Dr. Debra Lynch Kelly was named Dean of the 糖心vlog蜜桃 Loewenberg College of Nursing, effective October 1, 2026, following her service as Interim Dean. She joined the college in July 2024 as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, bringing a distinguished career in academic leadership and nursing education.
Before joining LCON, Dr. Kelly served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in Undergraduate Education at the University of Florida College of Nursing, where she oversaw 500 students across multiple tracks at the Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses. Under her leadership, the program achieved a 97.7% NCLEX pass rate, solidifying its position as the top nursing program in Florida.
Dr. Kelly holds a PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. A certified nurse educator (CNE), she has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and DNP students in both online and face-to-face settings. Her academic leadership includes chairing numerous DNP and PhD projects, spearheading curriculum innovations, and advancing accreditation standards at the CCNE and SACS levels.
Dr. Kelly is also a respected researcher whose work focuses on biobehavioral mechanisms associated with cancer-related symptoms. She has secured more than $8 million in external funding, including grants from the National Institutes of Health, and has published 57 peer-reviewed articles in leading multidisciplinary journals.
- Acute care
- Cardiology
- Chronic disease
- Palliative care
- Research Methods
- Holistic care
Wingard, J. R., Lee, J. H., Li, D., Al-Mansour, Z., Farhadfar, N., Hsu, J., Hiemenz, J., Dean, E. A., Brown, R., Trikha, G., Schulz, J. N., Cline, C. L., Leather, H., Sugrue, M. W., Dahl, W. J., McGee, K. H., Leggett, A., & Kelly, D. L. (2026). Randomized Noninferiority Trial of a Liberalized Diet Versus the Neutropenic Diet in Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplant Patients and Patients With Acute Leukemia. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 44(4), 300鈥�310.