Category Archives: news

Nursing Professor wins Book of the Year!

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The second edition of “Nurses Making Policy: From Bedside to Boardroom,” edited by Margarete Lieb Zalon, Ph.D., R.N., A.C.N.S.-B.C., F.A.A.N., professor of nursing and director of the University’s online master of science in health informatics program, Rebecca M. Patton, D.N.P., R.N., C.N.O.R., F.A.A.N., and Ruth Ludwick, Ph.D., R.N.-B.C., A.P.R.N.-C.N.S., F.A.A.N., won second place in the History and Public Policy category of the 2019 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards.

The American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards is an esteemed and prestigious competition in which the best in nursing publishing are chosen by a panel of judges who are experienced and well-established in the healthcare community. Awards are given for first, second, and third places across 20 categories. 2019 marked the 50th year of the awards.

The second edition of “Nurses Making Policy” explores the nurse’s integral role in facilitating health policy change and advocating for the patient, both in the hospital and in the larger political system. The editors have donated all their royalties from both editions of the book to the Washington Fellowship Fund at the American Nurses Foundation, which is the philanthropic entity of American Nurses Association. The Washington Fellowships Fund is focused on getting nurses a seat at the highest-policy making tables and maximizing nurses’ participation on Capitol Hill committees.

Dr. Zalon, who has been a member of Scranton’s faculty since 1988, was inducted as an American Academy of Nursing Fellow in 2010 in part for her positive influence on health care policy and delivery. Her leadership legacy includes grassroots advocacy, progressive program design, execution and outcomes in state and national nursing organizations focused on establishing practice and education policy, and building research funding capacity.

Dr. Zalon has authored book chapters, as well as articles published in numerous scholarly journals and other professional publications. She has also made research and health policy presentations at the local, state, national and international levels. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Zalon serves on the American Academy of Nursing’s Acute and Critical Care Expert Panel, and is the president of the Nursing Foundation of Pennsylvania. She is a past chair of the American Nurses Foundation, a former board member of the American Nurses Association, past vice-president of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and a past president of the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association.

Dr. Zalon is a recipient of the Duke University School of Nursing Distinguished Alumna Award, the PSNA Distinguished Nurse Award and a Leahy Fellowship at The University of Scranton. She also received the University’s Excellence in Graduate Teaching Faculty Senate Award in 2017.

Dr. Zalon received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her master’s and Ph.D. in nursing from New York University.

Nationally Recognized Accounting Programs and Faculty

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Two prestigious academic journals have ranked the Accounting Department of The University of Scranton in the top six in the nation for its scholarship in the areas of teaching/learning and applied practice. A 2019 edition of The Accounting Educators’ Journal and a 2019 online preprint (to be published in 2020) edition of Issues in Accounting Education published articles on the scholarship productivity of faculty in accounting programs across the nation.

The article in The Accounting Educators’ Journal titled, “Accounting Programs Ranked by Accounting-Education Publications: Controlling for Journal Quality, Authors’ Doctoral Time and the Number of Ph.D./DBA Faculty,” ranked accounting programs based on their faculty members’ publications in top accounting education journals. This article ranked Scranton’s Accounting Program No. 6 in the nation for article counts for 25 years standardized by each journal’s quality rating, the time since each author received their Ph.D. or D.B.A. and the number of accounting-education authors on faculty.

The article in Issues in Accounting Education titled, “The Intersection of Academia and Practice: Publishing in Leading U.S. Accounting Organizations’ Journals,” ranked accounting programs and faculty based on the number of publications in the leading five accounting practitioner journals. This article ranked Scranton No. 1 in the nation. The article, authored by faculty at Kennesaw State University and The University of Scranton, noted “two institutions (The University of Scranton, 25 articles; DePaul University, 20 articles) lead the group by a substantial margin.”

