Martha Scheckel, PhD, RN, CNE

Martha M. Scheckel, PhD, RN, CNE, Vice Dean, is internationally and nationally recognized for her transformative research and leadership advancing the science of nursing education. She was invited to serve on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Task Force to revise the Essentials series, resulting in The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. She was elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the National League for Nursing. She completed the foundational literature review for Nurse Educator Competencies: Creating an Evidence-Based Practice for Nurse Educators (2005) and, through invitation, contributed to NLN Core Competencies for Nurse Educators: A Decade of Influence. Dr. Scheckel has served as Chief Nursing Administrator at two universities: Founding Director of Nursing and Professor at the University of St. Thomas, Morrison Family College of Health, Susan S. Morrison School of Nursing in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dean and Professor at Viterbo University, College of Nursing, Health and Human Behavior in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her experience in leadership at two Catholic universities and her commitment to nursing education grounded in faith with respect for the dignity of the human person guides her current leadership appointment at The Catholic University of America Conway School of Nursing, where in collaboration with faculty leaders, she oversees academic programs from the baccalaureate to doctoral levels. Building on this commitment to preparing the next generation of nurse educators, she founded the Center for Future Faculty, an innovative regional partnership among four universities created to expand access to nurse educator preparation, strengthen pathways into academic nursing, and address the national nurse faculty shortage through competency-based faculty development. 

Dr. Scheckel has nearly 20 years of academic nursing experience. In addition to her national leadership, she has held various state leadership positions that advance nursing education and expand opportunities for students and faculty to access high-quality educational preparation. Her research in nursing education serves as a guide to curriculum reform. For example, her qualitative research examining how nursing students experience the assessment of suicidal ideation revealed how students can be guided to assess the whole patient in every encounter. Dr. Scheckel is an author of seminal texts in nursing education, including Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty, published by Elsevier, which has been widely disseminated and translated into Japanese. Her research program has also focused on improving patient education and expanding access to healthcare for underserved populations, particularly individuals living in rural communities with limited healthcare resources. Her study of the patient education experiences of rural community-dwelling persons following the transition from cardiac surgery to recovery at home revealed the many challenges this population faces and underscored the critical need to design health education approaches that improve equitable access to care and support positive health outcomes. She has served as senior personnel on Health Resources and Services Administration-funded nursing and behavioral rural health workforce development grants and has received local, regional, state, and national funding for studies in nursing and patient education. Throughout her career, her scholarship and leadership have reflected a deep commitment to expanding access to educational opportunities and healthcare services for individuals and communities that have historically faced barriers to both. Dr. Scheckel is a sought-after curriculum consultant and has delivered presentations on nursing and patient education at national and international nursing conferences.