Friedmann, Jenkins, Mills Awarded Professor Emerita Status

Baltimore, Md – Three University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) faculty members — Erika Friedmann, PhD; Louise Jenkins, PhD ’85, MS ’81, RN, FAHA, ANEF; and Mary Etta C. Mills, ScD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN — have recently been appointed professors emeritae by University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS. Emeritus status may be awarded to retired faculty members who have made significant and extraordinary contributions through excellent teaching, scholarship, or service. These designations must be approved by the UMB president.

Erika Friedmann
Friedmann, who retired from UMSON in August 2023 as associate dean for research, is an internationally recognized researcher in anthrozoology, the scholarly investigation of human-animal interaction. Her 1980 paper, “Animal Companions and One-Year Survival of Patients After Discharge from a Coronary Care Unit,” was the first to document the long-term psychological and physical contribution of pet ownership to physical health in older adults. As a result of this and her subsequent work, most hospitals and nursing homes have animal visitation programs and/or facility dogs.

Friedmann was a founding member and first president of the International Society of Anthrozoology (ISAZ), which was created in 1991 to foster the scientific and scholarly study of human-animal interaction. In 2016, she was elected a fellow of ISAZ and was the inaugural recipient of the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations’ Johannes Odendaal Human-Animal Interaction Distinguished Research Award. In 2019, she received ISAZ’s Distinguished Anthrozoologist Award for lifetime achievement.

Friedmann joined UMSON in 2003 as a professor in the Department of Organizational Systems and Adult Health and became associate dean for research in 2015. She has served as a mentor to junior faculty, providing grant and scholarly writing seminars, teaching research methods and statistics, and serving on more than 50 doctoral dissertation committees. She remains a part-time UMSON faculty member. 

Louise Jenkins
Jenkins served as a faculty member at UMSON for more than 24 years. In 2004, she co-founded the UMSON Institute for Educators, to address the urgent statewide nursing faculty shortage. Under her leadership, the Institute contributed to a 63% increase in the number of new Maryland nursing school graduates sitting for boards and becoming licensed in the state and received multiple grants, totaling nearly $7 million. Jenkins also co-developed and led the Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificate program. 

She was named the UMB Teacher of the Year in 2016, an award that highlighted her significant contributions to UMB’s missions of teaching, research and scholarship, and service as well as her unwavering commitment to developing future generations of nurses ready to lead, in Baltimore, throughout Maryland, nationally, and internationally. In 2018, Jenkins was awarded a Wilson H. Elkins Professorship from the University System of Maryland for her work developing a comprehensive blueprint for preparing the next generation of nursing faculty in Maryland. And in 2021, she was named an inaugural Distinguished University Professor by UMB. The title is the highest appointment bestowed on a faculty member at UMB and recognizes not just excellence but also impact and significant contribution to the awardee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice.

Jenkins retired from her role as professor in August 2023.

Mary Etta Mills
As an UMSON faculty member beginning in 1988, Mills focused on preparing nursing students for the administrative side of nursing and working in a system. During her distinguished career, she held numerous academic leadership positions, including chair of the Department of Education, Administration, Health Policy, and Informatics and associate dean for academic affairs. She also served as UMSON’s interim dean from September 2019 to January 2020. 

During a joint UMSON/University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) appointment in the 1970s, Mills created a clinical documentation system for nursing, the earliest electronic health record at UMMC. Years later, at UMSON, she developed what became the first master’s program in nursing informatics in the nation in 1998 and the first doctoral program in nursing informatics in the world in 1991. 

Her interdisciplinary research and training grants have focused on developing the field of nursing informatics education and application and on advancing the field of health services administration and education through strategic academic-service partnerships throughout Maryland. She has mentored a generation of doctorally prepared nurses, and her former students have gone on to make significant contributions to nursing, serving as deans, associate deans, chief nursing officers, chief information officers, and policy and organizational leaders.

Mills was awarded the 2020 Nursing Colleague Award from UMMC. She was recognized for her collaborative, insightful, and supportive leadership in her role as interim dean and her commitment to UMNursing, the clinical, educational, and research partnership between UMSON and UMMC. At UMSON’s May 2023 Convocation ceremony, she received the Dean’s Medal for Distinguished Service, which recognizes individuals, external to the institution, who have demonstrated “an exceptional commitment to advancing the University of Maryland School of Nursing and its mission.” 

Mills retired from her role as professor in 2022. 

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The University of Maryland School of Nursing, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest nursing schools in the nation and is ranked among the top nursing schools nationwide. Enrolling more than 2,000 students in its baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders who shape the profession of nursing and impact the health care environment.