FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Julie Hoff has been selected as the new director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, effective July 1.

She is the director and chair of the Department of Nursing and Health Sciences at Elmhurst College in Illinois. Hoff, who will also hold the George M. and Boyce W. Billingsley Endowed Chair in Nursing, replaces Pegge Bell, who is retiring from the nursing director’s position.

Tom Smith, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions, said Hoff has the background and experience to lead the nursing school as it continues to grow and expand degree offerings, including several degrees offered online through the Global Campus.

“We appreciate the leadership Dr. Bell has provided over the past three years,” Smith said. “The school has added programs in recent years both to increase the number of nurses in the state prepared at the bachelor’s degree level and the number of nurses with advanced degrees who can take leadership and teaching roles in the health-care system.”

Nursing has always been a vitally important role in the health-care system of Arkansas, and that will not change, Smith said.

“Dr. Hoff is a great addition to our nursing program,” he said. “She understands the tremendous impact nurses can have on the health of Arkansans and beyond. We look forward to the leadership, research and academic expertise that she will bring to our team.”

Hoff said many things attracted her to the nursing program at the U of A.

“It’s a flagship program and it’s a growing program,” she said. “The need for nursing is great in the state but the role of nursing is changing nationally. I saw this position as a wonderful opportunity for me to make a difference.

“Given the changes in health care delivery, the role of nursing is at the forefront,” Hoff continued.

Hoff has worked in a leadership role for two years at Elmhurst College, a small, private, four-year college near Chicago. She previously spent 22 years at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she taught, conducted cardiovascular clinical research, mentored students, residents, fellows and junior faculty members and served on numerous committees and councils.

Hoff said her initial priorities at the U of A include observing, listening and asking questions.

“It’s really important when coming into a new position at a well-established institution to take note of what is happening,” she said. “I want to understand the relationships between the nursing school and the college and the university and beyond. The college and the nursing school have a great partner in the Washington Regional Medical Center, and I look forward to learning more and meeting other partners.”

Hoff also would like to encourage faculty scholarship.

“To know how we do that requires that I understand all the ingredients,” she said. “I take a lot of pride in mentoring people at all points in their career. It’s a way of paying forward. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the mentors I had. I had the luxury of mentors from a host of different areas in the field of health.”

Hoff emphasized the importance of evidence-based practice, both within the delivery of nursing care and the education of nurses, and she is also interested in seeing continued and expanded participation by the nursing school in health-care policy in the state.

“I am very excited to come,” Hoff said. “I’m moving to Arkansas with my family, and it is a privilege to be given this opportunity.”

Hoff previously was associate professor of nursing at the University of Colorado and assistant professor of medicine and nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Between 2007 and 2013, she also served as director of Clinical Research Operations for the Center for Clinical Translational Science and assistant director of the Institute for Minority Health Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of Innovations and Outcomes for Children’s Hospital Colorado. Hoff earned a master's degree in public health, a master of science in nursing and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in bio-behavioral science. She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Rush University.

About the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing: The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing offers a Doctor of Nursing Practice online, a Master of Science in Nursing online and an R.N. to B.S.N. degree-completion program online as well as an on-campus Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The nursing school is located in the Epley Center for Health Professions, a facility that opened in 2012 with five high-fidelity simulation labs in which mannequins simulate patient conditions and offer scenarios for nursing students to address.