Nursing Faculty & Staff

Nancy Meedzan, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC 
Associate Dean of Nursing
Professor of Nursing
Interim Chair, Department of Nursing

Nancy L. Meedzan, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC is associate dean and professor of nursing and the interim chair of the Department of Nursing. Dr. Meedzan is a proven leader with vast clinical knowledge and a demonstrated commitment to high-quality nursing education. She comes to Providence College from the Cummings School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, where she was Dean since January 2019. She joined Providence College in February 2023 and began her tenure in June 2023.

After graduating from Boston College in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, Dr. Meedzan began a nearly 20-year nursing career working as a registered nurse at several Rhode Island and Massachusetts hospitals and medical facilities. A committed scholar whose primary interest is in global health, Dr. Meedzan is co-investigator of an international study on the impact of COVID-19 on patients living with HIV. She is co-editor of the textbook Global Health Nursing in the 21st Century. She has taken students on short-term immersion experiences to Guatemala, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic to study the delivery of compassionate nursing care in places challenged to provide healthcare resources.

Recent Faculty Achievements

Dr. Rachel Lyons, assistant professor of nursing, has been selected for two national programs that build on her commitment to environmental and public health. She will join the Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship Program with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. As part of the fellowship, she will partner with the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Equity Zones to support community engagement and implementation efforts.

Rachel has also been accepted into the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists (EHRI-NCS) 2026 Cohort, an NIH- and NIEHS-funded training program designed to prepare nurse and clinician scientists. Along these lines, her new article “Nurse Practitioner’s Role in Pediatric Acute Care for Climate Related Illness” has been accepted for publication in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 

Dr. Amy Delaney published, Clinician Perspectives on Emerging Adults and Parents Managing Heart Disease, in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners

Dr. Amy Delaney and Professor Jen Livesley received a Feinstein Institute for Public Service grant to support NUR 101: Introduction to Professional Nursing and to build on an existing partnership with House of Hope

Dr. Rachel Lyons received the Emerging Researcher Award from the American Public Health Association

Dr. Amy Delaney published, Financial Stressors for Parents of Children and Emerging Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: A Qualitative Study, in the Journal of Pediatric Health Care.

Dr. Jillian Waugh ’04 secured a grant from the C.S. Lewis Fellowship to purchase copies of C.S. Lewis’s book A Grief Observed for NUR 101: Introduction to Professional Nursing