Linda A. McCauley, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, (she/her) began her appointment as Dean of Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSN) in 2009, and has since developed and executed a comprehensive strategic plan to position NHWSN at the forefront of nursing research, education, and policy. The School’s Innovation Initiative has enabled remarkable achievements such as the Emory Nursing Learning Center (ENLC), the Center for Data Science, and Project NeLL, and has been successful, in large part, because it emphasizes the potential of nurses and nursing students as leaders in health care innovation.  Under Dean McCauley’s leadership, the school has risen from its No. 26 ranking in 2011 to the second year in its current position as No. 1 in US News and World Report’s “Best Graduate Nursing Schools” guide. NHWSN’s undergraduate program was ranked No. 2 in the US News undergraduate nursing rankings as well. 

Dean McCauley’s own research—for which she has been consistently funded for over two decades—lies at the intersection of nursing and environmental and occupational health sciences. Her longstanding partnership with the Farmworkers Association of Florida involves collaborating with farmworkers to study the health impacts of heat stress (such as kidney disease) in agricultural settings.  

Today, she and her team are partnering with communities, experts across disciplines, and organizations across sectors to implement and share children’s environmental health research findings. The National Institute of Environmental Health Science awarded $4 million in 2022 to fund the Center for Children’s Health Assessment, Research Translation, and Combating Environmental Racism (CHARTER) which is advancing the science of research translation.  

Dean McCauley serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM’s) Governing Council and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC). She is also the Chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee to Conduct a Feasibility of Assessing Veteran Health Effects of Manhattan Project (1942-1947) Related Waste.  In 2020, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and, in 2016, she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Hall of Fame. She is a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Academy of Occupational Health Nurses as well. Dean McCauley is thought of as an entrepreneurial leader and is a sought-after expert in nursing business and innovation.