Faculty Directory
Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (MNSON) faculty members are experienced, recognized leaders in their fields who integrate research and practical experiences. MNSON faculty are clinically experienced and passionate about teaching - prioritizing personal connection and interaction with their students. Faculty members challenge students intellectually and guide them with compassion, creating a community of learning, research, and practice that values service, ethics, and providing top-notch health care.
Lorna Finnegan, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN
Title/s: Dean and Professor
Specialty Area: Primary care, health equity, community and public health
Office #: Health Sciences Campus, Room 125-4509; Lake Shore Campus, BVM Room 1001
Phone: 708.216.5448
Email: lornaf@luc.edu
CV Link: Lorna Finnegan CV 2024
About
Lorna Finnegan, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN joined Loyola University Chicago in 2019 as Professor and Dean of the Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Dr. Finnegan has many years of academic research, teaching, clinical practice, and leadership experience. Prior to coming to Loyola, she served in leadership positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing as Executive Associate Dean and Department Head. Early in her career, she was Founding Director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Most recently, as President of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties, the leading organization devoted to quality nurse practitioner education, she led national efforts to transition nurse practitioner programs to the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. Dr. Finnegan received her BSN, MS, and PhD degrees from UIC.
Through her scholarship, practice, and leadership, Dr. Finnegan has integrated big data analytics, strategic academic-practice partnerships, creative pedagogies, and policy-changing leadership strategies to increase access to primary care and improve health equity in vulnerable and underserved populations within the context of their lives. She has received NIH R01 funding for her symptom cluster research in adults with multiple chronic illnesses and awards for teaching, research, and leadership. She has been a visiting scholar at universities in Thailand, South Africa, and South Korea. Dr. Finnegan is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, and she recently completed the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Wharton Executive Leadership Fellowship and the AACN Advancing Academic Leadership for New Deans program.
Research Interests
Dr. Finnegan is committed to the Future of Nursing 2020-2030 goal of achieving health equity in the US built on strengthening nursing capacity and expertise. She has launched an Inclusive Excellence model in the School of Nursing that reflects the understanding that excellence cannot be achieved without diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. She is currently leading the development of a CARE (Collaboration, Access, Resources, and Equity) Pathway to the BSN. With a $2.2 million, four-year Nursing Workforce Development grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and a grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the CARE Pathway will support recruitment, retention, and success of Black and Latinx students for the 4-year BSN program through holistic admissions and a student success center that will address social determinants of education and other structural factors that impede their academic and career success.