Gloria J. McNeal, PhD, ACNS-BC, APN,C, FAAN

Founding Dean, School of Nursing

Dr. Gloria J. McNeal graduated from Villanova University College of Nursing with a baccalaureate degree, and then earned her graduate degree in nursing and doctor of philosophy degree in higher education administration at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing and Graduate School of Education, respectively. Her dissertation, which researched the scholarly productivity of African American women nurse faculty in the United States, was awarded with meritorious distinction.  A well recognized academician, she has served as a member of the faculty for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level nursing programs.  Her academic positions have included faculty appointments at several universities: the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Edison State College, Rutgers University, Unversity of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ (UMDNJ), and Community College of Philadelphia. Attesting to her recognition as an expert in critical care nursing, at Jefferson, Rutgers and UMDNJ, she was responsible for the design and implementation of the graduate level acute/critical care/trauma nursing curricula. 

In 2003, she was initially appointed associate professor and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at UMDNJ School of Nursing, overseeing the implementation of a more efficient admission process that facilitated a nearly three-fold increase in student enrollment from 460 to 1100 students.  After serving three years as assistant dean, she was promoted to full professor and appointed Associate Dean for Community and Clinical Affairs.  In this role she serves as the Director of Faculty Practice, monitoring practice scholarship; and, as the Director of the New Jersey Children’s Health Project, engaging the community in the implementation of a community-based, interdisciplinary nurse managed primary care center on wheels, serving as a practice site for both nursing and medical students and faculty, and providing primary care services for over 3400 patient encounters in the cities of Newark, Irvington and Elizabeth.  Over the course of her tenure at UMDNJ, she successfully acquired more than $4.4 million in intra and extramural grant awards to establish traineeships, a Center for Academic Support Services, and the mobile healthcare project.   

Highly regarded for her contributions to nursing and the community at-large, she is the recipient of state congressional citations and proclamations, and the subject of numerous press releases and lay news articles.  She is a nationally recognized nursing health professional with a substantial record of federal and foundation funding, and noted accomplishments as an educator, clinician, administrator, consultant and researcher.  Over the course of her professional career she has been awarded nearly $7 million in extramural grant funding; and, with her latest grant award, she will have been consistently named the PI on seven HRSA grants, spanning more than a decade, from academic years 2000 to 2012.  A prolific author, her more than 100 published works have earned citations in a significant number of national and international publications.  Her scholarly writings have appeared in: Nursing Clinics of North America; Critical Care Nurse; AJN; Journal of Cultural Diversity; Image, the Journal of Nursing Scholarship; The ABNF Journal; N&HC:Perspectives on Community; Nursing Economic$; Reflections; Focus in Critical Care; and, Computers in Nursing. For over 30 years her research work has investigated the clinical application of  telecommunication technologies and telehealth monitoring in the home environment.  Her expertise in this emerging field was recognized by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), which sponsored the publication of her book, the AACN Guide to Acute Care Procedures in the Home; and, by the W.B. Saunders Publishing Company, which invited her to serve as Guest Editor for an issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.  Developing the protocols of care, she led in the transitioning of critical care nursing practice beyond the traditional walls of the ICU, and was among the first to publish work on the remote monitoring and electronic transmission of ambulatory electrocardiographic data captured in the home setting.  Her work in the design and implementation of nurse-managed mobile healthcare delivery systems was recently presented in testimony before the RWJF/Institute of Medicine Initiative on The Future of Nursing.      

Dr. McNeal has served at the national level on committees of numerous associations including the American Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, American Association of Critical Care Nurses, American Academy of Nursing, and the Association of Black Nursing Faculty.  She is Editor of TheABNF Journal, an Associate Editor of the Core Curriculum on Transcultural Nursing and Health Care, and a member of the International Academy of Nurse Editors.  Her military service includes an appointment as a Navy Nurse Corps Officer, earning three promotions from Ensign to the rank of Full Lieutenant, and the National Defense Service Medal and Meritorious Unit Commendation citations. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships conferred by prestigious academies and foundations.  At UMDNJ, she was named a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award by the University’s Foundation, appointed a Master Educator and elected to the Master Educator’s Guild, UMDNJ’s highest honor.   In 2005, she was honored as a recipient of the Don and Diva Award by the New Jersey Institute for Nursing, and named a Fellow of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Academic Leadership Program.  In 2006, she was named a recipient of the CARE Award for Excellence in Education by the New Jersey State Nurses Association,  and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the highest honor bestowed by the discipline. In 2007, she received the New Jersey Governor’s Nursing Merit Award; and, was named a RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow, joining the tenth cohort of highly regarded national nursing leaders to address the most critical healthcare needs impacting the nation. In 2008, she was named Chair of a RWJF Technical Advisory Group for the New Jersey Nursing Initiative and charged to design methodologies that will address the critical shortage of nurse faculty statewide, which is to serve as a model for the nation.  Most recently, she was awarded the 2009 Johnella Banks Member Achievement Award by the Association of Black Nursing Faculty, Lester Z. Lieberman Leadership Award for Humanism in Healthcare by the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, and the Nurse Recognition Award by the New Jersey League for Nursing.