Your online graduate nursing faculty and staff include highly experienced, respected educators with doctoral degrees – the same professors who teach JU’s world-class MSN program on campus. They will develop your skills and abilities to the furthest possible degree and foster your nursing education with innovative educational opportunities. Striving to offer the best academic experience possible, they aim to further your goals with a high-quality online MSN program that allows for academic theory while exploring professionally relevant issues.
Jacksonville University’s online MSN nursing faculty and staff understand your specific needs as a professional MSN student. Courses adapt to your educational needs and busy schedule. Selected by the university based on their academic qualifications and their ability to work effectively with adult professionals, JU’s faculty develops lifelong learners who contribute to their professions and their communities.
Prepared to facilitate your professional development, your professors emphasize building and mastering professional skills and creative thinking. By building self-confidence and gaining insight into evolving and relevant nursing practices, you establish a solid foundation for your nursing career.
Master of Science in Nursing Faculty
Cheryl Bergman | Michelle Edmonds | Judith Erickson | Leigh Hart | Lynnette Kennison | Kay Leary | Hilary Morgan | Andra Opalinski
Cheryl Bergman, PhD, ARNP with MSN (Adult Nurse Practitioner)
I am a full-time faculty member here at Jacksonville University. A little about me: I graduated from the University of Kansas with my BSN in 1981. I have worked most of my nursing career in the emergency room, which I have truly enjoyed. I graduated from the University of Florida in 1998 with my MSN and am an Adult Nurse Practitioner. I practiced as a Nurse Practitioner for two and a half years and then decided to become full-time faculty at the college. I recently graduated with my PhD from Barry University, where my dissertation was a qualitative study – specifically, a grounded theory on the process ED nurses use to manage adult patients’ pain. I am also a certified emergency nurse.
Michelle Edmonds, PhD, ARNP with MSN (Family Nurse Practitioner)
My name is Michelle Edmonds and I have held a full-time faculty position at Jacksonville University since June 2003. My nursing career began in 1996 when I graduated with my BSN from the University of North Florida. I worked at Shands Jacksonville as a staff nurse for five years in both the adult and pediatric ERs. I continued my education at UNF, receiving my MSN in 2001, and worked full time as a Family Nurse Practitioner for two years at a local family practice clinic, where I continue to work one day a week. I graduated from Barry University with my PhD in nursing in December 2008. I’m really thrilled to be teaching on the JU campus and in the online MSN and RN to BSN programs!
Judith Erickson, PhD, CNS with MSN (Clinical Nurse Specialist Mental Health)
I joined the School of Nursing in October, 2006. I’m an advanced practice nurse, certified in psych-mental health nursing. I’ve taught students at the BSN, MSN and PhD levels, been an administrator at schools of nursing and in hospitals, and I’ve had a private practice as a nurse psychotherapist for 25 years. In terms of research/scholarly work, I’ve done studies on outcomes of care, women with chronic mental illness and holistic nursing practice. At JU I teach in the undergraduate and graduate programs (community, psych, synthesis, research), and now in the online MSN and RN to BSN programs as well! I’ve moved from a faculty position to become dean. But I still teach, and I love keeping in touch with students this way.
Leigh Hart, PhD, ARNP with MSN (Family Nurse Practitioner)
I started out with an ADN from Georgia Southwestern University, graduating in 1983. I obtained CCRN certification around 1986 and maintained that until 2007, when I switched to a Family Nurse Practitioner certification. I began teaching in 1991. I completed my MSN at Albany State University in community health nursing with a specialization in nursing education. I started teaching at JU in 1997. I finished my PhD at Barry University in Miami in 2000 and completed a family nurse practitioner program in 2006.
I currently teach community health nursing, research and graduate courses on campus. I assumed the coordinator position for the online RN to BSN program in January of 2003. I left that position to become the dean of nursing at Jacksonville University in July of 2004. I returned to an associate professor position in May of 2008 to have time to practice as a nurse practitioner in Internal Medicine. I believe it is important to practice what you preach, and because of that I have maintained a clinical practice working PRN in local EDs and ICUs and as a nurse practitioner.
Lynnette Kennison, PhD, ARNP with MSN (Psych Nurse Practitioner)
Kay Leary, PhD, ARNP with MSN (Women's Health Nurse Practitioner)
Hilary Morgan, PhD, CNM with MSN (Nurse Midwife)
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Nursing for Jacksonville University and have taught these classes online for many years. I am also a certified nurse midwife who has worked in private practice for many years. I have been an ARNP since 1983 and an RN since 1979. I attended Vanderbilt University as an undergrad and Boston College for graduate school. I received my midwifery education, as well as my PhD in Nursing, at the University of Florida. I am also a Captain in the Nurse Corps in the US Naval Reserve.
Andra Opalinski, PhD, PNP with MSN (Pediatric Nurse Practitioner)
