“It gives me the opportunity to do the best I can for the students of the School of Nursing and to get faculty and students working together to produce the best nurses we can,” Ward said of being named interim director effective July 1.

A veteran of the era when MTSU offered an associate’s degree in nursing but not a baccalaureate, Ward earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1970 and her master’s degree in psychiatric mental health in 1972, both at Vanderbilt University, then taught at MTSU from 1974 to 1981. She left to pursue a doctoral degree in developmental psychology at Cornell University, earning it in 1988 and then returning to MTSU’s nursing faculty in 1995.

Ward said she hopes to see MTSU’s School of Nursing become more technologically savvy, adding that the process of having more clinical simulations in certain classes already has begun.

“I think the future of our school of nursing should be directed toward keeping up with all the changes happening in health care and actually thinking ahead of those changes so our graduates are ready to meet the many challenges of the new health care environment,” she said.

Ward will maintain the directorship throughout the 2011-12 academic year. A national search will be conducted to fill the directorship on a permanent basis.