CONTACT:
Mike Moore, Media Relations and Editorial Specialist
262-551-6021
mike@carthage.edu
KENOSHA, Wis. – Carthage College has hired Frank D. Hicks as its founding director of nursing, the first step toward the creation of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
He will coordinate the process to meet all educational, regulatory, and accreditation requirements. If the Wisconsin Nursing Board approves the new program in October, Carthage would admit the first students for the autumn 2015 term.
This won’t be the first program Hicks has created from scratch. As assistant dean for academic affairs at the Rush University College of Nursing in Chicago, he developed a generalist entry master’s program.
In September 2013, Carthage formed an advisory committee that included administrators, faculty from each academic division, and staff members to study the feasibility of a nursing program. Based on the committee’s findings, faculty and the Board of Trustees strongly endorsed the creation of a program. A national search led to the hire of Hicks.
Although his official start date is Sept. 1, Hicks helped compile the proposal that the College submitted to the state Board of Nursing last month. He earned a BSN from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in nursing sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Afterward, he completed a two-year fellowship in nursing and neurobehavior at the University of Michigan.
For the past 12 years, he has held faculty and administrative positions at Rush. Besides forming the GEM program, which caters to students with bachelor’s degrees in other subjects, he spent time as a teacher-practitioner in the surgical intensive care unit and a clinical nurse specialist in the cardiac transplant program. He also taught at Loyola University Chicago.
“Dr. Hicks’ interest in Carthage says a lot about our college,” Carthage President Gregory Woodward said. “There is only one thing Dr. Hicks is interested in creating: an elite nursing program that will be the envy of everyone else in this field. I am elated to say, ‘Let’s go!’”
