and Global Partnerships and inaugural holder of the Jane H. Brock—Florence Nightingale Endowed Professorship in Nursing. She also previously chaired the Department of Acute, Chronic and Continuing Care. Shirey, who is board certified in advanced nursing executive practice and health care management, is an internationally recognized nurse scholar in leadership science and health services outcomes research, as well as an expert in sustainable interprofessional collaborative practice models advancing access to care for urban and rural vulnerable populations with chronic diseases. She was recognized in 2019 for her career contributions to advancing leadership and health systems science with the American Organization for Nursing Leadership Nurse Researcher Award. Her collaborative leadership work also has been recognized. In 2018, the UAB Nursing Partnership, between the School and UAB Health System, received the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s New Era for Academic Nursing Award and in 2020 two of the interprofessional collaborative practices with UAB Medicine received the Creativity in Practice and Education Award from the National Academies of Practice.