CAMPUS Closeup: Jane Campbell
Jane Campbell (Nursing) is one of only eight professors nationwide chosen to attend the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Faculty Policy Intensive (FPI). The four-day immersion program will be held in March in Washington, D.C. The highly competitive selection process draws hundreds of applicants each year. Campbell will advance her expertise in healthcare policy and incorporate the experience into her related NMU courses. She is one of the lead faculty members in the university’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program.
“I was ecstatic to find out I was selected,” Campbell said. “I have some background on Michigan health policy and advocacy, but there is much more to learn. Opportunities to network with legislators are limited in the rural Upper Peninsula unless they happen to visit Marquette and I meet with them as the School of Nursing liaison. Attending the FPI will expand and strengthen my knowledge of legislative processes. It will allow me to provide our graduate students with a relevant, progressive perspective of health policy in the hope that they can become politically active leaders in their nursing careers.”
Before the FPI, Campbell will join fellow educators in San Diego later this month for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative. The timely focus is on integrating health policy into doctoral nursing programs. After she completes both programs, she plans to incorporate assignments that can directly impact the local area. These may include health access for veterans, diversity in nursing and nursing workforce development programs that fall under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Campbell is approaching three decades on the NMU faculty. An Upper Peninsula native, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Northern, then spent 11 years as a certified operating nurse at then-Marquette General Hospital. She said her most fulfilling accomplishment at MGH was helping Dr. Alan Hunter establish the open heart surgery program in the 1970s.
“I interacted regularly with Mary Ellen Powers, the former director of nursing, because NMU students followed me in the operating room. She courted me to join the faculty and I completed my master’s degree from Northern and later my doctorate through Oakland University. As an educator, I realize we’re fortunate to have so many specialties in this area. Marquette is the mecca of healthcare in the U.P. Our students get excellent clinical experiences. I have enjoyed seeing students transform at NMU, get jobs in the area after graduation or leave the area and then return. Sometimes I run into former students at conferences.”
Serving as a hands-on consultant for home health agencies and as a legal nurse consultant allow Campbell to continually demonstrate the competency required to teach clinics.
Outside of work, Campbell likes to travel and almost always checks an extra piece of baggage: golf clubs. Her “spousal equivalent” of 10 years, Terry Abernathy, is a retired dentist who rates courses for Golf Digest magazine. The couple appropriately met at the Marquette Golf Club, where they served together on the pro shop golf committee. Abernathy has a home in Florida, so they travel back and forth.
"You have to be a low handicap golfer to evaluate courses for Golf Digest, so Terry is a very good golfer. He looks at everything from the ambiance of the clubhouse and design of the holes to the condition of the grass, while taking hundreds of photos of each course. I often accompany him and get to play some challenging courses. We've gone to Ireland twice; I really like links golf. We've also traveled throughout the U.S. The most beautiful course I've ever seen is Sycamore Hills in Indiana. It is the home of Vera Bradley (the handbag and accessories designer). She helped in the design and decor of the clubhouse. It's such an aesthetically pleasing, lush course with all the amazing flowers and shrubs."
Campbell is pictured above at Royal Port Rush Valley Course in Ireland. Other favorite free-time activities include gourmet cooking. Campbell prepares health-conscious or ethnic fare, including cabbage rolls, a nod to her mother’s Croatian heritage. She also enjoys spending time with her daughter and son-in-law, Abby and Karl Shunk, and their young children, Lily and Wyatt.
Her longevity at NMU may qualify her to sit in the front row of faculty at commencement ceremonies, but Campbell plans to neither stay long enough to carry the mace at the front of the procession nor retire too soon. She wants to remain through the first cohort of DNP students, which is another four years. She also wants to lead clinicals at the new UP Health System-Marquette facility when it’s completed.