UMSON Names DeVance-Wilson Director of Maryland Nursing Workforce Center

Baltimore, Md. – The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) has named Crystal DeVance-Wilson, PhD ’19, MS ’06, MBA, BSN ’00, PHCNS-BC, assistant professor and vice chair of the UMSON program at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the new director of the Maryland Nursing Workforce Center (MNWC). 

She succeeds Rebecca Wiseman, PhD ’93, RN, who retired at the end of the 2022 - 23 academic year. The MNWC, launched by Wiseman in 2018 through Nurse Support Program (NSP) II grant funding, was created to collect data, analyze findings, and report on the state’s nursing workforce. To plan for future workforce needs and to measure the success of related programs and initiatives, an accurate and comprehensive data set is essential. Creation of the center also responded to a national recommendation in the Institute of Medicine’s 2011 report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health for improved collection of workforce data.  

“It is an exciting time for the Maryland Nursing Workforce Center. Building on Dr. Wiseman’s legacy we will continue to address matters that are important to the nursing profession across the state of Maryland and nationally,” DeVance-Wilson said. “We have a great team who is looking forward to the work and is humbled by the opportunity to serve the Maryland nursing community.” 

DeVance-Wilson has served as the center’s assistant director since 2021. She is the MNWC lead facilitator on the Universal Onboarding of Pre-licensure Students project, designed to standardize hospital orientation education for nursing students when onboarding for clinical and practicum opportunities, in conjunction with the Maryland Organization of Nurse Leaders Inc. Nurse Residency Collaborative. She was also a member of the research team that developed, implemented, and analyzed the 2021 Maryland statewide survey, “Analysis of COVID-19 Impact on the Maryland Nursing Workforce.” 

Over its five-year existence, the MNWC has been at the forefront of efforts to assist nursing faculty members throughout Maryland to prepare for the introduction of the NextGen NCLEX, a revised nurse licensing examination paralleling national changes in nursing school curriculum. A highly collaborative and inclusive advisory committee made up of faculty from public, private, community, and historically black colleges and universities schools of nursing held a statewide summit in September 2021 on the changes to the exam and followed this with a series of in-depth workshops to assist nursing faculty in incorporating techniques to enhance students’ clinical judgment and decision-making abilities into classroom, clinical, and simulation instructional strategies. MNWC’s statewide collaborative efforts in developing such resources for nursing faculty has served as a model for other states.  

The MNWC also serves as the official Maryland state representative to the National Nursing Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, a national network of state-based workforce centers that aims to ensure a robust, diverse, and well-prepared nursing workforce. The MNWC is a recognized leader within the national forum. 

DeVance-Wilson joined the UMSON faculty in 2009 as a clinical instructor, having served for more than a decade as a labor and delivery and critical care nurse; she was promoted to assistant professor in 2019. She is the immediate past chair of UMSON’s Faculty Council and has served on multiple UMSON committees. DeVance-Wilson is also the immediate past chair of the Montgomery County Commission on Health; is a project director for a more than quarter-million-dollar Nurse Support Program II grant, “Academic Practice Pilot Dedication Education Unit Model”; and is an advisory board member of the Pennsylvania Action Coalition’s Clinical Faculty and Preceptor Academy, which aims to increase nursing workforce retention by leveraging staff nurses to participate as skilled preceptors and clinical instructors. She is also a volunteer for the Maryland Responds Medical Reserve Corps. 

She earned her PhD, Master of Science in Community/Public Health Nursing, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees from UMSON; she also holds an MBA from the University of Baltimore. She is certified as a Clinical Nurse Specialist-Public/Community Health Nursing. 

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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.