Susan Gennaro RN, Ph.D., FAAN was named dean and professor at the William F. Connell School of Nursing July 1, 2008. Dr. Gennaro was previously the Florence and William Downs professor of nursing research at the College of Nursing, New York University and has also served on the faculty of the schools of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Alabama in Birmingham and Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Gennaro is an internationally known perinatal nurse researcher who has helped changed perinatal nursing practice based on her work on the antecedents and consequences of stress in families with preterm infants. This work has been funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Office of Women’s Health Research, Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Gennaro’s research has been conducted in Malawi and Uganda as well as in the United States. Dean Gennaro has served as a grant reviewer for Sigma Theta Tau International, the Association of Women’s Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and was a member of the permanent study section in nursing at NIH. She is currently on the National Advisory Council for NINR Currently, Dean Gennaro is the editor of the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, which is the journal of nursing’s honor society Sigma Theta Tau and which is read in over 100 countries by over 130,000 nurses. Dean Gennaro is herself a prolific author and has been involved in the dissemination of nursing research through extensive activities as an editorial board member and manuscript reviewer the Journal of Nursing Scholarship as well as many other premier research journals. Dr. Gennaro is active as a member of the National Nursing Advisory Committee for the March of Dimes and is also an active member of Sigma Theta Tau, and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Dr. Gennaro has won two awards from AWHONN the Outstanding Nurse Researcher award and the highest honor given by AWHONN, the Distinguished Service Award. ASPO/LAMAZE presented Dean Gennaro an award in recognition of her service in advancing perinatal education. Additionally, Dr. Gennaro has also won Distinguished Alumni awards from the University of Alabama in Birmingham and from Pace University. In recognition of her contributions to global women’s health Dr. Gennaro also received the Lenore Rowe Williams Award from the University of Pennsylvania. And in 2013 she was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau's International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.