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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, March 30, 2006

Linda Delunas

2006 W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service

Associate Professor
School of Nursing
Indiana University Northwest
Appointed to IU faculty, 1984
B.S.N., Purdue University Calumet, 1984
M.S., Purdue University Calumet, 1987
Ph.D., University of Illinois Chicago, 1997

Linda Delunas' mission as a nurse and an associate professor of nursing at Indiana University Northwest is twofold: to provide quality education and quality health care.

"Being a professional nurse and educator involves a commitment to citizenship in its broadest sense and allows me the opportunity to have input into and an impact on education and health care," Delunas says. "I pride myself on being an involved and committed citizen of the School of Nursing, the Indiana University Northwest campus, the larger Indiana University, my profession, and the community."

As the former associate dean of the nursing department at IU Northwest, Delunas was responsible for the curricular integrity of the Associate of Science and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees, as well as the coordination and evaluation of faculty teaching. She is past president of the local Council of Nursing Faculty. During the five years she served as a faculty advisor for the Student Nurses Association, Delunas helped establish an annual scholarship for nursing students. In February of this year, she was appointed to the newly created IU Northwest position of faculty assistant to the chancellor.

"Dr. Delunas has always shown a solid commitment to furthering IU Northwest's mission and the campus's vision," says IU Northwest Professor David Klamen. "[She] has a wonderfully clear mind and a keen sense of language that has often helped sort out semantic issues. She also has a matter-of-factness to her participation that puts other members at ease and cuts through the bureaucratic mire that often hinders this kind of work," Klamen says of their committee work together. "I can remember several occasions where our committee was seemingly stuck in debate over what now seem like trivial issues. Dr. Delunas was often the person to summarize the situation and present it in language that defused the conflict, enabling us to move ahead."

On the IU Northwest campus, she has served on the Curriculum and Survey Committee for many years, chairing the committee in 1997-98, and for the past eight years has served on the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. After she chaired one of the first Strategic Outcome committees in 2004, the committee drafted a profile of student excellence that was accepted by both the Strategic Planning Committee and the IUN Faculty Organization. Delnuas has served on the advisory board for IU Northwest's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning since 2002.

"She is known as a key citizen of the IU Northwest community, and consistently demonstrates leadership in the service activities in which she participates," says Linda A. Rooda, professor and dean, School of Nursing and Health Professions at IUN. "She truly demonstrates an ongoing commitment to her program of scholarship of service . . . the campus has benefited immensely from her untiring efforts."

Delunas is a member of the IU Oncourse Priorities Committee, a university-wide effort to ensure a smooth transition to the online course management system Oncourse CL. She is a also member of the American Nurses' Association, Indiana State Nurses' Association (ISNA), and Northwest Region ISNA, for which she has acted as a member of the board of directors, and was a delegate to the ISNA state convention in 1997 and 1999. Through her role as a member of the Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement Committee at St. Mary Medical Center, Delunas helps monitor quality indicators in the nursing industry and suggests and oversees performance initiatives.

"Linda Delunas has been what I would consider to be one of the most, if not the most, productive faculty member with whom I have worked in the last three or four years with regard to service," says IU Northwest Chancellor Bruce Bergland.

Despite her increasingly busy schedule and responsibilities, Delunas continues to serve the public and her students in every way possible. "Nurses can have an impact on quality of health care at many levels, from individual patient care to professional nursing organizations to health care agency systems," says Delunas. "My involvement has been and continues to be at all levels."

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