The IU School of Nursing is pleased to announce that the IU Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of two faculty members to titled professorships.
Professor Yvonne Lu (PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN) has been appointed the Doris J. Froebe Professor in Nursing, and Professor Wendy Trueblood Miller (PhD, RN, CNS, CCRN, FAAN, FAES) has been appointed the Sally Reahard Endowed Chair and Director of the IU School of Nursing Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness.
Doris J. Froebe Professor in Nursing
Dr. Doris J. Froebe was a graduate of the IU School of Nursing MSN Class of 1961 and a retired faculty member. In 2017, she provided a donation to establish the Doris J. Froebe Professorship in Nursing. The professorship supports a doctoral prepared, tenured faculty member who focuses on leadership in health systems.
As the Doris J. Froebe Professor in Nursing, Lu will lead her team to test a new care model, the Daily Engagement in Meaningful Activity Professional (DEMA-Pro) intervention. This intervention focuses on skilled professionals who provide care to older adults with cognitive impairment.
DEMA-Pro is a strength-based, family-centered intervention. It helps professional caregivers deliver care in a way that matches patients’ and caregivers’ goals . DEMA-Pro helps people be more involved in activities that are meaningful to them, when they are living at home and experiencing subjective cognitive decline. Using DEMA-Pro, home health staff learn to (1) coach patients and caregivers to problem-solve, (2) teach self-management and communication skills, and (3) enhance natural interactions to achieve mutually agreed goals.
“Dr. Lu is nationally and internationally famous as a researcher who is improving the care of older adults. Her unique partnership with the homecare health system is the perfect place to test her DEMA-Pro intervention,” Interim Dean Janet S. Carpenter said. “Her research is very exciting and will help homecare health systems. We are excited to support her research efforts with this professorship.”
Sally Reahard Endowed Chair and Director of the IU School of Nursing Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness
Lifelong Indianapolis resident Sally Reahard established the Sally Reahard Endowed Chair and Director of the IU School of Nursing Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness (CEQL) in 2003. Reahard was a longtime philanthropist who also endowed scholarships for undergraduate nursing students. CEQL funds research projects being done by early-career faculty. These faculty are developing and testing high impact nursing interventions to improve quality of life in chronic illness.
Trueblood Miller is a native Hoosier who joined the School of Nursing faculty in 2012. She is a first-generation college student and completed her BSN, MSN, and PhD all at Indiana University. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the American Epilepsy Society. CEQL pilot funding early in her career helped launch her current program of research.
“I’ve always been focused on creating new knowledge that will advance the science in the area of chronic illness self-management. My own research focuses on adults with epilepsy,” Trueblood Miller said. “My goal is to improve the quality of life of people with epilepsy. I use patient-centered interventions, reduce stigma, improve access to care, and use large social media datasets to understand what patients need.”
As Sally Reahard Chair and CEQL Director, Trueblood Miller will lead a legacy of 25 years of quality of life-focused research at the IU School of Nursing. Trueblood Miller will focus on supporting faculty training and research to improve quality of life via artificial intelligence and other innovative methods, successful grant writing, and learning from invited accomplished scholars from other institutions who visit CEQL. She will also help build new relationships between CEQL and other IU researchers and institutes.
“Dr. Miller is a true research leader in helping adults manage chronic epilepsy,” Carpenter said. “She is a pillar of our school as she oversees our research missions and now, CEQL. She is highly deserving of these new titles. I look forward to her continued leadership at the School of Nursing.”