Gueldner Named Director Of Nursing School
8-29-96
University Park, Pa. -- Dr. Sarah H. Gueldner, director of doctoral studies in the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina, has been named director of the School of Nursing in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State.
"We are delighted that Dr. Gueldner is joining us," said Barbara Shannon, dean of the College of Health and Human Development. "She has experience in all levels of nursing education and in establishing collaborative ties among units. This will be of particular value to her in promoting the School's efforts at its multiple sites.
"Also, her success in developing graduate programs in nursing together with her own research will give Penn State a strong basis on which to build," Shannon added. "With 33 years of nursing experience, she is highly esteemed in the nursing community and we are all looking forward to the new direction she will provide."
At Penn State, Gueldner holds a joint appointment in Health and Human Development and in the College of Medicine at the Hershey Medical Center. Among her long-term priorities for Penn State's School of Nursing will be the expansion of its funded research efforts and the development of a doctoral program. At the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina, Gueldner led formative work in the development of a collaborative Ph.D. degree in nursing with the University of South Carolina.
Gueldner's research is directed to elderly populations focusing on exercise, environmental enrichment, expression of mood, life satisfaction and immunocompetence. She is a certified gerontological nurse.
"I am excited about the possibility for collaboration with colleagues in the many disciplines of the College of Health and Human Development, the College of Medicine and other parts of the University," Gueldner said. "No one discipline can solve the problems of aging. To improve the quality of life for the elderly, our research needs to be interdisciplinary."
Gueldner is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Academy's Expert Panel on Long Term Care. She has served as an officer of Sigma Theta Tau International, and was recently selected as one of that organization's 75th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturers. She is past president of the Society of Rogerian Scholars and of the Mississippi Board of Nursing, and is a member of Sigma Xi and the Gerontological Society of America. She was honored with the 1995 Graduate Teacher Award at the Medical School of South Carolina..
Before becoming the director of doctoral studies at Medical University of South Carolina, Gueldner was director of the university's Center for Nursing Research. She was a member of the faculty of the Medical College of Georgia's School of Nursing from 1982 until 1992. She has also held faculty appointments at the University of Georgia's Gerontology Center in Athens, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Valdosta State College, Mississippi University for Women School of Nursing and East Mississippi Junior College in Columbus, and the University of Tennessee in Memphis.
Gueldner received a Doctor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Alabama in Birmingham and a M.N. from Emory University. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee where she was named Outstanding Alumnus in 1989.
She is an award-winning painter and a recipient of the Golden Poet Award from the World of Poetry Society.
Contact:
Jean Erstling (814) 865-2155
Vicki Fong(814) 865-9481 (office) vyf1@psu.edu