Widener Announces Appointment of Three Academic Deans
Widener University announces the appointment of deans to three of its eight schools
and colleges following nationwide searches.
Dr. Stephen C. Wilhite, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at
Widener, announced the appointment of Dr. Laura Dzurec as dean of the School of Nursing,
Dr. Shawn Fitzgerald as dean of the School of Education, Innovation, and Continuing
Studies, and Dr. Sharon Meagher as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. All three
will assume their new positions at Widener on July 1, 2014.
"We are very fortunate to appoint three deans with a strong commitment to and demonstrated
record of promoting leadership, global awareness and civic engagement, all of which
are major components of Widener's mission," Wilhite said. "Individually, they are
respected leaders in their fields and within the institutions they currently serve,
and we are proud to welcome them to the Widener community."
Dr. Laura Dzurec
Dzurec served as dean of the College of Nursing at Kent State University from 2006
to August 2013, and is currently professor of nursing at the university. Prior to
Kent State, she was dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Connecticut
for six years, following appointments at the University of Maine and the Oregon Health
Sciences University.
At Kent State, Dzurec helped establish a focus on self-care, wellness and mindfulness
as a means of thematically organizing the faculty's endeavors in teaching, research
and community outreach. She was also significantly involved in Kent State's strategic
efforts to enhance diversity and promote globally-oriented programming. A respected
leader in the profession, she serves as an adviser to the Nurse Faculty Leadership
Academy of the Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society.
As a faculty member, Dzurec's area of focus is on psychiatric and mental health nursing,
family nursing and health policy, with a recent research focus on workplace bullying.
Dzurec earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Connecticut,
a master's in nursing from The Ohio State University, and her doctorate Ph.D. in nursing
from Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Shawn Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald has directed the School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration at
Kent State University since 2009, providing leadership to 10 programs including, among
others, educational administration, higher education administration, evaluation and
measurement, hospitality management, and recreation, parks, and tourism management.
He also provided leadership for the college's Professional Development and Outreach
Office, the Office of Distance Learning and has been extensively involved in the recruitment
of international students.
As a leader in the development of online and hybrid course offerings at Kent State,
Fitzgerald launched a hybrid, cohort degree program for the evaluation and measurement
master's program that resulted in a 400 percent increase in enrollment in two years
and the program's recognition as an exemplary innovative program by the American Association
of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Prior to becoming director of the school at Kent State, Dr. Fitzgerald served for
10 years there as director of the Measurement and Evaluation Program. He holds a bachelor's
degree in psychology from Lebanon Valley College, a master's in educational psychology
from the University of Toledo, and a doctorate in Applied Educational Research, Evaluation,
Measurement and Statistics from the University of Toledo.
Dr. Sharon Meagher
Meagher comes to Widener from the University of Scranton, where she has served since
2009 as founding chairperson of the Department of Latin American Studies and Women's
Studies. She is also a leader in the Scranton community, serving as the founding president
of the Mulberry Central Neighborhood Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to coordinating services and development activities in the city's hill section.
An advocate for the public relevance of philosophy, she co-founded the Public Philosophy
Network to facilitate collaboration among philosophers engaged in public work. She
has also edited two books, and is nearing completion of a book titled "Philosophical
Streetwalking: Grounding Philosophy in Public Life."
In her leadership roles at Scranton, Meagher helped develop short-term global study
programs, co-facilitated Scranton's faculty sustainability workshop which assists
faculty in integrating sustainability issues across the curriculum, and developed
an interdisciplinary capstone seminar titled "Working for Justice" to help students
think critically about economic sectors and how they might become social change leaders.
Meagher earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and sociology from Boston College
and a doctorate in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Widener University is a private, metropolitan university that connects curricula to
social issues through civic engagement. Dynamic teaching, active scholarship, personal
attention, leadership development, and experiential learning are key components of
the Widener experience. A comprehensive doctorate-granting university, Widener is
comprised of eight schools and colleges that offer liberal arts and sciences and professional
and pre-professional curricula leading to associate's, baccalaureate, master's, and
doctoral degrees. The university's campuses in Chester, Exton, and Harrisburg, PA,
and Wilmington, DE, serve approximately 6,300 students. Widener is proud to be a tobacco-free
university.Visit the university's website, www.widener.edu, for more information.
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