Mount Saint Mary College is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Susan LaRocco as the Dean of the School of Nursing, effective June 2018.
“I am delighted to be at the Mount,” said LaRocco. “The nursing faculty and staff are so committed to excellence in Nursing and Nursing education. They are passionate about providing students with the opportunity to excel. It is an honor to have the opportunity to lead such a fine School of Nursing.”
The Mount’s School of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Mount Nursing students consistently score higher than the state average on the NCLEX-RN test, and they benefit from state-of-the-art simulation labs and learning resources, clinical relationships with more than 40 area hospitals, and passionate faculty.
LaRocco’s responsibilities include providing vision and oversight for the School of Nursing, working with faculty to ensure that the curriculum provides students with opportunities to begin or enhance their Nursing career, and fostering professional development of faculty, including scholarly work and research.
She comes to the Mount from Curry College in Milton, Mass., where she was a former chairperson and professor in that School of Nursing.
Prior to joining Curry College, LaRocco taught at several community colleges in Boston and at University of Massachusetts Boston and has held a variety of hospital-based nursing administration positions in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut.
LaRocco received her bachelor’s degree from Boston College and a master’s degree in Nursing Administration from Boston University. Her PhD is from University of Massachusetts Boston where she received the Brenda S. Cherry Doctoral Dissertation Award. In addition, she holds an MBA from New York University. She is a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) and has certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL).
In research, LaRocco’s major interest is the recruitment and retention of men in the nursing field. She is active in the American Association for Men in Nursing and served on the Board from 2002 to 2006 and 2011 to 2013. She is also active in the American Association for the History of Nursing, currently serving on the Board of Directors.
LaRocco has published extensively, including clinical articles in Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing. In 2010, she received the Mary Ann Garrigan Award from the Theta-at-Large Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International, and in 2014, she was inducted as a Fellow in the National Academies of Practice. During academic year 2014-15, LaRocco was also a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jordan (UJ) in Amman where she taught qualitative research and professional writing to doctoral students.
For Mount graduates who have already benefitted from the School of Nursing’s dedication to excellence, the college offers a 25 percent discount off of graduate programs for those who completed a bachelor’s degree at the college. The Mount’s graduate programs in Nursing include tracks to become adult-gerontology nurse practitioners and family nurse practitioners.