Faculty

An esteemed educator and internationally renowned researcher, Mary Lou Sole served as dean of the College of Nursing for a decade and was the inaugural Orlando Health Endowed Chair in Nursing.

A certified critical care clinical nurse specialist, Sole focused her research for more than three decades on preventing complications and improving outcomes of critically ill patients who are placed on a ventilator. Her work, which has been awarded more than $4 million in funding, has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, presented at conferences throughout the world, and influenced the standard of nursing care in the U.S. and in the international critical care community.

Sole is the editor of one of the most widely used undergraduate critical care nursing textbooks and author of several of its chapters. She has served on expert panels of the National Institutes of Health and on two National Quality Forum task forces.

She holds the prestigious distinctions of Master of Critical Care Medicine, Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine, and UCF Pegasus Professor, the university’s highest faculty honor.

Education

• PhD, University of Texas at Austin
• MSN, The Ohio State University
• BSN, Ohio University
• Diploma, Ohio Valley General Hospital School of Nursing

Selected Editorial Activities

• Editorial Board, American Journal of Critical Care
• Editorial Board, AACN Advanced Critical Care (formerly AACN Clinical Issues)

Selected Awards & Honors

• Master of Critical Care Medicine, 2025
• Fellow, American Academy of Nursing
• Fellow, American College of Critical Care Medicine
• Scroll & Quill Society, University of Central Florida, 2021
• Nursing Research ICON, Florida Nurses Association, 2019
• International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, Sigma Honor Society of Nursing, 2017
• Researcher of the Year, National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, 2013
• Distinguished Researcher, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2010

Selected Professional Activities

• Commissioner, American Nurses Credentialing Center Commission on Magnet Recognition
• Society of Critical Care Medicine
• American College of Chest Physicians
• National League for Nursing
• American Association of Critical-Care Nurses