Senior Editor

is Professor and Dean of Nursing at the Mary Black School of Nursing, University of South Carolina Upstate. She previously served for eight years as Associate Dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She earned her BSN at Mt. Mercy College, MSN at the University of Virginia, and her Ph.D. in Administration and Health Policy at George Mason University.

Dr. Dowell has extensive experience in the area of health policy at the national and international levels. She actively worked with federal Senate committees on health issues and testified before several Congressional committees related to the impact of pending health policy legislation as well as the predicted impact on certain segments of the population. She was the co-founder and co-director of an Institute for Healthcare Management, an agency blending the skills and expertise of business and healthcare professionals for health policy analysis and implementation.

Her most recent funded research has focused on cost modeling for chronic diseases. She has presented this research at multiple international conferences focused on strategic healthcare financial management. She has extensive academic experience teaching graduate students and serving on dissertation and thesis committees as a member or chair at four different education institutions. She has received Outstanding Teaching Awards from the University of Virginia, Indiana University—Purdue University at Indianapolis, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington., and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau.