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IU School of Nursing alumna Dawn Sites connects passion with purpose

By Jill Jansen

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Graphic including photo of Dawn Sites, quote from the article, and the IU School of Nursing logo

“Connect your passion with a purpose.”

This piece of advice is what Dawn Sites, BSN'84, MS, remembers most about a meeting she attended at the IU School of Nursing as a prospective student more than 40 years ago. The advice helped her decide to change her major from biology to nursing. Over the years, it inspired a fulfilling career that took her from patient care in the intensive care unit to Eli Lilly and Company, where she worked in various roles for nearly 30 years.

“I loved the curiosity of biology and science but also really enjoyed people, which for me was the purpose,” said Sites, a Muncie, Indiana, native and 1984 graduate of the IU School of Nursing. “Going to nursing school was really the beginning of uniting my passion for science with the purpose of serving people.”

Sites worked in the surgical ICU at University Hospital during nursing school and continued there as a full-time nurse for four years after she graduated. Still interested in the field of biology, she transitioned to part-time in the ICU, while pursuing a master’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry at Ball State University. Sites was a member of the BSU chemistry club when human resources representatives from Eli Lilly and Company came to interview students.

“I remember that interview well because they asked me a lot of questions about my nursing degree,” Sites recalls. “I was completing this degree in biology, and they found it to be a unique combination to have a nursing degree, too.”

Subsequent interviews resulted in a job offer, and Sites accepted her first position with Eli Lilly and Company in 1989 as a scientist supervisor in the toxicology laboratory. On the front end of the drug development process, she contributed to teams that worked to ensure compounds were safe for Phase I clinical trials in humans. She spent five years in the position before transitioning to work on clinical trial research teams where her roles included contributing to protocol development and training clinical site personnel.

“All of the medical and clinical aspects of my time in the nursing profession transferred beautifully because I understood the medical language and was immediately able to speak that language very clearly,” Sites explained.

During her time at Eli Lilly and Company, Sites was a member of the leadership team of the nurses’ forum—a group of nurses working at Lilly who were dedicated to using their talents and training to focus on patients. In addition, the nurses’ forum engaged schools of nursing to give faculty and students a vision for alternative roles for nurses. The group also developed a pathway to mentor nursing students.

“There are so many transferable skills that you learn as a nurse, such as critical thinking and decision-making where you have to apply scientific evidence to a goal or outcome,” said Sites, who retired from Eli Lilly and Company in 2017. “There are nurses in most areas of the company using their skills and knowledge to make a difference.”

  • Vital Signs Newsroom
    • 2025
    • 2024
      • December 2024 BSN graduate features
      • Celebrating Faculty and Student Excellence: Harm Prevention Partners Program Impact
      • Faculty Feature: Dr. Heather Hardin
      • Alumni Feature: Dawn Sites
      • Student Feature: Heather Ward
      • Donor Feature: Susan Buhr
      • Student Feature: Grace Heitzmann
      • Dr. Miyeon Jung
      • First-Generation Student: Chyna Gates
      • Resilience Redefined
      • Making Tomorrow Possible
      • Faculty Research: Dr. Kristin Levoy
      • Student Feature: Dayton Livingston
      • Alumni Feature: Savannah Langbehn
      • Donor Feature: Dr. Rose Mays
      • Bryan White and Marian Gilhooly lead in developing cultural competencies for the nursing curriculum
      • IU School of Nursing addresses state's nursing shortage with largest beginning class ever
      • Faculty Feature: Dr. Greg Carter
      • Celebrating Clinical Nurse Specialists!
      • Senior nursing students Serin Kang and Tomi Abegunde are ready for the start of the fall semester
      • Dr. Yvonne Lu's community-based research aims to increase health literacy about Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia among African Americans
      • IU student nurses experience healthcare in Kenya
      • Faculty Feature: Dr. Elizabeth Holtel
      • Dr. Jane von Gaudecker receives $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address epilepsy treatment gap in western Kenya
      • Catalyst for change in The Kingdom of Eswatini
      • Fagan and Howle named Jonas Scholars
      • Jennifer Fuentes
      • Charlotte Carlley
      • IU School of Nursing Faculty Promotions
      • Dr. Jamie Rausch awarded August Tomusk Research Fund grant
      • Top 100: Gillienne Boyd
      • Elite 50: Stephanie Zidek
      • Top 100: Megan Szymanski
      • Top 100: Abby Henderson
      • Top 100: Emma Bucher
      • Kay Farmer
      • Kiki Suttle
      • Elham Algashgari
      • U.S. News & World Report's Best Online Nursing Rankings 2024
      • Top 100: Valliei Chandrakumar
      • Faculty Feature: Dr. Cindy Hill
      • Top 100: Tatum Murawski
      • Faculty Feature: Britney Arce
      • Faculty Feature: Dr. Melanie Gall
      • National Mentoring Month: Drs. Pei-Shiun Chang and Yvonne Lu
      • $15.5 million NIH award funds development of national network to include nursing home residents in clinical trials
      • Meet the IU School of Nursing Regatta Teams!
      • Meet the IU School of Nursing Regatta Teams!
      • Meet the IU School of Nursing Regatta Teams!
      • Student Feature: Ella Colclesser
      • Hispanic Heritage Month
      • Faculty Research: Dr. Jane von Gaudecker
      • Faculty Research: Dr. Jamie Rausch
      • Meet the IU School of Nursing Regatta Teams!
      • Faculty Research: Dr. Jennifer Brower
      • Meet the IU School of Nursing Regatta Volunteers!
      • Graduate student: Sarah Kenny
      • Hispanic Heritage Month Comes to a Close
      • Faculty Driving Change: Linda Romines and Sheila Wright
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