Faculty

A certified critical care clinical nurse specialist, Mary Lou Sole has focused her research over the past 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 to-date, has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and presented at conferences throughout the world and has influenced the standard of nursing care in the U.S. and in the international critical care community.

As an educator, mentor and researcher, Sole, who serves as Dean of the College of Nursing and holds the Orlando Health Endowed Chair in Nursing, is dedicated to developing the next generation of nurse leaders. Using simulation and technology, she has created innovative strategies to improve student learning in the clinical setting as well as the classroom.

In addition to serving on several journal editorial boards, 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. From 2015 to 2017, she chaired the Nursing and Related Clinical Sciences Study Section of the NIH Center for Scientific Review.

A fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and the American College of Critical Care Medicine (FCCM), Sole has been honored with numerous awards, including, in 2008, being named a 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

• 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