UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Marion Leary, director of innovation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will be the speaker at the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing's 2022 Jean Vallance Lecture in Nursing Innovation on Friday, March 18. The completely virtual lecture is open to the public and will start at 2 p.m.
Leary’s presentation, “Creating an Innovation Infrastructure at Your Nursing Institution,” aligns with elements of the college's new strategic plan, which aims to enhance health through research and innovation.
“The college is initiating a new model of thinking about innovation, including all faculty at all campuses. This year’s Vallance Lecture is the first step, and we plan to follow-up this introduction to nursing innovation with a summer workshop,” said Judy Hupcey, associate dean for research and innovation in the Nese College of Nursing. “Marion Leary, the director of innovation at Penn Nursing, is the perfect person to introduce us to nursing innovation and help us launch this truly transformative journey.”
Leary currently teaches the course “Innovation in Health: Foundations of Design Thinking” and was an instructor in Penn's Master of Public Health program, where she taught methods implementation and public health communication. She is involved in several interdisciplinary committees focused on increasing innovation and entrepreneurship in nursing and health/health care. She also is a member of the Penn Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, sits on the executive board of the Penn Health Tech Committee, and was the co-course director for the Penn Nursing Research Residency program. Her research focuses on cardiac arrest and CPR quality with the current goal of developing innovative strategies to improve bystander response and CPR training.
The Jean Vallance Lecture in Nursing Innovation is an endowed lecture series presented by the Nese College of Nursing to honor Jean S. Vallance, a 30-year resident of State College who died in 1997. Vallance helped organize the Family Planning Clinic, later known as Family Health Services, to bring low-cost health care to women in central Pennsylvania. She was among the first nurses in Pennsylvania to be registered as a certified registered nurse practitioner. Her husband, Theodore Vallance, was a former associate dean in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development and an avid supporter of the College of Nursing.