Nursing Professor to Lead Southern Nursing Research Society

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Nan Smith-Blair

Nan Smith-Blair, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Arkansas, has been elected president-elect of the Southern Nursing Research Society. Smith-Blair will become president of the organization in February 2016.

The president serves a two-year term, said Ann Mehan Crosse, executive director of the society. It was founded in 1986 and is composed of 14 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. In 1991, the boundaries were expanded to include the Caribbean, Latin America and the Bahamas.

The mission of the society is to advance nursing research through disseminating and utilizing research findings, facilitating the career development of nurses and nursing students as researchers, promoting the image of nursing as a scientific discipline and enhancing communication among members.

Smith-Blair joined the faculty of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions in 1992. She holds a doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Nursing and has taught in higher education since 1985. She has more than 30 years of critical care nursing experience including neonatal, pediatric and adult critical care in addition to transport nursing and administrative experience.

She served as director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing from 2008 through July 2012. Her research interests center on cardiopulmonary physiology including muscle fatigue and pulmonary hypertension associated with diabetes. She additionally studies methods to improve congestive heart failure patient outcomes. Her research to refine the care of emphysema patients by examining the effects of exercise on diaphragm fatigue has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Smith-Blair is a member of the Honors College faculty and serves as head of the honors nursing program. She received the Honors College Distinguished Faculty Award in 2011.