Linda Cronenwett

Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN, is professor and dean emerita of the School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to her appointment as Dean, she was the Sarah Frances Russell Distinguished Professor of Nursing Systems at UNC-Chapel Hill. From 1984–98, she was an administrator in the Department of Nursing, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH, and provided leadership in nursing and interprofessional research utilization and quality improvement projects.

Dr. Cronenwett was the principal investigator of the national initiative Quality and Safety Education for Nurses from 2005-2011 and served as the Nursing Program Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program from 2010-2018. During her career, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, and the North Carolina Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety. Currently in retirement, Dr. Cronenwett serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital (SHLH), Chair of the SHLH Quality/Safety Committee, and member of the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Spectrum Health Hospital Group Quality/Safety Committee.

Dr. Cronenwett is an elected fellow and 2017 Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing among numerous other professional honors and awards. She earned her master’s degree in parent-child nursing from the University of Washington and her undergraduate and doctoral degrees in nursing from the University of Michigan.