Baylor's Nursing School Names New Graduate Program Director
Dr. Mary C. Brucker
Baylor University's Louise Herrington School of Nursing has announced that Mary C. Brucker has been appointed director of graduate programs. As director, Brucker will oversee the success of the nursing school's three graduate programs by developing graduate curricula, recruiting potential graduate students and managing graduate assistantships.
"I am truly happy to be at Baylor," Brucker said. "Baylor has an absolute gem with the graduate programs currently offered and I hope to build on that."
New to Baylor, Brucker spent the last 18 years as a faculty member and director of the Parkland School of Nurse-Midwifery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Prior to that, she was in clinical practice in Chicago.
She received her undergraduate degree and her master's in maternal newborn nursing from St. Louis University and a certificate in nurse-midwifery from the University of Mississippi. She received her doctoral degree from Rush University in Chicago.
A Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) for more than 30 years and a fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, Brucker said one of her long-term goals is to start a nurse-midwifery program at Baylor. In the short term, she would like to increase the visibility of the advanced neonatal nursing and family nurse practitioner graduate programs.
"Graduates from these programs are highly skilled and highly prized in the nursing realm," Brucker said. "In regards to the neonatal program, with one out of every eight babies now being born premature, the need is only going to grow."
Brucker also said she would like to develop more curricula to support the "21st century nurse" by equipping the graduates with the tools they need and making sure the education students are receiving is necessary to the practice.
"I think education and practice is very well connected in nursing, but we always need to evaluate how we can better prepare our students," she said.
Located in Dallas, Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing currently has more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 25 faculty members.
For more information, contact Mary Brucker at (214) 820-4111.