Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
When you think about the impact that Barb made at Creighton in various ways, that's a legacy that needs to be honored and respected and moved forward. And I think that's exactly what the Braden Leadership Academy does.
See Braden's friends and colleagues talk about her legacy and the academy named for her.
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By Micah Mertes
The late Barbara Braden, PhD, SJN’66, BSN’73, is best known for the invention that carries her name: “The Braden Scale,” a tool used in hospitals and nursing homes worldwide to assess and predict patients' likelihood of developing pressure sores. Braden developed the Braden Scale in the early 1980s while a professor in Creighton’s College of Nursing, and it has benefited millions.
Braden’s achievement was so vast, her innovation so far-reaching, that her friends and family feel like the Braden Scale sometimes overshadows her many other accomplishments and virtues.
“She was so many other things in addition to a world-renowned researcher,” says Gail Jensen, PhD, Barb’s friend and protégé, a professor of physical therapy and vice provost for Learning and Assessment at Creighton. “Barb was a clinician who cared deeply for her patients, a faculty member, an administrator, a networker and, above all, a leader of leaders.
“When you think about the impact she made at Creighton in various ways, that's a legacy that needs to be honored and respected and moved forward. And I think that's exactly what the Braden Leadership Academy does.”
Now in its second year, the Braden Leadership Academy was created with a lead gift from Jensen and her spouse, Judy Gale, DPT’02, professor emerita of physical therapy. Several of Barb’s friends and family also supported the academy’s creation.
As Braden did herself, the Braden Leadership Academy invests in leaders at Creighton. Each academy cohort comprises faculty and staff at the Omaha and Phoenix campuses who have been nominated for their leadership qualities and potential. During the eight-month academy, members come together to focus on leadership curriculum and work on special projects.
The program is based in the Office of the Provost and facilitated by Julie Peterson, DPT’01, EdD’22, senior executive director for health sciences clinical education in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions; Lou Jensen, OTD’09, associate vice provost for the Center for Faculty Excellence; and Provost Mardell Wilson, EdD.
The Braden Leadership Academy allows faculty and staff a dual track, says Wilson. One is to learn about themselves and their own leadership styles. The other is to learn more about the University itself.
“Creighton exists for its students,” Wilson says, “but, true to our Jesuit values, we also have to take the time to look inward and continue to develop our faculty and staff, to offer them opportunities for personal and professional growth.
“The Braden Academy is another way for us to show them that we’re thinking of them and are invested in their future. And by the end of the academy, they’ve built a new skill set, and they’ve formed a whole new community of peers. The academy is a great illustration of how everything we do to support our faculty and staff is also supporting our students and their education.”
Yousef Toma, PharmD, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Creighton’s Phoenix campus, says that when he was invited to join the Braden Leadership Academy’s inaugural cohort, he was reluctant, unsure. Why me?
But Toma says he’s extremely grateful he accepted the invite.
“I think sometimes other people recognize leadership qualities in us before we even recognize them in ourselves,” Toma says. “I would definitely encourage everyone to not let the unknown hold you back.
“The Braden Leadership Academy challenged me to think more deeply about how to show up for others. I also really valued learning alongside colleagues from different backgrounds and across the University, not just within my program. It was a great experience that I would recommend to anyone.”
The Braden Leadership Academy’s inclusiveness — faculty and staff, from any school, college or department — reflects Braden’s own leadership style, says Don Frey, MD, Braden’s friend, an academy donor and the former chair of family and community medicine.
“Barb saw the importance of Creighton as an institution, and first and foremost the values of Creighton,” Frey said. “Those values are not practiced more so in one school or one college or one department over another. They foster the work of all aspects of Creighton.
“If the academy can emulate Barb, it’s in its inclusivity of everyone and its humility that no one person has all the answers. Harry Truman once said, ‘It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.’ That was Barb. The important question for her was always, ‘What can we accomplish together?’”
Barb’s first introduction to leadership started early. When Barb was two, her father died serving in World War II. Her mother remarried and gave Barb three much younger siblings.
“Barb became a leader immediately when we were born,” said Katy Duggan, BSN’79. “She was our babysitter, our activity director, everything. She encouraged all of us to do more and be more, and she continued to do so with everyone she knew the rest of her life. It’s wonderful that the academy bearing her name is continuing that legacy of leadership.”
More about Barb Braden
A native of North Platte, Nebraska, Braden graduated from St. Joseph's School of Nursing in Omaha in 1966. After working as a labor and delivery nurse, she earned her Bachelor of Nursing degree from Creighton’s College of Nursing in 1973.
Soon after, Braden began her Creighton career, first as an assistant professor in medical-surgical nursing and later distinguished herself in multiple academic and leadership roles until her retirement from Creighton in 2011. Her positions included dean of the Graduate School (in 1995, she became the first woman appointed dean at Creighton outside the College of Nursing) and later dean of what is now the College of Professional and Continuing Education.
In addition to inventing the Braden Scale, Braden authored more than 75 scholarly publications and served on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska AIDS Project and on planning committees for the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
In 2013, Braden was awarded Creighton's Alumni Achievement Citation, the highest award given to an alumnus or alumna.
