UF College of Nursing to get new professor

UF’s College of Nursing will get a new professor in about five years.

UF alumna Linda Aiken donated $1 million to establish the Linda Harmen Aiken Professorship, which will hire a professor to research how people receive health care and how to improve health care. 

Aiken received her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1964 and her master’s in nursing in 1966, both from the UF College of Nursing.

The gift will be fully funded in five years, wrote Tracy Wright, the director of public relations and strategic communications for UF’s College of Nursing, in an email.

After receiving full funding, UF will start recruiting to find a researcher to fill the professorship position, Wright said. 

“The professorship will help us recruit a top notch faculty member conducting world-class research, which will help to elevate the visibility and reputation of the UF College of Nursing and attract even more excellent faculty and students,” Wright said.

Aiken wrote in an email her degree from UF has allowed her to become the director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, she said.

“I got the best education possible at UF that established me as a highly successful professional,” Aiken said. “I wanted to give back to the College of Nursing to enable it to continue to be influential nationally, in the state, and in the lives and careers of future nurses.”

Aiken’s goal in starting the professorship is to help fund research, she said. 

“Gator nurses are among the best nurses anywhere,” Aiken said. “We have a national reputation as being innovators and leaders. I am so very proud to be a Gator nurse.”