The College of Nursing welcomes new faculty experts to meet increased demand as UCF expands access to its high-quality nursing programs with the opening of the Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion next week.
At the start of Fall 2025 next week, UCF’s College of Nursing will welcome more than its newest cohort of 244 future Knight nurses who will be starting classes at the new Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion and two regional campuses.
Under the leadership of newly appointed Dean Sharon Tucker, the college will welcome nine new full-time faculty experts to the university and welcome back four full-time faculty members in new roles.
Most of the new students and faculty members will be located at the Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion, which officially opens next week on UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Campus in Lake Nona. The much-anticipated, state-of-the-art facility will increase access to UCF’s nationally ranked nursing programs and foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration in healthcare education and innovation.
“It is an exciting time at UCF’s College of Nursing as with this growth comes greater opportunity to positively impact the health of our communities and the future of nursing,” Tucker says. “I am excited to welcome these new faculty members to join our talented pool of experts in educating future generations of Knight nurses and in collaborating to improve patient care.”
Thanks to PIPELINE funding from the State of Florida, UCF has been scaling its faculty experts in recent years to meet increasing enrollment and the new expanded space to help address the nursing shortage. The college has also hired additional staff to support student success.
New Faculty Experts
Department of Nursing Practice
- Joy Baylis ’03BSN, Instructor
- Linda Foley, Associate Lecturer (previous adjunct faculty member)
- Olajumoke “Jummy” Ojeleye, Assistant Professor
- Kaitlyn Rechenberg, Associate Professor
- Jenna Wheeler ’23PhD ’11BSN , Assistant Professor
Department of Nursing Systems
- Michael Joseph “MJ” Dino, Associate Professor
- Marissa “Mari” Mackiewicz, Assistant Professor
- Sergi Garcia-Retortillo, Assistant Professor
- Jian “Frank” Zou, Associate Professor
New Faculty Roles
- Victoria Loerzel ’07PhD, Interim Chair for the Department of Nursing Practice
- Peggy P. Hill ’21PhD, Master’s in Nursing Education Program Director
- Jonathan Decker ’10PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program
- Kelsey Gaffka ’16BSN ’22MSN, Site Coordinator for UCF Daytona Beach
Article by Julie Harper ’01
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