With respect to authorships of individual accounting faculty across the nation, four Scranton faculty members were recognized: Douglas Boyle, D.B.A., chair of the Accounting Department at Scranton, director of the University’s internationally recognized DBA program and the founder and director of the University’s Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program; James Boyle, D.B.A., assistant professor of accounting; Brian Carpenter, Ph.D., professor of accounting; and Daniel Mahoney, Ph.D., professor of accounting. The article noted, “Douglas Boyle at The University of Scranton is the overall leader with 19 articles, followed by Brian Carpenter, also at The University of Scranton with 13 articles. Other major contributors at the University of Scranton are Daniel Mahoney (11 articles) and James Boyle (seven articles). Overall, three of the top four authors are at The University of Scranton, and four of the top nine are University of Scranton faculty.” The article further identified Dr. Douglas Boyle and Dr. Carpenter as among only three authors in the nation for having a wide breath of publishing with articles in four of the five journals and among only seven authors in the nation for being ranked nationally for traditional all methods academic research, accounting education research, and practice research.

The University’s Kania School of Management, of which the Accounting Department is a part, is accredited by AACSB International, whose stated mission is “to foster engagement, accelerate innovation, and amplify impact in business education.” As part of its AACSB accreditation, the Kania School has identified teaching and learning scholarship and applied or integration/application scholarship (i.e., impact on practice) as high areas of emphasis for its AACSB accreditation Business Unit Research Activities, thus underscoring the significance of the two studies’ findings.

“Our accounting programs – bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral – have made incredible strides in recent years, and now both the quantity and quality of our scholarship are nationally recognized. I am proud to be part of this ever-growing landscape,” said Dr. Mahoney.

Articles by Drs. Douglas and James Boyle, Dr. Mahoney and Dr. Carpenter have received the Institute of Management Accountants’ Lybrand Medals for “outstanding papers.”

Sustaining our Efforts for Green Practices and Programs

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The Princeton Review recognized The University of Scranton, and just 412 other colleges in the world, for expressing “strong commitments to green practices and programs” by inclusion in the 2019 edition of “The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges.” Most of the schools selected for the guide, which was published online in October, are in the U.S., with just 16 schools from Canada, one from Egypt and one from Greece also listed. This is the third consecutive year that Scranton has made this list.

The Princeton Review analyzed more than 25 data points to determine the final selection of colleges for the guide based on information from surveys of nearly 700 schools. The criteria broadly covered the schools’ academic offerings and initiatives, campus policies and practices, and green-career preparation for students. The colleges making the list “are standouts for their exemplary commitments to sustainability,” according to Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief.

According to Franek, college applicants and their parents are increasingly concerned about the environment and sustainability issues. He cited a solid majority (64%) of the 11,900 teens and parents that The Princeton Review polled for its 2019 College Hopes and Worries Survey as saying that having information about a college’s commitment to the environment would affect their decision to apply to or attend the school

Scranton’s long-established sustainability efforts include academics, facilities and community education and outreach. Scranton has infused issues of sustainability in courses across the curriculum, ranging from theology, to business, to the natural sciences, to education, as well as other disciplines. Scranton uses numerous “green” procedures in building maintenance practices, as well as in building design and construction. Scranton currently has three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings: Leahy Hall, the Loyola Science Center and the DeNaples Center, which became the city’s first LEED certified structure in 2008. The University also conducts multiple community educational programs organized through its Office of Sustainability, which include a community garden, an Earth Day Essay Contest, an Earth Day Fair and an Evening of Environmental Science program for area children and families.

In addition, the Sustainability Office began a Work Study Program that engages work-study students in service-learning opportunities to help them grow in knowledge practical applications of sustainability concepts taught in their classes.

In addition to its “Guide to Green Colleges,” The Princeton Review has listed Scranton in its “Best Colleges” guidebooks for 18 consecutive years, also ranking Scranton in its 2020 edition among the nation’s “Best Science Lab Facilities” (No. 7), “Best Campus Food” (No. 10), and “Best-Run Colleges” (No. 20).