School of Nursing Dean Linda Plank Announces Retirement
Dear Baylor Faculty and Staff,
I am writing today to inform you that Linda Plank, Ph.D., Dean of the Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) since 2021, announced today during a faculty meeting in Dallas that she plans to retire in Summer 2026. Over the next year, she will dedicate her time to preparing the way for the Nursing School’s new leader. A nationwide search for the next Dean of the Louise Herrington School of Nursing will commence later this month.
During her five years at the helm of LHSON, Dr. Plank has truly exemplified the nursing school motto – “Learn.Lead.Serve.” – to educate and prepare both Baccalaureate and Graduate-level nurses within a Christian community for professional practice, healthcare leadership and worldwide service.
Her leadership has been highly impactful for future growth at LHSON while responding to a rapidly changing health care field. When Dr. Plank was named Interim Dean in 2020, the total Nursing School enrollment was 1,341. It has since grown to more than 2,000 students. In addition, she and her faculty made a strategic decision to discontinue the M.S. in Nursing in 2020 and focus on the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. Since then, the DNP has grown exponentially as our largest program for graduate/professional students, with over 1,000 students enrolled in fall 2024. The DNP also has elevated to a Top 50 national program in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate School rankings.
Under Dr. Plank’s leadership, Baylor’s undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing program has continued to flourish as a Top 50 U.S. News national program, with LHSON expecting to enroll another large incoming freshman class of future nurses. LHSON also has remained very active internationally with faculty-led mission trips whose impact has “spread our green and gold afar.” I am grateful for her steady hand in hiring faculty, bringing in over 70 full-time faculty since 2020, and her work in fundraising for the School of Nursing, raising more than $57 million dollars within the University’s recent Give Light campaign.
Dr. Plank was named Interim Dean on July 1, 2020, and after a national search, she was selected to serve as Dean in official capacity on May 1, 2021. Before her service as Interim Dean, she served as Clinical Associate Professor and Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the LHSON. She earned her B.S. in nursing from Baylor, an M.S. from Texas Woman’s University and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is nationally certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Nurse Executive Advanced (NEA-BC).
After graduating from Baylor in 1977, she began as a registered nurse at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where she worked for more than three decades as an RN, a nursing administrator and eventually as Vice President for Medical-Surgical Nursing. In 2008, she was recruited by her alma mater to begin a teaching career, starting as a nursing lecturer in 2009.
In April 2012, Plank was appointed Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the LHSON. In 2015, she added the newly created Clinical Track to her role, beginning with the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor and later promotion to Clinical Associate Professor in 2018. She has taught in the undergraduate program, the accelerated FastBacc BSN Track and the graduate program.
Dr. Plank will be missed within the LHSON and Dallas nursing communities as well as by her Baylor colleagues on the Council of Deans. Please join me in extending our deepest appreciation to Dr. Plank for her dedicated service to Baylor as Dean of the Louise Herrington School of Nursing.
Sincerely,
Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D.
Provost